Savoury lunches, sweet afternoon snacks
Science has sought to answer why some people prefer savoury flavours and others, sweet ones. What’s the most important thing? That, in reality, you don’t have to choose.
They say that the world is divided into lovers of savoury and those who, by contrast, prefer sweet. In fact, science has long sought to explain why one person is more inclined to one type of food than the other. It’s a decision that, in reality, depends on many factors.
Some studies report that this choice draws directly on people’s upbringing, which may explain why there are some cultures that prioritise fruit or sweet flavours. For example, in the West, the candy test is well-known: a child is shut in a room in front of a sweet and the study examined whether he could last fifteen minutes before eating it or if he pounced on it overcome by temptation. The reward, it should be remembered, was a sweet (not a savoury snack).
Other theories, such as the one pointed to in the study ‘Genetics of Eating Behavior: Established and Emerging Concepts’ suggest that DNA that may influence this choice between sweet and savoury. It can also be done by the body itself (which tends to accept what it’s used to) or hormones (as in classic cravings). But, beyond all this, there’s another aspect to bear in mind: people tend to hanker for savoury before sweet.
The reason is as follows: in the digestive system, besides the mechanical receptors (which transmit a bloated sensation when the stomach is full), there are more sophisticated chemical receptors that respond selectively to various substances or nutrients. Of these chemical receptors, it’s the savoury ones that are saturated first and the chemical receptors that are sensitive to sweetness are not stimulated until they are fully saturated.
This is why you want savoury first and sweet to finish off. And, if there are two periods of the day when both flavours compete most obviously, they’re lunch and afternoon snacks. Why not focus, therefore, on a savoury lunch and a sweet afternoon snack?
Savoury lunches…
Today, it’s very easy to have a savoury product business. Thanks to frozen pre-baked bread, and specifically, frozen bread for bakeries, you have the option of having a multitude of breads to go with savoury products at your establishment.
But not only can you get your hands on delicious breads thanks to frozen breads and the suppliers of artisan bread: there are also delicious savoury snacks or savoury pastries that are always mouthwatering, such as a tuna empanada (which can come in various versions, such as a square tuna empanada, an individual Galician tuna pie, and a tuna and tomato puff pastry pie) or a ham and cheese puff pastry pie, among many others. You set the limits and thanks to a good bakery product distributor they’re practically infinite.
...sweet afternoon snacks
Croissant, ensaimada, pain au chocolat...sweets are a rival that offer many possibilities, really. Puff pastry dough, from frozen dough, allows you to have many products with these characteristics in the refrigerator, ready to give them a blast in the oven and which are as succulent as they are tasty. But it doesn’t end here, since with Danish dough, croissant dough and pastry dough, in general, there’s practically no product you can’t have in your establishment.
Savoury lunches, sweet afternoon snacks. But then again, maybe not. After all, the rules are there to be broken, right?
