Turning Weapons Into Pleasures: Just Add Food

And yet humans have come to prize these weapons that are meant to repel us. What makes herbs and spices not only nontoxic and edible but delicious is a simple principle of cooking: dilution. If we bite into an intact leaf of oregano or a peppercorn, the concentrated dose of defensive chemicals overwhelms and irritates our senses; but those same chemicals diffused throughout a dish of other foods—a few milligrams in a pound or two—stimulate without overwhelming. They add flavors that our grains and meats don’t have, and make those foods more complex and appealing.