I had always thought low pH foods had a noticeable sour (acid)
taste, and vice-versa. But when reading The Bread Builders by
Daniel Wing & Allan Scott, on page 54, it says: The sour taste
of especially sour naturally leavened bread comes more from the
total amount of acid in the bread than from the pH of the bread.
After knowing that, someone I know made the following
experiment: - Measured the pH of vinegar with a ph-meter. -
Prepared a solution of Spirits of salt with the same pH. - Drink
both. Pure vinegar tastes much more acid than spirits of salt.
In fact, the last one has almost no acid taste. So, it seems my
initial thoughts were wrong. Why? Also, what makes we perceive
foods as acid tasting? After some research (thanks to rumtscho's
comment) I have found that taste buds detect the presence of H+
ions (as cited in the Wikipedia article on Gustatory system).
But still don't know why when drinking Acetic Acid (vinegar)
sourness is sensed more than when drinking HCl (Spirits of
salt), if both of them are