Swiss researchers tested whether music during cheese production influences its flavor.
A cheese maker named Beat Wampfler has teamed up with staff at the University of the Arts in Bern to conduct a curious experiment. They checked to see if different genres of music influence the taste of cheese. This was reported by the Euronews news agency.
According to the authors, this is "an experiment between sound and gastronomy." For six months it took place in Beat Weampfler's basement. Eight circles of Emmental cheese were stored under different sound conditions. Each was initially assigned its own musical genre: from rock to techno and classic Mozart melodies. At the same time, the manufacturer kept the original batch, which served as a control group.
Complete list of audio signals:
Ambient: Yello - "Monolith"
Classical music: V. A. Mozart - "The Magic Flute"
Techno: Vril - "UV"
Rock: Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven"
Promotional video:
Center frequency: 200 kHz
High frequency: 1000 kHz
Hip-Hop: A Tribe Called Quest - "Jazz (We've Got)"
Low frequency: 25 kHz
Two social surveys were used as a check. The Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of the Arts in Bern, Peter Kraut, spoke in more detail about them:
“We have conducted two surveys. One scientific - random respondents took part in it, for the second, culinary experts were called and a jury was assembled. In both cases, people came to the conclusion that there are differences in the taste and smell of the cheeses, depending on what kind of music they were exposed to."
Both bands mostly preferred the cheese that was stored for the song "Jazz (We've Got)" by hip-hop artist A Tribe Called Quest. The head of the jury, Benjamin Luzuy, said hip-hop had brought the cheese to a "softer and more floral" flavor.
According to Kraut, this is not the end of the experiment. The researchers plan to conduct a chemical analysis of the cheeses to see if the differences in their composition have really appeared due to the influence of music.
Recently, psychologists from Macquarie University (Australia) conducted a small study with binocular competition and showed that death metal lovers are not prone to violence, as religious organizations believed.
Alexey Evglevsky