OT CLEANSING THE PALATE

Todd,

That's why God made wine.

Steve

Sherbet always works. I've heard a sprite or 7-up works but have never had one without a touch of whiskey in it...

Hey Big 'Un -
My experience, anything with a bit of acid (like citrus, or yes, the right wine) followed by water, and give it a good swish in the mouth! Take a good few breaths of fresh air-literally-outside, before and during your next taste. The fresh air will change the flavor. Just my 2 cents!
Michelle

Not to get nit picky or anything, but if you're going to use an ice, it should be sorbet instead of sherbet. Sherbet has some milk in it, sorbet has none. Sorbet is a much cleaner taste and much lighter if you have to do it several times.

I've got a Braun table top ice cream maker that turns out wonderful lemon sorbet. You could rent it for a few days --- I'm sure we could figure out something to barter it with. :woohoo:

Nothing with sugar or sweeteners or inherent flavor.
Nothing salty.
I love making my own sorbets and serve them between dinner courses sometimes, but wouldn't do it for this kind of experimental tasting.

I vote against lemon because one of the things you are evaluating is the perceived acidity of the sauce, and tasting lemon beforehand will reduce your sensitivity to acid within the sauce and, more importantly, acid differences between the sauces.

If you have a good wine shop nearby they might stock winetasting crackers.

Good palate cleansers include sparkling water (like Pelligrino or Perrier) or plain mixer soda (not tonic).

You may want to conduct your test as a blind taste test. Take two identical bowls. Make up a label for each sauce; e.g., MyCarnivore and PackerCarnivore. Put a label on the bottom of each bowl. Ask a trusted assistant to pour some of each in the appropriate labelled bowl without your knowing which is which. Make sure they're at the same temperature, too. Look at each one and write down your observations about each bowl before tasting them. Smell and write. Taste and write, all before you learn which is which.

Your palate is quite sensitive, but two simple measurements you could do at home to monitor batch-to-batch manufacturing quality with reasonably priced equipment are Brix (for sweetness/density) and pH (for acidity). The Carnivore also has such a unique color that you might want to think of a way to monitor that, and perhaps a way to evaluate texture.