# Evolution gastronomy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112 "2012-03-18T04:40:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112/1 "2012-03-18T04:40:15Z")

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The phrase “tastes like chicken” got me thinking about the taxonomy of taste.

1. Has anyone done any kind of comparative study relating cuisine to taxonomic relativity? For example, birds are more related to reptiles than mammals, so is there a similar gradient in taste?

I once ate an iguana, which I would compare to dry chicken or dark turkey meat. Definitely closer to chicken in any case than to pork or beef.

1. Has there been a more specific review of the elements of taste - what are the components of flavor that correspond to differing molecular structures or other things?

2. Anything else of relevance?

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**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112/2 "2012-03-18T18:20:09Z")

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What did the caveman say when he first tasted chicken? “Tastes like lizzard”

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112/3 "2012-03-18T19:09:17Z")

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Have you ever had ostrich? Tastes like venison, even more so than beef does. Tastes _nothing_ like chicken or turkey.

I don’t think there’s a gradient.

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**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112/4 "2012-03-18T22:25:44Z")

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> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> 1. Has anyone done any kind of comparative study relating cuisine to taxonomic relativity? For example, birds are more related to reptiles than mammals, so is there a similar gradient in taste?

I don’t know of anything academic, but anecdotally it doesn’t hold. For example, Echidna tastes almost exactly like greasy chicken, while bustard (and apparently ostrich) taste more like beef than chicken.

> [@](#):
>
> 1. Has there been a more specific review of the elements of taste - what are the components of flavor that correspond to differing molecular structures or other things?

There have been entire libraries of book written about this. Around 95% of taste is in fact smell, and smell has little correspondence to molecular structure, which is why closely related molecules can smell (and taste) entirely different. The latest research suggests that the sense of smell is due to quantum level interactions between the odour molecules and the olfactory receptors, hence no chemical correspondence.

> [@](#):
>
> Anything else of relevance?

If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evolution-gastronomy/616112/5 "2012-03-18T22:36:14Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Have you ever had ostrich? Tastes like venison, even more so than beef does. Tastes _nothing_ like chicken or turkey.
> 
> I don’t think there’s a gradient.

I found ostrich to be more like beef than venison, but your point stands regardless.

Taxonomy (or at least, relatedness) does play a partial role, but so does diet and the tissue type that is eaten - fillet of beef is similar to fillet of venison, but pigs trotters aren’t anything like pigs liver.