Raw ingredients

You don't have to go too far back in human history to find someone eating uncooked meat and veggies.

The taste of a pear.

I have taken wine and beer appreciation classes, and they help to highlight the characteristics of these beverages in relatively standard terms.  However, I am often dismayed when I cannot identify tastes and aromas of which some critic has waxed eloquent  - in the glass of wine which I have just poured for myself!  There are a few "characteristics" which often come through in a specific type of wine.  Sauvignon Blanc, for example, has a "lemony" character in taste - and who cannot remember the taste of a lemon?  On the other hand, the description of "chalky" generally completely baffles me.  Although I have tasted chalk in my childhood (and it is another one of those tastes which I believe no one forgets), no wine that I have had has ever actually tasted of chalk [Montrachet].  Pencil shavings [Cabernet Sauvignon]?  Clearly a memory that lingers is ...  A pear?

Aging it - Pi Dan (Chinese)