Posted on 11/14/2010 6:48:08 AM PST by decimon
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2010 With chitlins about to make their annual appearance on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day menus, scientists have good news for millions of people who love that delicacy of down-home southern cooking, but hate the smell. They are reporting the first identification of an ingredient in cilantro that quashes the notoriously foul odor of chitlins a smell known to drive people from the house when chitlins are cooking. Their report appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Yasuyoshi Hayata and colleagues note that chitlins hog large intestines are infamous for their foul smell, which is reminiscent of the waste material that once filled the intestine. However, many people enjoy the taste of the southern delicacy. When boiled or fried, chitlins are most popular in the United States during the winter holidays, from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. However, hog large intestine also is a year-round staple in the cuisines of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia.
Hayata's group knew that cooks long have used fresh cilantro, an herb also known as coriander or Chinese parsley, to mask the unpleasant smell of certain foods, as well as add flavor. They previously showed that cilantro could help to remove the fecal or sewage-like odor from chitlins. In the new research, they set out to discover the identity of the deodorizing chemical compounds in cilantro.
The scientists treated samples of hog large intestine with cilantro extracts of different concentrations. A panel of human sniffers identified the concentrations that were most effective in reducing the odor. Using high-tech instruments, the scientists then isolated the main deodorizing ingredients in the most effective extracts. The scientists identified several cilantro ingredients that appeared to suppress the foul odor of chitlins. One of the substances with the tongue-twisting name of (E,E)-2,4-Undecadienal had a flowery fragrance that seemed to completely erase the odor. That substance worked at concentrations as low as 10 parts per billion an equivalent to about 10 drops of substance in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
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ARTICLE # "Identification of (E, E)-2,4-Undecadienal from Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) as a Highly Effective Deodorant Compound against the Offensive Odor of Porcine Large Intestine"
DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf102297q
CONTACT: Yasuyoshi Hayata, Ph.D. Meiji University Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Phone: (81) 044-934-7812 Fax: (81) 044-934-7812 Email: yhayata@isc.meiji.ac.jp
The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
Odor aside, do you really want chitlins that taste like cilantro?
Pass the turkey please....
Replacing it with the foul odor of cilantro.
Call me when they can remove the odor of collards cooking.
Taste great, cook outside.
And folks think I'm nuts when I say Cilantro tastes like soap to me.
The problem is that chitlins taste just as bad as they smell. The best way to get rid of the smell, is to get rid of the chitlins!
To me cilantro tastes like soap. Yuck
I wouldn't want chitlins that smell like chit.
I can’t understand how anyone could eat a bowel. I can’t eat liver, either understanding what the liver’s function is in a body. (dry heave)
Finally a use for that cilantro I grew.
An attractive plant but useless for someone who doesn’t care for mexican food- or chitlins come to think of it.
How do you cook chitlins? Boil the s**t out of them!
"Ah jeez, not this chit again!" ;-)
Perhaps this is why cilantro is typically added to menudo, besides adding a little color.
Three things you don't want to see made are sausage, chitlins and legislation.
You’re right - it does taste like soap, but that can be off-set by eating if for a few days. I tried it. Now it has a very pleasant taste - not soapy at all.
It tastes like soap to me too and I have developed an allergy to it. I get a headache and my sinuses get all stuffy and closed up if I eat even a tiny bit.
I always thought it tasted like soap, but developed the allergy after eating a bowl of soup that was very heavily laden with it.
I was sick for days and could not get the smell or taste out of my nose/mouth. Now the least little bit and I feel terrible.
¡Sí!
Some things belong in a dog food can.
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