Cognac = Banana...at least in our heads

[gfron1]

To sell out of my cafè this year, I made some 30 pumpkin pies using a recipe that included cognac. I've had a number of customers comment about a slight banana taste. There was nothing else in the recipe that I can think of other than the cognac to cause that taste. I didn't taste the banana myself, so my theory is that cognac tricks the mind into thinking banana. Anyone else experience this?

[Kerry Beal]

Not that specifically, but I find if I add lemon and basil to white chocolate and enrobe it in dark chocolate it tastes minty - same thing seems to happen with ginger - minty.

[Kerry Beal]

Looks like cognac and bananas contain organic compounds in common - isobutyl acetate and isopentyl acetate. Might be where the flavour comes from.

[scubadoo97]

Looks like cognac and bananas contain organic compounds in common - isobutyl acetate and isopentyl acetate.  Might be where the flavour comes from.

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Exactly,

Brandy has some of its distinct flavor due to an ester. Low molecular weight esters are present in fruits, such as pineapples, pears, bananas, apricots, grapes and oranges. They are also present in cognac, in the form of ethyl nonanoate (ethyl oenanthate). These esters give them their distinctive flavors.

[Restorer]

I've found strange taste correlations to come from combinations of ingredients you wouldn't expect. My father once attempted a chili with blue cheese and liquid smoke - it came out with a distinct banana-like flavor.

[McAuliflower]

To sell out of my cafè this year, I made some 30 pumpkin pies using a recipe that included cognac.  I've had a number of customers comment about a slight banana taste.  There was nothing else in the recipe that I can think of other than the cognac to cause that taste.  I didn't taste the banana myself, so my theory is that cognac tricks the mind into thinking banana.  Anyone else experience this?

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You're flushing out a very faint flavor memory in my head...

my local coffee store in Eugene had a run of nutmeg / eggnog mix that was banana flavored to me. The first time I ordered their eggnog steamed milk I sent it back because I thought they made me a banana one. They confirmed that they made it correctly- and we sniffed the eggnog container to check it. Yep- smelled like bananas to me! But no one else got that smell- they all said it smelled like eggnog to them.

Edited November 30, 2008 by McAuliflower (log)

[chefjgates]

The reason that your basil and chocolate concoction has a minty flavor, is the type of basil that you are using. there are certain types of basil that have a licorice flavor (thai). when you add the citric acid in the lemon juice to them the oxidation causes the flavors to brighten, there is your minty flavor.

Not that specifically, but I find if I add lemon and basil to white chocolate and enrobe it in dark chocolate it tastes minty - same thing seems to happen with ginger - minty.

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[Shalmanese]

It's relatively easy to make something smell like banana because the primary ester in banana is relatively simple. In fact, banana was one of the first artificial flavors every synthesized.

There are even german beers which taste like banana.

[prasantrin]

I made pumpkin pie squares and to me, especially when accompanied by a glass of milk, they taste very coconuty. I'm not sure where the flavour is coming from, but my guess is the oatmeal in the crust combined with the condensed milk. And maybe some of the spices (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon). It's weird, but it makes me like the pie more (I hate pumpkin pie).