Alternative theory: food from local sources (such as farmer’s markets) tastes better because it’s fresher, because it’s transported less and warehoused fewer times. This would imply that production methods, such as being organic or free range, have little or nothing to do with it. This is also pretty easy to test, if you have some visibility into supply chains.
In UK all supermarkets offer both “normal” and “organic” food. Isn’t it true wherever you live? You can use this to check if this makes any difference in taste, as both are most likely transported and stored the same.
That’s easy. If you have something very tasty, just store it in a fridge for an extra day, and try it again. I remember some experiments showing that meat got somewhat tastier around its labeled expiration date, which is the opposite result.
Alternative theory: food from local sources (such as farmer’s markets) tastes better because it’s fresher, because it’s transported less and warehoused fewer times. This would imply that production methods, such as being organic or free range, have little or nothing to do with it. This is also pretty easy to test, if you have some visibility into supply chains.
In UK all supermarkets offer both “normal” and “organic” food. Isn’t it true wherever you live? You can use this to check if this makes any difference in taste, as both are most likely transported and stored the same.
I want to test a different hypothesis—whether extreme freshness is necessary for excellent flavor.
That’s easy. If you have something very tasty, just store it in a fridge for an extra day, and try it again. I remember some experiments showing that meat got somewhat tastier around its labeled expiration date, which is the opposite result.
Plausible, but hard to test—how would I get conventionally raised food which is as fresh as what I can get in farmer’s markets?
I’d say that the frozen meat is also tastier, and it’s (I hope) no fresher than what I can get at Trader Joe’s.