New Study Contradicts Established Culinary Wisdom

Cambridge, MA - The results of a groundbreaking scientific study conducted near Harvard are calling into question a long-held culinary belief and angering home cooks around the world.

Half of the study meals were prepared by Gladys Simpson, a real life grandmother whose heart is filled with hate, shown here angrily whisking up some homemade meringue

"It's a myth," Chief culinologist and the study's lead author Gilbert Gaudet explained. "The subjects in our study performed no better than chance when attempting to detect when a grandmother-prepared meal was made with love. They might as well have flipped a coin."

The study followed a strict protocol that involved blinding subjects so that they were unaware of which of two grandmothers, only one having any love to give, had prepared their meals. According to Gaudet, the experience of a meal is influenced by a variety of factors, most of which are entirely subjective and influenced by personal preferences and biases. "People are more likely to taste love in a meal when they know it was cooked by someone that cares about them, or at least who they think cares about them. Let's be honest, a lot of grandmothers are just phoning it in."

Published earlier this month in Online Publishing Module #784,347: Proceedings of the National Academy of Home Cookin', the study is making waves around the world. Some critics, like Myrna Miller, a Nebraska grandmother as famous for her peach cobbler as for her no-nonsense approach to media interviews, don't accept the study conclusions or proposed mechanism behind them. "I don't buy it. It's nonsense. And everyone knows that I don't stand for nonsense, especially when it comes to home cookin'. Y'all come back now if you have any more questions, ya hear?"

Another interesting result from the study involved the assessment of subject confidence. The majority of participants expressed very high confidence in their ability to determine when a recipe was made with love or when it was full of hate. Subject 11, who request to remain anonymous in order to avoid breaking his grandmother's heart, found that the results were more than a bit hard to swallow. "I would have bet my house on that lasagna being full of love, but they showed me the recipe. Basil, garlic, oregano, pasta, sauce, and cheese. It was all there...except for the love. I've been living a lie."