When I was growing up, I did not like apples. I didn't like them as a snack, nor in a pie, nor as applesauce. In my mind they were an inferior fruit. This dislike persisted for nearly five decades, until suddenly I started appreciating them and even craving them. I'm not sure what spurred this change, but I now eagerly seek out new varieties of apples at our local orchards. My husband, who is an apple lover, is tickled by my change in tastes because now he can get the apple desserts he desires.
Curious about my sudden shift in tastes, I tried looking for articles that might explain it. Many of the stories I found involved training your palate, but I in no way set out to like apples, although I did train myself to appreciate cilantro several years back. Other articles said that a person's sense of taste changes as they age, predominantly due to loss and atrophy of tastebuds (the horror!). Maybe I just don't taste the flavors that put me off of apples when I was younger. Another option was that a medicine could be altering my flavor perceptions.
Luckily whatever prompted me to change into an apple lover hasn't caused me to dislike any other foods. Since I went for a long time not liking apples, I didn't build up a repertoire of apple recipes. I've been digging into my cookbooks and have discovered a few ways to put my newfound apple loving to good use, including apple turnovers, apple fritters, and some savory recipes as well. I'm curious about whether our Members have had sudden shifts in their tastes and now like/dislike foods that they used to hate/love. Also, what are your favorite apple recipes?
8 comments
Jane
Rinshin
KatieK1
On the sweet side, I've been making Jacques Pepin's tarte tatin from Cuisine magazine for many years.
EYB Note: Both these recipes have Online Recipe links.
franniepie
KarenGlad
ldyndiuk
I don’t make a lot of apple recipes, but I really love the Brown Butter Apple Blondies from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Ingridemery
FuzzyChef
One is the flavors that you have some kind of terrible association with. For example, there's a kind of smoky fermented flavor that's somehow associated with a flu hospitalization I had as a kid, and that flavor appears in both black tea and whisky for which reason I'll never like them.
The second is just the things you're not used to eating so you don't recognize the good tastes in them. For example, as a Jew I grew up without shellfish and found shrimp in particular weird-tasting and too strong. But, my sweetie really liked them so I pushed myself, and now I quite like them.
The 2nd group of aversions is, for most humans, much larger than the first. So most of the time, it's not that you don't like something, it's that you don't *want* to like it.