Cilantro Haters Challenge.
Probably a bad time to ask..but this came up again tonight in the house.
My Partner hates Cilantro (aka: that filthy nasty soap weed). Recently he was making a thai green curry paste that called for Cilantro Roots and steams, No leaf.
Now, He loves Cilantro! Well, just the stems and roots in salsa or curry..or on middle eastern flat bread.
I wonder if the chemical that most hate is more in the leaf? He'll purchase cilantro now, but goes all "Morticia Addams" on the bunch---trimming of the leaf..and holding up a bunch of stems saying "There, it's safe to eat now".
I still get the cilantro flavor and he doesn't make faces. So, it's win-win.
I've never heard of this before. If you have a 'test subject' Cilantro hater. I'd like to hear if holds true for most cilantro haters.
15 Comments
Rinse the bunch and chop off ends as you would cut flowers. Put in a cup that has a couple inches water in it. Then, I wrap in plastic wrap (or I re-use a clear produce bag and rubber band it). I did this and forgot about it once and it lasted like 3 weeks I could not believe. I have no idea if the wrapping really does anything, I did it for odor control [My husband would be annoyed if the fridge smelled like freshly cut cilantro, as he is a somewhat reformed hater].
My husband required conversion to cilantro, but I lived in Mexico as a kid, so it was just part of life. But when cilantro goes bad, I have to flee the house. If I let the tuft of cut cilantro get a little slimy, then it makes me gag, and I can barely stand getting near enough to toss it out. And if I put it down the disposal, I immediately run a lemon or two, whole, through the thing afterwards, and I have to wash my hands several times to get the smell off. Cilantro that has gone bad is worse than any other thing.
In a grocery store, I pinched off a leaf of the herb that suddenly was everywhere - on restaurant menus, in magazine recipes. Gasoline popped into my mind. I distinctly remember thinking, oh my god, this tastes just like gasoline. That was enough of that. I decried it every chance I got. A couple of years later my sister, who makes outstanding salsas, ordered me to try a new batch she'd made with cilantro. I made a cross with my index fingers and backed away from the salsa. But she demanded that I "stop being stupid and at least taste it" So I did. I was a convert. I use it every chance I get. It is in combinations that it is wonderful, and adds a layer of flavor unavailable from anything else. I love the smell, also, and keep a bunch of it in a jar of cold water right next to the parsley on my work table. I can't imagine cooking or eating without it. But I still don't like the taste of it by itself. The end.
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/fst/faculty/acree/fs616/pdf/jf950814c.pdf indicates that concentrations of the decenal compounds increase with age--leading consumers to prefer young cilantro to old. So, one more test for your partner, Sam1148 and other cilantro haters--does it taste as soapy if it's been cooked? I thinking maybe not.
By the way #1: I love the slightly Freudian slip that the compounds are a defense against incest. We all guard against that. As well as against insects.
And #2 random thought: casting about for info, it seems that people who associate cilantro with a soapy taste are to some extent making a psychological rather than a physiological judgement--another interesting avenue of inquiry! The web seems to think we can train our cilantro haters to embrace it.
The internet doesn't have many, if any, of this idea. So, here would be a nice place to explore the idea...and see if it's common among soap weed haters.
I did a shallow search and it seems Cilantro uses the soapins (sp) in the leaf as a defense against incests. I find this fascinating..but haven't seen any 'taste tastes' on haters to see if the phenomena is real.
Ahhh...I backed track and see the suggestion I made from your original post. Did you try it with just the steam and as a 'hater' find that acceptable?