Science/Arabic - The Sense of Taste

The Sense of Taste - اَلذَّوْقُ

I taste... - ... أَنَا أَذُوقُ

We talked about the sense of taste and how everything can be sorted into 5 main groups: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

The girls were then blindfolded and I gave them something to taste, one at a time. First, they guessed what it was (... أَنَا أَذُوقُ - if they didn't know the Arabic word they could just say that word in English!) then I told them which category that food was an example of. The foods we did were:

Sweet = teaspoon of honey. They already knew what sweet meant!

Salty = ready salted crisps. They already knew salty, too!

Sour = slice of lemon. These foods make your mouth pucker up.

Bitter = spinach leaf. These foods make you want to stick your tongue out.

Umami = cheese. These foods have a really strong flavour.

They took off their blindfolds and I gave them some more foods to taste; some were distinctly only one of the five basic tastes, others were a mixture - I tried to choose a variety that would lead to a good discussion and understanding!

The foods we used and the groups we thought they belonged to were:

banana = sweet

fizzy belt = sweet & sour
kiwi = sweet & sour

cucumber = sweet & bitter
dark chocolate drops = sweet & bitter
whipped cream & coffee = sweet & bitter
popcorn = salty & sweet
salt n' vinegar crisps = salty & sour
tuna = salty & umami
Marmite on toast = salty & umami
soy sauce = salty & umami
ketchup = sweet & umami

Finally, they filled in the below worksheet and recapped sorting using a two-way table.

We did the worksheet later on in the day so they had to think and remember which foods they tasted! We wrote down what they could remember on the whiteboard then I helped them fill in the gaps. Then they worked through the list sorting them into where they thought they best fit. Lastly, they could colour the pictures if they wanted! And we talked about which taste each picture represented.

You can download our worksheet template here. I forgot to blank out half of the squares for their copies but it's fixed in the original file now. 😊

Recipe: Chocolate chip shortbread

Makes 20-24 biscuits:

150g salted butter (at room temperature)
75g caster sugar
225g plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
100g chocolate chips
2-3tsps Demerara sugar

1) Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2) Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3) Sieve in the flour, a little at a time, stirring together with a wooden spoon.
4) Tip in the chocolate chips and bring the mixture together with your hands to form a soft dough. Try not to overwork it to get a better texture to the biscuit. When the dough comes away from the bowl, leaving it clean, then it's ready.
5) Lightly flour a surface and roll the dough to the thickness of the chocolate chips. Cut into shapes and place on baking tray.
6) Sprinkle with demerara sugar for an optional sweet crunch!
7) Leave to chill in the fridge for 20min and preheat the oven to Fan 180C.
8) Bake for 12-14min until the edges turn golden brown.
9) Leave to firm up on the baking tray for 5min before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
10) Enjoy with a cup of tea or glass of cold milk!