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.
Reading this with a minor education in culinary studies makes me feel sad
Cold pasta can go back to Hell where it came from.
Cold chicken is the GOAT
Cold fried chicken gets really dense and flavorful. I discovered it as a bar Hors d’oeuvres and completely fell in love with it.
But hot chicken soup is still my go-to 9 times out of 10.
Wow, an actually unpopular opinion. You get an upvote ya psycho
Hey a real live psychopath 👋
COLD chili??
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 🤣
Voting up because this opinion is so unpopular to me it’s revolting
Chilli, curries et al become more flavourful with time. Days later reheated chilli still beats days later cold chilli, even if days later cold chilli beats immediate warm chilli.
Warm food just is more flavourful. Fridge chocolate is objectively less flavourful than room temperature chocolate, for example.
Fridge chocolate is awesome, it has a crunch! And the flavors still come out, because chocolate melts on the tongue. It just takes longer to melt than at room temperature, which extends the chocolate experience. (Of course if you swallow it immediately, fridge chocolate is worse)
Truly unpopular and disgusting
I have to upvote as this is definitely an unpopular opinion
I’m ambivalent about the warmth of food. I don’t really care if it’s warm or cold for the majority of things and as such usually eat things cold right out of the fridge if they’re leftovers. Cold chicken, cold noodles, cold soup. Doesn’t bother me, but it does bother my family that I couldn’t care less.
I cook a decent amount of the time though and absolutely love roasted chicken and veggies, which mostly gets eaten fresh out of the oven. In event of leftovers, yup, cold limp carrots and slightly stodgy roast potato chunks( though I will put some sauce on that last one)
There’s certain things that I will never eat cold, like nachos. Eating cold shredded cheese is a deal breaker in my house
Yeah, nachos is another meal I don’t think works well cold. At that point, it’s just cheese on tortillas.
Beef foods where the melted beef fat has congealed into waxy chunks of tallow, no thank you. But cooled melted cheese has a nice chew whether it’s on pizza or “just cheese on tortillas.” Maybe not straight from the fridge though. Closer to room temp.
I appreciate you posting this.
