Like & Dislikes-Please post a response to this answer
I decided to choose two foods that I really dislike to see if there was any correlation. I chose raw tomatoes and papaya.
Deciding which foods I really disliked was tricky, because I eat all tomato-based products and even choose to eat raw tomatoes daily. However, the riper the tomato gets the more I dislike it. I think this is because the longer it stays on the vine or ripens, the more sugar and acid it contains. According to the book, the aroma of ripe tomato is "provided by the aroma furaneol" (McGee, 330).
Papaya came to mind because it's one of the few fruits in the grocery store that I really avoid although it's beautiful red color tempts me into thinking I'm going to love it- I never do. Unlike the tomato, a ripe papaya is low acid. It does have flowery notes caused by terpenes and a "touch of cabbage-like pungency due to the surprising presence of isothiocyantes" (McGee, 381).
So, I did find out some interesting things about these two foods. According to the International Science Congress Association, these two foods have high levels of lycopene. Lycopene is "one of the carotenoid naturally occurring in red fruits and vegetables." It is an antioxidant that gives vegetables and fruits it's special red color. When I eat a tomato or when I eat a papaya it leaves a bad taste in my mouth at the end that is very similar. I have a hypothesis that the bad taste is lycopene and the reason that I don't taste it in other foods that are high in lycopene is because they contain some other molecule that doesn't react in the same way leaving a bad taste on the palette. In terms of texture these two fruits can be mealy and difficult to eat.
My favorite summertime fruit is the peach. I grew up in the South and there is nothing better than walking out to the pasture and picking a fresh peach off the tree (hopefully before the squirrels get it). Peaches are best when they get to ripen on the stem, but many pitfalls for this fruit is they are picked too early and forced to ripen in the store which apparently impairs the pectin breakdown (McGee, 360).
"Isolation and Quantification of Lycopene from Watermelon, Tomato and Papaya." Research Journal of Recent Sciences(2014): 68-70. Http://www.isca.in/rjrs/archive/v3/iIVC-2014/12.ISCA-IVC-2014-04CS-27.pdf. 8 July 2014. Web. 6 July 2014.
McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.