When I refer to “cold meals”, I’m talking about temperature (Cold, cooked meals).
To me, cold meals taste much better compared to hot meals. With chili, for example, the flavor becomes more rich after it has cooled down.
Additionally, cold meals are less messy than hot meals. For instance, melted cheese and grease from meats will harden when refrigerated, thus no longer dirtying the hands.
Finally, consuming hot meals can put you at risk of burning your mouth, causing prolonged pain (which sucks BTW). Cold meals do not have this issue.
IMO, the only benefit hot meals have over cold meals is warming you up and (for some meals) being ready to consume immediately after preparing it.
Wow, an actually unpopular opinion. You get an upvote ya psycho
the flavor becomes more rich after it has cooled down.
The opposite is true. Cold mutes flavors.
The richness is due to time, not temperature!
This is why Coors is “best served ice cold” so it hides the piss flavor 🤣
Yes, this is also true of any beer. It’s just that Coors, and most American pilsners, have no redeeming flavor of their own.
Yes, I agree pretty much any beer is bad when warm. But as you say, those macros aren’t good at all
To me, cold meals taste much better compared to hot meals.
Cold foods and drinks actually limit the flavors you can taste in food. The temperature of foods change the sensitivity of taste receptors (primarily for sweet, salty, and umami flavors), the amount of/intensity of aromatics released by the food, and the textures of fats, gels, and syrups.
It is all down to preference, of course. But if you prefer the flavor experience of chilled foods that are normally served hot, then you likely prefer foods that are less/more subtly sweet, salty, and savory, and more sour and bitter. You likely do not care as much to the aromatic smells of food that accompany and enhance/alter the flavors of food. And you probably prefer the firmer, thicker textures of foods that would usually be softer and thinner with heat.
The downside with foods being cold, health-wise, if you do like things to be sweeter, for example, is that you need far more sugar to get the same sensation of sweetness from a cold food (like ice cream) than a warm food (like pie). Same with saltiness. A cold soup needs more salt than a hot one, usually.
Alternatively, warm fatty foods spread fat-soluble flavors across the tongue while cold fatty foods usually block taste receptors more while providing little flavor itself. So if you’re cooking for the purpose of eating the food cold, maybe you’ll use less fats and save yourself some calories/cholesterol and also get more flavor in that form factor at the same time.
Hey a real live psychopath 👋
COLD chili??
This is a true unpopular opinion and not just a DAE [popular thing].
What’s a DAE?
“Does anyone else,” a common karma-farming opener on sites like reddit.
Oh, thanks for the info! I don’t use Reddit, so I’ve never heard of this.
Reading this with a minor education in culinary studies makes me feel sad
Wow. Upvoting because, on the whole, I disagree.
I love a fresh, cold salad. But maybe the only other things I like cold are… the milk in a bowl of cereal? Cheese and salami or prosciutto on a charcuterie board? That’s about it.
But then again, the vast majority of my meals are in the rice + veg + protein + sauce form. Those would be really sad without the heat.
I agree with you but I feel like you’re forgetting…sandwiches
Hot sandwiches are almost always better than cold sandwiches, in all fairness. I’m just too lazy to make hot sandwiches most of the time.
C’mon you can’t tell me a cold italian sub sandwich isn’t delicious
Eh, I’d never order one. Cold cuts are for throwing together in the kitchen at 10pm. A Reuben though, that’s a damn fine sandwich.
Cold pasta can go back to Hell where it came from.
I am not a big fan of cold chili.
What I like to do with my chili, tomato based meat sauces and beef and chicken stews is allow them to set up for at least 24 hours before eating them.
Cook them up, put them in the fridge and reheat them later. It allows the flavors to permeate.
I agree for pizza.
I also like a lot of meals that area prepared to be cold like cold soups or sandwiches or wraps. But I can’t get on board for everything, some stuff needs to be hot.
Fresh pizza and cold pizza are basically two completely different meals. They’re both great, but out of every food I’ve eaten the temp changes pizza the most imo
Pizza is the only meal that is normally served hot that I prefer cold.
IKR. Pizza is at its best when it’s cold. If I could, i would order all of my pizzas cold. I can’t stand the melted cheese and grease getting everywhere, and potentially burning my mouth.
Sacre Bleu!
Sometimes.
Our sensitivity to bitter tastes is proportional to the food’s temperature. This is why hot coffee tastes more bitter than warm coffee.
Similarly, why salads taste better when cold. I LOVE cold cucumbers. They taste WAAAAY different than shitty room temp cucumbers.
That being said, food prepared to be consumed hot is definitely something I’d prefer over room temp/cold. The “hotness” of the food itself adds to the experience which I enjoy.
Nah, chili and other soup sort of foods are better chilled then reheated.
Some pizza is the same, better next day reheated. Not all of it.
Most warm food is better warm. Beans and rice, pastas, soups, potatoes, eggs, oatmeal, bread & toast, I like most meat based meals warm too (except most sandwiches). Lots of things (not rice) are better when reheated though.
Cold meals rock if they are meant to be cold. I love a salad.
Nah. Some cheeses hit much better when they’re hot/melted over the food. Same goes for meat, I don’t want it cold, it tastes better warm to hot.
Not necessarily cooked. In this heat, a Gaspacho is a treat!
