I’m definitely one of those people to whom cilantro tastes funny (which is apparently attributable to a genetic anomaly). The strange taste is usually described as “soapy” - but to me that’s never seemed particularly accurate.
I was recently shopping for parsley, and found some bunches behind a sign that said “Italian parsley”. But it didn’t look quite right, so I broke off a leaf to taste. It was definitely cilantro.
And I finally realized what the strange taste most closely resembles: the smell of a stink bug. In that Wiki article, I found this:
I work with produce all day long. Telling cilantro apart from Flat leaf/Italian parsley is just about impossible. The only way I can easily tell is to smell it. An easy trick is to rub a leaf between your fingers to break it apart, then you can smell it and it’ll be obvious if it’s cilantro or parsley.
I woudn’t fault an employee that was putting them up and stuck them in the wrong place. It happens.
That’s exactly why you don’t have a problem with it: the genetic anomaly provides a minority of people with the ability to smell and taste a compound that the majority can’t detect.
Is it the brown marmorated stink bug? There’s actually a couple of different insects known colloquially as “stink bugs”, but those are the relative newcomers here in the US and the ones that smell like cilantro. Just asking because there was a thread recently about stink bugs and there was some confusion.
Sure, but I find it sometimes it’s good to double check. Parsley is normally a much darker green than cilantro, but we sometimes get a light colored batch here that is the same shade of green as cilantro. Cilantro also has the rounded leaf points, while parsley has sharper edges. I’m not sure what you mean by the sheen. I guess parsley is duller looking than cilantro? Parsley also tends to look “sturdier” than cilantro. But, every once in a while, I am not 100% sure unless I rub it with my fingers and check.
I’m not sure I buy the genetic explanation for how some people say it tastes soapy. Back in the early 80s, believe it or not, cilantro was hardly ever used, at least in Mexican food restaurants in Texas. It started appearing, IIRC, in the mid-80s. At that time, and for a few years after that, it tasted bad and soapy to me. But now I love it, I can’t get enough, and it just tastes green and fresh.
While that may all be true, it’s not something I’d expect a 16 year old kid to know. Many of them have never actually heard of Italian parsley or never seen cilantro other than knowing it’s the green stuff in the rice at Chipotle.
Yes, they do look different, but throw 6 bunches of each on a counter and tell someone those are cilantro and those are flat leaf parsley, when you get a minute mark them and put them in the store, there’s good chance they’ll be marked wrong. In that situation even I’d be smelling them and I’ve been doing this my entire life.
The whole point of herbs and spices is that their tastes blend in with the taste of other food, thus enhancing the dish as a whole. Many herbs and spices are too strong or pungent if eaten like you’d eat lettuce leaves. Try putting some oregano in the palm of your hand and eating it. Yuck, too strong! Judging herbs and spices by sampling them as an isolated and individual food sample is not the way to determine their worth.
Same here. Tasted like soap the first few times; eventually got used to it and now I can eat acres of it. There appears to be a mix of genetics and acclimatization to the herb. I know I’ve linked to a study years ago that said while genetics does play a part, it may not be as strong a factor as thought. Kind of like in the way root beer tastes absolutely disgusting to most Europeans (at least IME) while it’s a perfectly unobjectionable and even sought-out flavor for most Americans.
It’s not like I’m snorting it up my nose - the smell of cilantro is strong enough for me to detect a good foot away from my face. What, you don’t think I can smell the food I’m slinging across the scanner?
But hey, if you’d rather, we can take the risk of my charging you for the wrong one and if that one happens to be the more expensive option that trip well, too bad I guess. Also, don’t wrap it up tightly in layers and layers of plastic so any identifying tag is completely hidden. Or otherwise make my job of ringing up your stuff and getting you out the door as quick as possible (which is what I’m paid to do) any harder than necessary.
Frankly, I’d be more worried what the other customers are doing to the produce before you get to the display and start picking through it.
“…research also suggests that our environment can play a big role in taste too, because only around 10 percent of coriander preference could be explained by the genetic variants. Which means that some people who are genetically predisposed to hate the smell of the herb may grow to enjoy it after years of exposure. “It is possible that the heritability of cilantro preference is just rather low,” the authors write.”
As always, the solution for those who dislike cilantro is to avoid foods that contain it, much as curry haters should probably not go to Indian restaurants.
I have found that if the cilantro has large leaves, it tends to taste more soapy. If they have been harvested when they are younger and more tender, they seem to taste fresher and sharper - not soapy. Also, the cilantro that we use in the United States tastes much blander than the ones we get in India. Dishes positively pop with cilantro flavor when my mom makes them at her home in India, here in the US - not so much.
