> I feel the same about Liquorice

I was starting to get worried that I was the only one. There should be laws prohibiting the placement of the word candy anywhere near the word liquorice. It's the worst form of false advertisement I've come across. Candy is supposed to taste good!

That childhood trauma is still with me to this day. I feel disgust and anger at the mention of liquorice.

That every bag of jelly beans includes liquorice is really a travesty.

It's the culinary equivalent of bleach and ammonia Tide pods.

Black licorice is one of those foods that is polarizing. People either absolutely love it or think it’s vile and shouldn’t be legal. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered someone who is ambivalent about it.

Humor aside: oven-roasted or pan-seared broccoli with garlic, salt, and butter tastes amazing! And depending on how much salt and butter you add, is probably way safer to eat than black liquorice.

Literally any vegetable is good with salt pepper and butter :)

Add some bacon to really juice the effect.

Then remove the broccoli

Yes, once you've eliminated the taste of the vegetable you can start experimenting with lots of things that taste good!

Another variation, which my family really enjoys is: cut fresh broccoli into small florets; toss with olive oil and (optionally) salt/pepper; roast in oven at high temp until desired softness.

I tried butter with my broccoli once, and I found it tasted unpleasantly fatty. (And I'm no stranger to fatty foods.)

Well, what about black licorice with salt and butter?

Anethole, one of the major flavour components of liquorice, is shared among a range of popular cooking herbs and spices.

Milder-tasting fennel goes great with loads of cooking, it's quite common to chop up a fennel root to add to slow-cook roasts / braises, or sprinkle fennel seeds over roasts and mix into dry rubs.

Anise has a stronger flavour than fennel, which lends itself to stocks, sauces and curries.

Less commonly you'll see liquorice root itself used in cooking, I haven't used it myself but I don't see why it wouldn't work - if balanced out and seasoned properly.

edit: Of course, just pan frying a slab of black liquorice with salt and butter would get mixed reactions, personally I'd find it overpowering, like eating straight up peppercorns even though they work well in moderation as a seasoning.

I find tarragon to be reminiscent of anise as well.

I don’t really buy that it makes that much of a difference. As a child I hated all forms of broccoli, could barely stomach it. Now that I’ve grown older I find even the plain steamed stuff edible. While I certainly like it prepped like you described, it still in the end has the taste of broccoli in it. I have a hard time imagining someone who hates the vegetable caring about how it was prepared.

It probably makes more of a difference if you kind-of liked it to start with. I will happily munch on broccoli and other green veg out of choice, but it can taste a bit plain. If you salt and butter it, it brings out the flavour, which is a good thing if you like the underlying taste.

A little acid (lemon juice) goes a long way too.

I never got the broccoli hate. I had no problems with it as a kid. I wonder if it's another genetic thing like cilantro

I have always wondered whether liquorice is an acquired taste. I find it vile, and I'm glad for that.

I've always wondered if it's something like cilantro. They've identified a gene that makes cilantro taste soapy to some. Maybe there's something similar with licorice since I've noticed many people seem to have a strong negative reaction to it. (I find the flavor mild but interesting, like vanilla.)

Apparently that's not known to science, but I feel certain that it's genetic, innate and not learned. It's inconceivable that I'll ever "acquire" a tolerance for that vile inedible substance. My partner loves it though.

https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-liquorice-whether...

https://www.shared.com/your-black-licorice-preference-depend...

They identified a variation which is needed to distinguish a chemical in cilantro at all.

Having that variation is necessary but not sufficient for finding it has a soapy taste.

The flavour of licorice is, to my palate, many things, all of them unpleasant, but not "mild" at all.

I stongly suspect genetic factors, the way that some people find coriander / cilantro a strong, unpleasant taste. After all,licorice is a poison (as per the parent article), so a gene to detect and reject it as inedible has value.

I like cilantro a lot but think licorice is gross

I’ve wondered the same about grapefruit and bitterness as well.

I’ve compared relative bitterness of things to a grapefruit. My partner thinks grapefruit is less bitter than beer, or many items I consider barely bitter at all. Yet I find grapefruit to be incredibly bitter, out doing almost everything.

Maybe that’s why I don’t like it much?

Is the flavor of grapefruit primarily bitterness? I guess that does sound right, but it was initially surprising to me, because I cannot stand grapefruit, but I very much enjoy all manner of strong coffee and bitter beers like IPAs.

How are you with fennel or anise? I assume you don't like ouzo or sambuca.

Not GP but sharing the distaste for liquorice, and it extends to fennel and anise, though I can stomach the latter in small quantities as it has other flavor things going on.

I love ouzo, but hate licorice.

I love the taste of broccoli :p.

(and have to admit, that occasionally I enjoy the taste of liquorice, though I only eat it extremely rarely)