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Whether you love or loathe cilantro, guacamole wouldn't be the same without it.
Cilantro: delightful element of delicious tacos and pico de gallo -- or horrid herb of death that smacks of soap? Like Facebook's Timeline and every episode of "Glee" ever, there's an undeniable "love it or hate it" quality about cilantro.
Actually, the haters are backed by some respected culinary tastemakers: Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa) and Top Chef Fabio Viviani are the latest celebrity chefs to side with cilantrophobes, as they recently told our TODAY.com team. And Julia Child confessed to Larry King in a 2002 interview that she if she ever sees the herb in something she'd ordered, she would pick it out and "throw it on the floor." Harsh.
On Team Cilantro: behavioral neuroscientist Charles J. Wysocki, of the Morell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Wysocki has been attempting to pinpoint the polarizing nature of coriander leaves -- better known, of course, as cilantro. Wysocki has studied preferences for cilantro in twins, both fraternal and identical. In identical twins, if one twin hates the smell of cilantro, the other is more likely to hate it; the flip side is true, too -- if an identical twin loves the smell, the other will likely love it, too.
"That does not hold for fraternal twins," explains Wysocki, adding that these findings "suggest very strongly that whatever it is that people underlies the preference is genetically determined."
Cilantro: Love it or loathe it?
But what is it about cilantro that some people find so intensely offensive? To begin to find out, Wysocki has used gas chromoatography, a contraption that uses heat to separates a complex mixture of molecules -- like cilantro -- piece by piece, allowing researchers to identify each individual compound, by using both the instrument and their own noses. The GC, as it's called, warms the cilantro, and as it heats up, that "soapy" smell is released. About 10 minutes later, the pleasantly herbaceous cilantro smell is emitted -- but the typical cilantro hater still can't smell it.
"What we think might be happening is the person who hates cilantro is, in fact, detecting the soapy odor. But what they seem to be missing is the nice, aromatic, green component," says Wysocki, who thinks the smell of cilantro is quite pleasant. "It’s possible that they have a mutated or even an absent receptor gene for the receptor protein that would interact with the very pleasant smelling compound."
Hear that, cilantro haters? You're mutants, says a scientist. (We kid, we kid.)
As the theory goes -- and Wysocki is quick to remind that this is still speculative -- cilantrophobes may not be able to pick up the scent of a compound called dodecenal, which gives the cilantro that lovely fresh scent we cilantrophiles know so well. It's even possible, Wysocki allows, that those soap-smellers may have something called specific anosmia, which is the lack of perception of an odor for a specific compound, when the smell is otherwise intact.
Readers, what about you? Whether you love cilantro or can't stand it, make your case in the comments. If you hate it -- is it because of the soapy smell/taste, or something else?
Related:
- Bites: Cilantro -- love it or loathe it?
- Phantom smells may be a sign of trouble
- Sniff test: Living without a sense of smell
Follow cilantro-lover and msnbc.com health editor Melissa Dahl on Twitter: @melissadahl.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
The first time I ate cilantro I also hated it. I also hated the smell of coffee and would not drink it until sophomore year in college and I really needed it! I also hated cheese when I was younger than 10 years. Now I love coffee, cheese and cilantro. The 3 C's. It may have been a sort of taste training that ended up introducing my taste buds to something that truly enriches my eating and drinking experience. I love my coffee strong, my food with cilantro as a garnish, and even the strongest of cheeses.
Cheese I've always loved, especially sharp cheddar. Coffee, meh... But Cilantro I find disagreeably musty and unpleasant. Like the seeds, though, that's Coriander.
Love cilantro, hate the taste of coffee (although it smells great) and beer. Interesting connections.
Oh, and parsnips! Even the smell gives me a headache!
I absolutely ADORE parsnips, finding them wonderfully sweet and fragrant. Just goes to show there is a lot of variation in our sense of taste!
Hmmm... I have a very strong dislike for cilantro - because - to me it tastes soapy.
By the way, guacamole is just fine with minced parsley instead of cilantro.
I usually make guacamole with ground Cumin and ground Coriander and Miracle Whip - tastes great. Oddly enough, Coriander is the seed and Cilantro is the leaf of the same plant - but have different flavors!
Used to hate it, now I have no problem with cilantro. Maybe I'm mutating?
Cilantro does seem to polarize people. you rarely find someone ambivalent about it!
The chemical explanation reminds me of the people who can't smell asparagus in their wee soon after eating it.
I have a friend who both hates cilantro and can't smell her asparagus, so perhaps those genes are related?
Uh. This is way old news. Scientists have known about this for a long time, and this news has been published on news sites and around the web for ages. It's just like how in junior high school science class where they had us taste a chemical called phenylthiocarbamide. To most people it tasted very bitter, and to a few they could not taste it at all. This was also genetic.
I never understood why Cilantro turned me off. Your article has defined it for me. It is a soapy kind of smell and taste. Thanks.
If I taste cilantro in a meal that I order at a restuarant I very likely will not go back to that restuarant again! I hate it!
I hate it. It taste like soap to me and if comes in any food I order I do my best to pick it out.
I love Cilantro, I've got it growing in a pot on the porch. My wife says I'll eat anything and shes right, I even like Durian. She wont let me bring Durian in the house I gotta eat it outside lol.
Yep, tastes like soap. My son who is a chef suggested that I add fresh squeezed lime juice to the cilantro and it makes all the difference in the world!
Interesting idea, more evidence for my guess that acid does something to cancel out the soapy taste.
I never got why people love cilantro. It smells and tastes like soap. The first time I had it I thought that someone had washed the lettuce with soap and didn't rinse. I can tolerate if it is in something (like Chipotle's rice) but I prefer not to eat and will pick out as much of it as I can.
I like cilantro. I like the way it tastes and the way it smells. I have always liked it.
I dislike basil, as well. Are there many people who dislike both cilantro and basil?
Many, many years ago, when an authentic Mexican place opened in the small town where I lived, I had my first taste of fresh cilantro, though I did not know it. My ex and I both found the flavor of the food fantastic, but we both detected a strong bleach smell, and thought the dishes had not been rinsed properly. Later, when I was formally introduced to fresh cilantro I realized that the bleachy smell was really from the cilantro. Since then, I cant get enough...Thai, Italian, bar b que, and of course Mexican/Latin foods. But only fresh. Cooked cilantro is repulsive to me...all of it's character is lost. This is the first I have heard of a soapy smell. Everyone I know says it tastes/smells like bleach. I say heaven.
Vile green devil weed....I can smell it from across the room. Tastes like bug-spray smells with a splash of dish detergent for good measure. It tests the gag reflex fore sure if I ever ingest it posing as parsley. Take note restaurateurs and chefs; your herb de jour is highly offensive to some peeps.
Vile green devil weed....I can smell it from across the room. Tastes like bug-spray smells with a splash of dish detergent for good measure. It tests the gag reflex for sure if I ever ingest it posing as unsuspecting parsley. Take note restaurateurs and chefs; your herb de jour is highly offensive to some peeps.
Geneticists have been talking for awhile about cilantro not tasting like food to some. My initial experience with the fresh herb was of this nature, although it was in a heavily jalapeño laden pico. I have over the last decade or two come to use cilantro in many ways, cooked as well as fresh. What I noticed this summer while sampling a jalapeño from the garden was a note of that soapy business that turn me off in the first place. Hmmm, it seems to me there are more questions to be asked.
It has the same smell or odor as stink bugs to me. YUCK! I've bitten into stink bugs eating berries, so it's pretty hard to get past it!