has its uses Many sauces can be thickened not just by adding thickeners, but by removing some of the continuous phase — boiling off water — so that the thickeners already present in the sauce become more concentrated This technique doesn’t diminish flavor, because whatever flavor the sauce’s particles and molecules can bind have already been bound And in fact it can intensify flavor, because the concentration of flavor molecules may increase just as the thickeners’ concentration does The Importance of Salt Recent research has uncovered intriguing indications that thickeners reduce our perception of aroma in part because they reduce our perception of saltiness Various long-chain carbohydrates, including starch, first reduce the apparent saltiness of the sauce, either by binding sodium ions to themselves or by adding another sensation (viscosity) for the brain to attend to Then this reduced saltiness reduces the apparent aroma intensity — despite the fact that the same number of aroma molecules are flowing out of the sauce and across the smell receptors in our nose The practical significance of this finding is that thickening a sauce with flour or starch diminishes its overall flavor, and that both taste and aroma can be restored to some extent by the simple addition of more salt Sauces Thickened with Gelatin and Other Proteins If we gently heat a piece of meat or fish alone in a pan, it releases flavorful juices Normally we make the pan hot enough to evaporate the water the moment it comes out, so that the flavor molecules become concentrated on the meat and pan surfaces, and react with each ...another sensation (viscosity) for the brain to attend to Then this reduced saltiness reduces the apparent aroma intensity — despite the fact that the same number of aroma molecules... in a pan, it releases flavorful juices Normally we make the pan hot enough to evaporate the water the moment it comes out, so that the flavor molecules become concentrated on the meat and pan surfaces, and react with each ... both taste and aroma can be restored to some extent by the simple addition of more salt Sauces Thickened with Gelatin and Other Proteins If we gently heat a piece of meat or fish alone in a pan, it releases flavorful juices