- Whose tongue is smarterer according to science?
- Let's talk about that.
(upbeat music)
Good mythical morning.
- You ever wonder why PB&J tastes so good,
or why orange soda and anchovies definitely do not?
Well, according to believers of the flavor pairing theory,
it all comes down to delicious, indisputable science.
- The flavor pairing theory claims that
the reason certain foods pair better together
is because they actually share certain chemicals in common,
and through this idea, science has introduced
some pretty bizarre food combos
that theoretically should be matches made in culinary heaven
but will our non-theoretical tongues actually agree?
It's time for This Tastes Like Science!
- So the core concept of flavor pairing theory
is that the more aromatic compounds
two foods have in common,
the better they're gonna taste together,
and this is based on the fact that
80% of our food and drink's flavor
is determined by how our noses pick up
what's called volatile aromatic compounds,
such as dimethyl sulfide and cadaverine.
- Mm. (laughs)
- Two of my favorites.
- And decorated chefs from around the world
have started utilizing this mad science,
but not everybody believes in this theory,
so we are gonna test it ourselves.
- Yeah, we're gonna taste some odd combinations
that science says should work alongside one another,
and also some weird unscientific ones
that Josh and Nicole have made up
and see if we can tell the difference.
- Whoever's got the most scientific tongue
will win the coveted First Place Tongue ribbon.
- Ooh. - Let's eat.
(upbeat music)
- [Both] Round one.
- Okay, we're starting off with coffee.
According to the flavor pairing theory,
one of these three ingredients
is a scientific match while the others are not.
Now, our options are bok choy, mustard, and carrots.
- Bok choy, what's that? (laughing)
Is this that, is this stuff that floats in soup?
- Bok choy is like one of the most pound-for-pound
nutritious things that you can eat on the planet.
- You ever had it with coffee?
- No, I'm not coming to any conclusions
other than I think there's a reason why
I haven't enjoyed those together before.
- Well I'll tell you right now, bok choy ain't creamer.
(crew laughs)
- Coffee and carrots, they start with the same letter.
(crunching)
I love how you provided toothpicks
for the carrots as if we couldn't grab them.
- You know, we're divas now,
we don't like to actually touch the carrot.
- Ew. (crew laughs)
- Hmm.
All right,
to me, there is a distinct pairing
that brings both flavors more to life.
(claps)
I got my chemistry, I'm seeing chemistry right now.
- [Stevie] You're gonna put your coffee mug
behind the bowl you think is correct in three, two, one.
- I think it's the mustard. - Mustard.
- Okay, you agree?
- And I actually kind of like it.
- Yeah, it's weird.
I'm tempted, you know what, let's just do it.
- [Rhett] Let's just stir it in.
(crew laughs)
- [Stevie] Guys, it's not even the right answer.
You're both incorrect. (buzzer buzzes)
- It's not right? - Oh, it's not?
- We like it.
- [Stevie] Don't you feel like fools now?
- [Rhett] Then it's the carrots, isn't it?
- [Stevie] Yeah, it's the carrots.
- Carrots was my second choice, I will say that.
- All right, so we both got it wrong.
- [Stevie] You can share that, but now I'm curious,
you need to take a sip of your coffees
and does it ring true?
- I already did, it's horrible.
(crew laughs) - I love it.
- The scientific explanation printed here on this card
says that coffee and carrots match
because they share 4-vinylguaiacol
and 5-methylfurfural.
- Oh, I love methylfurfural.
(upbeat music)
- [Both] Round two.
- All right, so we got some white chocolate, yum,
plus (groans) caviar, seaweed salad, and what is this?
- [Nicole] That's unagi, also known as barbecued eel.
- Eel, yeah.
- Unagi?
Man, I love some white chocolate.
- You really to ruin it?
(crew laughs)
Forever?
- And these white chocolates they gave us,
they have a nice little crevice to put caviar apparently.
- [Rhett] That doesn't, you know what?
That's not a bad idea.
- I'm gonna put it in there
because you know, it's a pairing.
- Um, that wasn't good.
(Link gags)
- Especially it's so fishy, and salty.
- Well because it's-
- It's so sea-y.
- It's the potential of fish, is what it is.
(Link groans)
- Now okay, so you've made yourself a seaweed sandwich here.
Ugh.
- Similar thing going on.
I mean, y'all are being a little tricky here,
giving us three things from the sea.
- [Stevie] Well you did so well with the first round.
- Right, we gotta make it hard for them.
- I mean, the seaweed wasn't as pungent as the caviar,
but it's the same experience.
- The part that's good is the white chocolate.
Is that what we're deciding?
I prefer the white chocolate.
- All right, but you gotta find the volatile.
- [Both] Aromatic compounds.
(crew laughs)
- Um, I have an answer based on that
and I do not want to taste any of them again.
(Link groans)
So, I am ready.
- [Stevie] Three, two, one.
- I'm going for the caviar.
- I went with the eel.
- Even though it's a horrible experience,
we've discovered that chocolate covers a world of hurt.
- But white chocolate isn't even chocolate.
- But maybe, oh maybe it's plays together.
- [Stevie] The correct answer is caviar.
- Okay, but why?
Rhett, you lost, you gotta say why.
- White chocolate and caviar match
because they share multiple compounds,
including trimethylamine,
which coincidentally also causes
the odor of some human infections and bad breath.
(upbeat music)
- [Both] Round three.
- Okay, now we're trying to find the scientific pair
to strawberries. - Mm-hmm.
- We're choosing between mushrooms,
eggs, and just straight up garlic.
- But first, quick announcement,
do you know what scientifically pairs with this episode?
Josh and Nicole's new podcast,
which is called A Hot Dog is a Sandwich.
I invite you to check it out.
Enrich your mind much with the soothing sounds
of the pairs they engage in great food debates,
and see their equally-soothing faces.
A video version of the podcast--
- We have such soothing faces.
- That went live yesterday.
Which way would I point for yesterday?
Yesterday.
- This way.
- All right, so, you're already eating a strawberry.
- I can't help myself.
- Strawberry and a mushroom.
Oh look, it looks like a character.
Hey, I'm a guy with sunglasses on.
- You're seeing something that I'm not,
let me just be honest with you.
Um, wow. (crew laughs)
- I'm seeing it.
- That um, that told me nothing.
- Mushrooms are, they don't have a lot of flavor.
Now that's a weird world that I'm living in.
- [Rhett] That's a bedeviled egg right there.
- What if that, what if that thing came out of a chicken?
You know, ooh you're already on the garlic.
- I'd take it to the state fair and win something.
I got a strawberry-yolk-laying-egg chicken.
(they both grunt)
I gotta say that out of one of those,
on that first taste, I got a strong association
between two of the ingredients.
- You're obviously talking about the garlic
because that's the only one that have a strong flavor.
Everything else is kinda--
- I didn't say a strong flavor,
I said a strong association.
- Get out of my face, man.
- [Stevie] Three, two, one.
- I think it's the eggs.
So see--
- The strawberry garlic thing was working for me.
- Did you like it?
- Yes.
- What about this,
this, and this? (Stevie giggles)
- [Stevie] The correct answer is mushroom.
- No it's not.
- Oh, we both got it wrong?
(crew laughs)
It's mushroom, why is it mushroom?
Strawberries and mushrooms match because they share
oh, of course, I knew this,
they share 1-nonanol (crew laughs)
and methyl butanoate.
- But listen, I think garlic shares two nonanols.
(upbeat music)
- [Both] Round four.
- So we got some salmon here,
some lychee, oh licorice, and then we've got hops.
- Why couldn't this be fun?
I just, I thought it was gonna be fun.
- I know, two rounds ago after we were done,
I turned to Morgan and I was like "does this get better?"
and he says "it gets different."
(laughing)
- I was, I've been looking forward to this episode.
- I know, guys.
- I want to discover things.
Y'all are like "how about salmon and hops?"
(laughing)
- Science, man, science goes places that
humans aren't willing to go.
- You're right.
- And then humans finally show up and they're like
oh, you were right.
- Us doing this is like getting to the moon.
- I'm gonna make my mouth into a moon shape.
- How are you gonna do that?
I'm kinda doing it.
- You can't, what about that,
you're talking about a crescent moon.
- It's a crescent moon.
- I was doing a full moon.
- Thank you for the toothpick for the licorice.
- Now if I don't like salmon or licorice?
- Maybe you'll like both of them together.
Can you just eat hops?
(crew laughs)
- Yeah Nicole.
- Did y'all look into this?
- How's this normally work?
- [Nicole] Uh, I don't know, just do it.
(laughing)
- Don't ask questions, just do it.
- I love the honesty.
- What in the world?
I don't think you're supposed to do that.
- It's very bitter, talk about aromatic.
- I got a guess based on that.
- [Stevie] Okay here we go.
- I had a good experience at one point.
- [Stevie] Three, two, one.
- With the lychee, it really, this really worked together.
- I like lychee, but thought that the hops
and the salmon actually complemented one another.
- The hops?
- And also salmon when they're trying to get upstream,
they hop.
- [Stevie] The correct answer was licorice.
(giggles) (buzzer buzzes)
- Really?
Man, I mean, science is on its own today.
- Okay, I will say,
when I tasted those two,
I was like "I kinda like this,"
but I thought it's just because I like licorice,
and just was like "they just threw that in there
"to throw me off."
I gotta just get out of y'all's heads and get into my head.
- Get into science's head.
- Okay.
- [Science] Well get into science's card and read it please.
- Oh.
- Oh. (crew laughs)
- Salmon.
- Salmon and licorice match because they both share
the x, hal, hexanal.
- The property hexanal, which is a six-sided anus.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
- [Both] Round five.
- I kinda just want to forfeit.
- Liver, man.
Your nemesis.
Also my nemesis, but is it great
when you pair it with matcha powder,
what is this?
- [Rhett] It's jasmine tea.
- [Link] Jasmine tea or cognac?
- Um,
why?
- Science, if you're listening,
we hate you.
- If this is what it takes to get man back on the moon,
I don't want to go there.
Listen, we went there, we put a flag,
it's just a bunch of dust.
There's no people there.
- [Link] Let me dust you.
- Don't dust my liver.
Okay.
- Dink it.
- Why are we gonna suddenly dink it?
(crew laughs)
Why you gonna do a last round dink?
- It'll make it better.
(groans)
And sink it, it's the rhythm of it that helps me.
- That is bad in all kinds of ways.
- I mean, the matcha does help you.
- The matcha's strong.
- Matcha beats liver, it's stronger, so it does help.
- That's not what we're measuring.
- Okay, so now I'm gonna take another piece of liver.
- You're gonna pour tea over it?
I'm not gonna-- (crew groans)
No, I'm not doing that.
There's that metallic taste.
(gagging)
(spits)
Oh gosh, I regret, listen.
(Link yells)
I just feel like I've been hoodwinked.
- Of all the stuff we've eaten,
it doesn't make liver more palatable.
Oh this, this should help.
Okay so let me get.
- Get a little bit of liver, then.
(crew laughs)
(Link gags)
- We still doing this, okay.
- What I thought was gonna happen
is I thought we were gonna find all these cool combinations.
- Wow, this is amazing, you should try this at home.
- What I was secretly hoping, I didn't tell anybody,
is that I was gonna take these combinations
and I was gonna have a party at my house.
(crew laughs)
And I was gonna invite the coolest people I know
and I was gonna be like
"mm-hmm, taste these two things together,"
and then I was gonna be--
- So well-liked.
- They would be like "oh, you gotta go
"to the McLaughlins' house, they just combine things
"and it's crazy."
I'm not having that party.
You're all not invited to the party that I'm not having.
- Let's vote.
All right.
- [Stevie] Here we go, three, two, one.
- I think it's the ma, oh why do you think it's the tea?
Because that's the one thing that didn't help.
- Because there was a metallic-y taste in there
that I thought I was getting from the tea.
- Did one of us at least get one of these right
in this whole exercise?
- You already got one right.
- I don't even remember. (crew laughs)
- [Stevie] The correct answer is
jasmine. (bell dings)
- Yeah!
- All right so you got this right.
- Finally.
- Liver and jasmine match because they share
multiple compounds including indole,
which is defined as, quote,
"a crystalline organic compound with an unpleasant odor
"present in coal tar and in feces."
- Yeah, makes all kinds of sense.
Hey, come over to my house, we're having feces tea.
- Did I win?
- No, we tied, you got your own. (laughs)
You want me to tongue you?
- No, I'll do my own. (crew laughs)
- Okay, all right.
(muttering)
- All right, thanks for subscribing and clicking the bell.
- You know what time it is.
- Hi, I'm Emily.
- And I'm Riley.
- And we're about to try Pennsylvania
white-tail deer testicle for the very first time.
- [Both] And it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
- Well that was quite an awkward bonding moment.
- Uh, that was a full ball that they held up at first,
I thought they were gonna bite into it like an apple.
- Yeah, I know.
- Click the top link to watch us guess
which candy bars were melted
and then paired together in Good Mythical More.
- And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality
is gonna land.
- That said, if I went to a restaurant
and they said the soup of the day is chili,
I would feel just as misled
if the soup of the day was a bowl of Frosted Flakes.
- No you wouldn't, you're just lying to lie.
No, that's, okay, no, I don't agree with that.