Raw milk. Durian. Water chestnuts. There are plenty of foods that are controversial, but few have such dedicated lovers and opponents as cilantro. The green herb has a bright and sharp flavor, and is popular in many Latin and Asian cuisines. Chef and award-winning PBS television show host Lidia Bastianich also has strong opinions on cilantro — and you won’t find it in any of her dishes.
In an interview with Eating Well, Bastianich was asked if there are any ingredients she’ll never use in her cooking. She said, “Cilantro, I don’t like it. It’s not part of my culture, but you find it today in so many things. I don’t like cilantro and I never use it in my cooking.” Bastianich isn’t the only beloved TV chef who won’t touch cilantro with a 10-foot pole — Ina Garten is also a part of the cilantro-haters club. The Barefoot Contessa finds cilantro overpowering, making it impossible to enjoy the other flavors of the dish.
On the other side of the cilantro debate is Food Network star Bobby Flay, who can’t get enough of the herb. While performing a cooking demonstration on Today, Flay was asked why cilantro is so hotly debated. “To some people, it tastes like soap,” Flay said. “As a kid I was really used to eating a lot of soap, so I really love it,” the chef joked. Flay’s smoky red chimichurri sauce is a great example of his love for cilantro — it’s loaded with the herb and pairs very well with steak.
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Why Does Cilantro Taste Different From One Person To The Next?
Fresh cilantro growing in a planter – Feifei Cui-paoluzzo/Getty Images
Like Bobby Flay, some of us can’t get enough cilantro, while others agree with Lidia Bastianich and Ina Garten that the herb completely ruins a dish. It turns out, the way we taste cilantro has a lot to do with our DNA. For most people, the taste of cilantro is enjoyable, especially when it’s effortlessly upgrading a salsa. For those who find that cilantro tastes like soap, the culprit is likely a genetic variation in an olfactory receptor known as OR6A2, found in the nasal cavity. People who have the variation are more easily able to perceive cilantro’s soapy-smelling compounds, called aldehydes.
While there’s some evidence that people who experience a soapy aversion to the herb can overcome their dislike through repeated exposure, there are plenty of ways to adjust dishes that typically contain cilantro if you don’t see the point in putting in the effort required to become a cilantro fan. Dill, mint, oregano, and parsley can all work when you’re trying to figure out substitutes for fresh or dried cilantro. You can also try using the dried herb versus the fresh version — many find that the former’s taste isn’t quite as strong.
Read the original article on Chowhound.
