Sensory Evaluation - What words do I use?

It's normal to be confused over describing the appearance, taste, smell and texture of your dishes after cooking them, especially when you are trying to be objective about it. "Nice" is not enough to describe the taste of your dish, since one can like spicy food while another dislikes spicy food.

Words like "fragrant" may not be completely helpful when someone is trying to understand how your dish turned out simply from reading a piece of paper with words on it. They were not there to personally smell and taste your food. Therefore, you must paint the picture for them using proper words that would point them in the direction of imagining the outcome of your dish in terms of appearance, smell, taste and texture.

Aroma	Flavour	Appearance	Texture
burnt	acidic	bubbly	airy	light
buttery	bitter	caved in	brittle	lumpy
fishy	bland	clear	chewy	moist
flowery	buttery	coarse	chunky	mushy
fuity	fishy	creamy	coarse	oily
herbal	flat	crystallized	creamy	paste-like
lemony	flavourless	curdled	crisp	pulpy
musty	fresh	flat	crumbly	rough
nutty	lemony	foamy	curdled	rubbery
odourless	metallic	greasy	dense	runny
oriental	musky	layered	dry	slick
rancid	orangy	liquid	elastic	slimy
smoky	rancid	lopsided	fine	smooth
sour	salty	lumpy	flaky	soft
spicy	smoky	peaked	fluffy	spongy
sulphuric	sour	powdery	foamy	sticky
sweet	spicy	rounded	gooey	stiff
yeasty	stale	separated	grainy	stringy
	sweet	smooth	greasy	tender
	tangy	specific colours	gritty	thick
	tart	stiff	hard	tough
		tunneled	heavy	watery
		watery

Be positive when describing your food. You can write :

It is burnt on one side but it did not affect the flavour .

It looked colourless and dull but I managed to brighten it up after adding…….

I overcooked the vegetables because I have forgotten to……. However, I managed to make it still look attractive by ………….

State lessons learnt:

It was overcooked and affected the colour . The next time I cook, I will ……….

The gravy was too gluey . I should have …………

Don't blame your teacher, or classmates, nor the ingredients supplied! >_<Hope that this helps when you are doing the Evaluation component of your coursework!