The fact that eastern cuisine is very different from the western one is quite obvious to anyone who has had the chance to taste both, but have you ever wondered what the main difference between the two is?
Of course both the ingredients used and the methods of preparing them are dissimilar, but a recent study carried out by an international team led by Yong-Yeol Ahn and Sebastian Ahnert, published in Scientific Reports, has revealed that the most striking difference is, in fact, the whole philosophy behind the two types of cuisines.
Whereas most western dishes tend to follow the logic of flavour matching, eastern ones follow the exact opposite i.e. taste difference.
The researchers analyzed thousands of online recipes coming from both sides of the hemisphere and compared them with the underlying flavour molecules of the ingredients used to make such recipes.
The fascinating result of this analysis was that whereas the ingredients used in western dishes tend to share common flavour compounds, the ones used in Asian recipes tend to avoid such sharing and, in fact, the more flavours two ingredients have in common, the less likely they are to be used together.
The most classic example is tomato and parmesan cheese which share lots of flavours and which are at the heart of many western dishes such as, for example, the majority of pasta dishes.
Garlic and sesame oil, on the other hand, are frequently used together in Asian dishes, but they share very few flavour compounds.
At least from now onwards, if someone criticizes the selection of ingredients chosen for your dishes you can always reply:
"Actually I was following strict eastern philosophical guidelines in my choice of ingredients!"
group