Why chewing with your mouth open makes food taste better

Eating with your mouth open is generally considered the cardinal sin of the dinner table, worse even than the culinary mistake of putting your elbows on the table and holding the fork in your right hand.

But an expert from the University of Oxford claimed that lip smacking and allow guests to see your food when you chew is the best way to eat.

Professor Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist, claims that this method increases the taste and squeezes the most pleasure out of the bite.

The academic now wants Britons to accept more rude and hedonistic approach at dinner time and abandon all sense of propriety and sensitivity.

“We were doing everything wrong,” he said.

“We parents instill manners in our children and extol the virtues of polite chewing with the mouth closed.

“However, chewing with the mouth open can actually help release more volatile organic compounds, which contribute to our sense of smell and general perception.”

Meat, fruit and vegetables contain volatile organic compounds such as esters, ketones, terpenoids and aldehydes, which form the characteristic aromas and flavors of dishes.

And while practice can repel other people Professor Spence believes that it’s worthwhile and that everyone should start using slack-jaw chewing because it helps more flavor compounds reach the back of the nose and fire the olfactory sensory neurons that heighten our experience of eating.

Noise eaters have the right idea

The benefit of letting air into your mouth during a sip is well known in beer and wine tasting, but common etiquette has until now meant that food has remained the sacred cow of tight-lipped words.

Professor Spence said: “When it comes to sound, we like noisy food – think crunchy, crunchy. Both crisps and apples are rated as more pleasant when the sound of crunch is amplified.

“To best hear the crunch of an apple, potato chip, carrot stick, cracker, crusty bread or handful of popcorn, you should always drop your mannerisms and chew with your mouth open.”

Professor Spence also insists that we should ditch the silverware and use our hands as utensils, as the cavemen did, as touch also plays an important role in how we enjoy what we eat.

“Our sense of touch is also crucial in our perception of food in the mouth,” he said.

“The research shows that what you feel in your hand can change or reveal certain aspects of the tasting experience.”

Fine dining involves eating with your hands

Professor Spence, who teaches at Somerville College, leads a team of scientists studying how our hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell influence our perception of the food we eat.

The research will also help us learn more about the brain and its functions.

Before that, he worked with Heston Blumenthalcelebrity chef, on the science behind his immersive dishes for his three-Michelin-star restaurant Fat Duck.

And it was entered from the side Pink Lady apples learn more about how we can improve our food by engaging more of our senses while eating.

“Michelin-starred restaurants such as The Fat Duck and Noma in Copenhagen have experimented with a series of dishes designed to ate with hands,” he said.

“Actually, Mugaritz [the two-Michelin-starred restaurant in San Sebastian) went for a whole season without offering their guests cutlery.”

Fine dining aside, Prof Spence believes we can enhance our everyday snacks and food by feeling it while we eat it.

He said: “Feeling the smooth, organic texture of the skin of an apple in our hand before biting into it is likely to contribute to a heightened appreciation of the juicy, sweet crunch of that first bite.

“This can be extended to the feeling of grains of salt sticking to the fingers when eating French fries with our hands or the sugary residue of buttercream on a hand after picking up and biting into a slice of birthday cake.

“While licking fingers after eating with our hands is never encouraged in polite circles, research would suggest we ought to consider scrapping the etiquette for utmost sensory enjoyment.

“Or consider only how pleasant it can be to lick the bowl with your finger when making a cake mix at home.”