Why do deli meats and cheeses taste so amazing when sliced thin but only ok when thick?

Actually… this is a valid question… i’ve wondered this myself before.

Thanks for your approval ^_^

ditto kudos

Maybe it’s the ratio of the meat/cheese to other flavor accompaniments? I’m imagining a sandwich with thin meat/cheese and one with thick meat/cheese. It seems like the thick version has more mass and, thus, too much flavor to be nicely balanced out by the veggies and bread.

Thicker slices tend to hit more portions of the palate for longer periods of time. Wine is a good example, the reason I like to drink full bodied reds is it usually sits on the mouth longer thus giving me the opportunity to exercise the flavors.

Check out this study :

“The respective contributions of taste (saltiness and sweetness) and texture (the hardness dimension) to sensory-specific satiety (SSS) were compared. Sixteen male and 16 female, young, normal-weight adults rated the pleasantness of taste, pleasantness of texture and desire to eat on visual analog scales for eight test foods, were then given one of the foods to eatad libitumfor lunch, and re-rated the same parameters for the eight foods 2 and 20 min after the end of the meal. The experimental sets of eight test foods and four lunch foods were balanced for taste quality (salty vs. sweet) and texture quality (hard vs. soft). Lunch foods were the hard and soft versions of a salty food (ham and cheese sandwich on baguette vs. white bread) or of a sweet food (apples vs. applesauce). Sensory-specific satiety was observed for both saltiness and sweetness (e.g. pleasantness of the taste of, and desire to eat sweet test foods decreased significantly after eating a sweet lunch food and similarly for salty foods), and to a lesser extent for texture (e.g. pleasantness of the texture of, and desire to eat hard test foods decreased after eating a hard lunch food and similarly for one of the soft foods).

The authors conclude texture-specific satiety may be a significant component of satiety.”

Apparently, the difference in texture affects perceived tastiness.

Thanks jz1220 you just helped me answer something I’ve wondered for the better part of my life never able to get a real answer.

The best thing i knew before this was cheeses taste better thin because of temperature. Evidently cheese doesn’t taste how it really should when its real cold so cutting it thin allows it to reach room temperature faster and thus taste better.

You’re welcome uberbatman. Yeah, the temperature thing is really interesting. I remember watching Bill Nye the Science Guy when I was little, and he explained why ice cream tastes so much more mellow when frozen. To help prove his point, he asked viewers to pop a bowl of ice cream in the microwave and then taste it. I did, and the melted ice cream was so awfully sweet that I felt really sick afterward. It makes you wonder how much sugar is in that stuff to compensate for the cold!

and why do they taste so much better when you sample them at the store than when you buy a block and eat them in your own place?

Everything tastes better at room temp. If food is too hot or cold it doesn’t let your taste buds work properly.

that makes sense

@TT, that would be because they are free.