Scientists here are using a chopped up jetliner to study bad taste.

Their aim is to understand the decline in haute cuisine at high altitude. Initial test results: Perceptions of sweetness and saltiness drop by up to 30%. Sour, bitter and spicy flavors are barelyaffected. Resulting culinary turbulence can spoil the most eye-catching dishes.

Quantifying something as subjective as taste isn't easy. That's why chefs from Deutsche Lufthansa AG's LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest inflight catering company, came to one of the world's biggest low-pressure chambers. The tubular laboratory at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, half submerged in a cow pasture, holds the wingless front portion of an Airbus A310.

Fraunhofer technicians can reduce air pressure inside, making ears pop, to mimic cruising at 35,000 feet. They can suck moisture from the air, the way jet planes do. They even pipe in engine noise and vibrate the seats to replicate a truly unpleasant airplane dining experience.

'You can forget that you're in a simulator, except that the cloud scenery doesn't change,' said Florian Mayer, Head of Fraunhofer's Department of Building Chemistry, Biology & Hygiene, pointing to the photograph of sky taped outside the cabin windows.

In the A310's worn blue seats, dozens of human guinea pigs this year have been ruminating over tomato juice, wine and airline entrees during fake flights, after first sampling the same items under normal conditions. They filled in detailed questionnaires asking, for example, which of various dill sauces tasted better on fish with rice.

Such judgments, while useful to chefs, can't be calibrated. Lufthansa wanted to crunch numbers.

'As Germans, we love science,' said Lufthansa's house sommelier, Markus Del Monego, who took part in a tasting.

One problem with airplane dining is that parched cabin air quickly evaporates nasal mucus, which helps odor receptors function. Up to 80% of what we consider taste is actually smell, said Andrea Burdack-Freitag, a colleague of Mr. Mayer's, who ran the tests for Lufthansa.

To measure this, passengers were given glasses of water with seven different concentrations of colorless artificialflavorings, and asked to note at which level they registered a sensation. Similar tests were run with scents. Mr. Mayer and his colleagues then compared the results to known reaction levels at sea level. But how do you turn the data into recipes?

'There's no simple rule, 'Just add 20% more herbs and spices' -- it really depends,' said Mr. Mayer. A lemon sauce might need less lemon and more seasoning. Tomato sauce holds up well, while delicate cream sauces just seem bland.

Airline food -- long the butt of jokes -- is nonetheless an area where carriers try to outdo rivals that fly essentially the same aircraft to the same airports. The catering division of Singapore Airlines in 2002 invested $1 million to build the world's first test kitchen where dishes can be prepared and sampled under low-pressure conditions.

Lufthansa's Fraunhofer sessions included giving passengers tinfoil trays with dishes as they are now prepared and two variations designed to compensate for altitude. 'The tests showed there is a chance to cope,' said Lufthansa's head of onboard services, Ingo Bulow.

Seasonings like cardamom, lemon grass and curry survived better than salt and sugar. Chefs mused about offering only curries, 'but our passengers wouldn't let us,' said LSG manager Ernest Derenthal.

Mr. Del Monego, Lufthansa's sommelier, is using the analysis to help select wines like Italian Amarone, with a strong 15% alcohol content. 'On the ground, it's a very opulent and powerful wine, but in the air, it tastes light -- it's the ideal airline wine,' he said during a recent tasting session. 'Two people wouldn't be able to split a bottle on the ground, but that could easily happen on an airplane.'

Mr. Mayer noted that one slight consolation for people crowded into coach is that all those other passengers emit lots of moisture, which keeps cabin humidity at around 15%. In sumptuousfirst-class cabins, humidity can plunge to 5%, sapping the bouquet from champagne and caviar.

Caviar was one food that defied testing. Lufthansa wanted to know which fish eggs hold their character best in the stratosphere. They abandoned efforts after realizing that, even on the ground, flavor varies too widely from brand to brand.

'Maybe they'll try the test again, but I don't know,' said Mr. Mayer. 'It was very expensive.'

Daniel Michaels

• altitude [´æltitju:d] n.高度；海拨 (初中英语单词)
• barely [´beəli] ad.公开地；仅仅 (初中英语单词)
• institute [´institju:t] n.学院 vt.建立；设置 (初中英语单词)
• pasture [´pɑ:stʃə] n.牧场；放牧 v.吃(草) (初中英语单词)
• portion [´pɔ:ʃən] n.嫁妆；命运 vt.分配 (初中英语单词)
• pressure [´preʃə] n.压榨 vt.对...施压力 (初中英语单词)
• moisture [´mɔistʃə] n.潮湿；温度；水份 (初中英语单词)
• chemistry [´kemistri] n.化学 (初中英语单词)
• normal [´nɔ:məl] a.正规的 n.正常状态 (初中英语单词)
• function [´fʌŋkʃən] n.机能；职责 vi.活动 (初中英语单词)
• actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中英语单词)
• measure [´meʒə] n.量度；范围 vt.测量 (初中英语单词)
• artificial [,ɑ:ti´fiʃəl] a.人工的；模拟的 (初中英语单词)
• sensation [sen´seiʃən] n.感觉；轰动；轰动一时 (初中英语单词)
• reaction [ri´ækʃən] n.反应(力) (初中英语单词)
• delicate [´delikət] a.精美的；微妙的 (初中英语单词)
• manager [´mænidʒə] n.经理；管理人；干事 (初中英语单词)
• analysis [ə´næləsis] n.分解；分析(结果) (初中英语单词)
• italian [i´tæliən] a.意大利 n.意大利人 (初中英语单词)
• alcohol [´ælkəhɔl] n.酒精；醇 (初中英语单词)
• plunge [plʌndʒ] v.插进 n.投入；冲击 (初中英语单词)
• character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
• flavor [´fleivə] n.滋味 vt.给....调味 (初中英语单词)
• initial [i´niʃəl] a.最初的 n.首字母 (高中英语单词)
• sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
• laboratory [lə´bɔrətəri] n.实验室；研究室(所) (高中英语单词)
• unpleasant [ʌn´plezənt] a.不愉快的；不合意的 (高中英语单词)
• scenery [´si:nəri] n.舞台布景 (高中英语单词)
• tomato [tə´mɑ:təu] n.西红柿，蕃茄 (高中英语单词)
• offering [´ɔfəriŋ] n.提供；礼物；捐献 (高中英语单词)
• session [´seʃən] n.会议；会期；(开庭)期 (高中英语单词)
• crowded [´kraudid] a.充(拥)满了的 (高中英语单词)
• vibrate [´vaibreit, vai´breit] v.(使)振动；发抖 (英语四级单词)
• biology [bai´ɔlədʒi] n.生物学，生态学 (英语四级单词)
• hygiene [´haidʒi:n] n.健康法；卫生学 (英语四级单词)
• colleague [´kɔli:g] n.同事，同僚 (英语四级单词)
• essentially [i´senʃəli] ad.本质上，基本上 (英语四级单词)
• compensate [´kɔmpenseit] v.赔偿；补偿；酬报 (英语四级单词)
• consolation [,kɔnsə´leiʃən] n.安慰，慰问 (英语四级单词)
• bouquet [bu:´kei] n.花束；恭维话 (英语四级单词)
• affected [ə´fektid] a.做作的；假装的 (英语六级单词)
• guinea [´gini] n.几尼(英国旧金币) (英语六级单词)
• humidity [hju:´miditi] n.湿气；湿度 (英语六级单词)
• sumptuous [´sʌmptʃuəs] a.奢侈的；豪华的 (英语六级单词)
• first-class [´fə:st-´klɑ:s] a.头等的 ad.乘头等车 (英语六级单词)
• champagne [ʃæm´pein] n.香槟酒；微黄色 (英语六级单词)
• abandoned [ə´bændənd] a.被抛弃的；无约束的 (英语六级单词)