Exposing Swiss cheese to hip-hop music could make it taste better
Researchers believe exposing cheese to different types of music could chance how it tastes – but more research is needed.
Exposing Swiss cheese to hip-hop music could make it taste better, according to new research.
Researchers placed eight wheels of Emmental in wooden crates and exposed them for more than six months to round-the-clock music or sounds, ranging from Mozart to Led Zeppelin to A Tribe Called Quest, as part of a project called Cheese In Surround Sound.
“Put simply, cheese that has been exposed to music tastes different.”
Nine identical cheeses were placed in special wooden crates and exposed to one of ambient, classical, techno, rock, or hip-hop music; high, medium or low frequency sound; or, in the case of the control cheese, no sound at all.
The food technologists concluded that while the cheeses exposed to music generally had a milder flavour than the control sample, “the cheese exposed to hip hop music displayed a discernibly stronger smell and stronger, fruitier taste” than the others.
On the judging panel, tasters also noted differences among the cheeses, including that those exposed to low frequency sound and hip hop were sweeter.
Researchers who put together the ZHAW report noted that, while there were differences between the cheeses, they were “minimal”.
“The conclusion that these differences did indeed confirm the hypothesis, namely that they can clearly be traced back to the influence of music, is conceivable, but not compelling,” they said.
The project was a collaboration between Käsehaus K3 and Sound Arts HKB.
