Salt Does What?

I'm a fan of Good Eats. It's just about the only cooking show I watch (America's Test Kitchen is the other). Alas, I'm constantly behind on the new episodes - but hey, that's why I have a TiVo.

I finally watched The Ballad of Salty and Sweet this weekend, and was completely fascinated by his description of what salt does to your tastebuds. You know how you have different tastebuds for different basic flavors (e.g. sweet, bitter, sour)? So, it turns out that not only does salt turn up the flavors that all the tastebuds sense, but, because of the chemistry that happens when salt hits your saliva, it may actually *block* the tastebuds that sense bitterness. Since bitterness usually tastes bad, blocking bitterness makes food taste better. That kind of blew my mind.

Maybe that's why adding salt to dessert makes it even yummier?