Scientists Played Music to Cheese as It Aged. Hip-Hop Produced the Funkiest Flavor
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The creation of good cheese involves a complex dance between milk and bacteria. In a quite literal sense, playing the right tune while this dance unfolds changes the final product’s taste, a new study shows. Denis Balibouse and Cecile Mantovani at Reuters report that hip-hop, for example, gave the cheese an especially funky flavor, while cheese that rocked out to Led Zeppelin or relaxed with Mozart had milder zests.
Last September, Swiss cheesemaker Beat Wampfler and a team of researchers from the Bern University of Arts placed nine 22-pound wheels of Emmental cheese in individual wooden crates in Wampfler’s cheese cellar. Then, for the next six months each cheese was exposed to an endless, 24-hour loop of one song using a mini-transducer, which directed the soundwaves directly into the cheese wheels.
The “classical” cheese mellowed to the sounds of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The “rock” cheese listened to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” An ambient cheese listened to Yello’s “Monolith,” the hip-hop cheese was exposed to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Jazz (We’ve Got)” and the techno fromage raved to Vril’s “UV.” A control cheese aged in silence, while three other wheels were exposed to simple high, medium and low frequency tones.
According to a press release, the cheese was then examined by food technologists from the ZHAW Food Perception Research Group, which concluded that the cheese exposed to music had a milder flavor compared to the non-musical cheese. They also found that the hip-hop cheese had a stronger aroma and stronger flavor than other samples.
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Six months non-stop?
Shoulda made some crazy cheese...
Play that funky music white cheese. . .
Dear Friend Tessylo: I can envision Lawrence Welk addressing the cameras and being surrounded by Champagne bubbles saying, "Now the lovely Lemon Sisters gonna ferment for you, Play that funky white cheese. And a one, and a two".
Enoch, Doing a Dairy Polka.
LOL
Wow, after six months we surely have some out of this world cheese. Climbing that stairway ya know.
A couple of loops is "mellow". Six months of loops is... loopy...
Can you imagine the promotional advertising?
Cheese flavour curdled by Beethoven's 9th Symphony "Ode to Joy", or by Ravi Shankar's Ode to George.
Yep Have your band's name be immortalized and make a buck at the same time.
win win
Well, there's a lot of cheesy music these days....
Sound waves altering the taste of foods.
Interesting and understandable.
I'll bet they try this on more stuff.
I agree with Bob though one song over and over for 6 months would make anyone loopy.
What kind of music was played for Liederkranz?
As the late comic actor Morey Amsterdam once sang:
"How do you expect to find romance, when you smell like a piece of Liederkranz?
Cheese and crackers, crackers and cheese".
Enoch, Opening a Window.
I once told a, um, lady she smelled of parmesan cheese. She took it quite badly...
Of all the things to smell of cheese is not the worst. In the late 50's and early 60's my Aunt owned a restaurant which was racially segregated with whites only in the front of the house and all others served in the dank dark "Colored Dining Room" entered through the alley. When about five years old I asked my beloved Aunt why this was. She told me that white people lost their appetites when they smelled nonwhites and so for restaurants it was necessary to separate the races. I told her that I thought the white farmers and their white wives who came into town for lunch and who got to sit up front stunk plenty...
Before she died she admitted how ashamed she felt for years for telling me that.
Dear Friend JBB: Never too late for repentance and atonement.
Your late Aunt did the right thing while there still was time.
Good on her and her memory.
An important part of her legacy is that she had the intestinal fortitude to turn away corrupting influences around her, and restore her moral center to its original state of purity.
Be as proud of her as she was of you.
P&AB.
Enoch.
Dear Friend Tessylo: Smiles.
Best wishes for the remainder of the summer to you and yours.
Our thanks for all you do for this site.
We are grateful.
P&AB.
Enoch.