Food.
You know what you like.
Mmmm …
But do you know why, exactly, you’re drawn to certain dishes?
This sounds like a silly question, but there is a sort of science behind the appeal of a meal.
A harvest of interesting trivia, gathered by Amish furniture company Plain & Simple, explains how plating design, contrasting colors, and even the shapes of plates can make one’s dining experience more pleasurable.
For instance, are you more attracted to this dish …
Or this one?
The food components are pretty similar, but the first is somehow more appealing to me.
“The more presentable and visually-appealing [food] is, the better it tastes,” says the Plain & Simple post. “People favor bright-colored food that features lots of contrast. But too much color can be overwhelming—most people prefer three colors on their plate, distributed through three to four food components. Believe it or not, even the degree to which your plate is rotated affects how much you enjoy your food.”
How about this plate? Do the pale hues whet your appetite?
Photo by D Breen via Pixabay
According to Plain & Simple’s survey, “If you like your cheese salty, eat if off a knife—people rate cheese as tasting saltier when eaten off a knife rather than a toothpick, spoon, or fork.”
Of course, then there’s food art …
some of which is cuter (and more appetizing) …
Photo by Global Panorama via Flickr
than others …
Photo by Mukesh Patil via PDPics.com
Find out more fun “food appeal” facts at Better Dining Through Science.
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,861 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,721 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Young Cultivator Farm Kitchen/Icing on the Cake Beginner Level Merit Badge, I sat down with the two whippersnappers in my life (Nora and Piper) and we made ourselves a list.
Lists are my life.
I brake for lists.
Me and lists forever.
Lists: A Love Story.
Normally, the rugrats scoff at my list making, but this one was one they could get behind. And in front of, and across from, and so on and so forth. Why, you ask? Because it was a list of Things You Could Put On a Cake (T.Y.C.P.O.A.C. for short).
Who wouldn’t want to keep adding onto a list like that?
photo by James Petts via Wikimedia Commons
We were going to need more paper …
Frosting went without saying, though surprisingly, none of us are fond of it. We all agreed it is what’s under it and on top of it that could float our boats, culinary-ly speaking.
Nora, Piper, and Yours Truly’s T.Y.C.P.O.A.C.:
After all this brainstorming, we were seriously famished. Ravenous. Starving. Our bellies were rubbing our ribs. Our tummies were rumbling.
In short? We needed cake. Stat.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Connie Bergstrom!!!
Connie Bergstrom (#6861) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Backyard Farmer Merit Badge!
“My first chicken was Burt, a Rhode Island Red rooster. I have had him for about 5 years. He has several lady friends, as we own around 50 hens and 3 roosters, including him and his son, Willie. We also have a Barred Rock rooster named Farmer who has a flock of his own Barred Rock and Cuckoo Maran hens.
We also have Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Buff Brahmas, RIR, Americanas, and New Hampshire Reds, and currently are raising up some Banties, Favorelles, Sexlink, RIR, and Orpington pullets. We feed organic cracked corn and hen scratch, occasionally free range, and they love scraps from the garden and the kitchen.
I absolutely love it. I sell our eggs; we get approximately 5-15 eggs a day when they are not on strike because of the Texas heat.”
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
