Food for Fort: how taste changes with age, plus potato ricers

My mother's sense of taste has deteriorated with age and I need help devising meals for her. She has a heart condition, so needs to avoid salt and cholesterol, but my options are limited, as is the time I can spend on preparing her food. There's taste – sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami – and then there is flavour. Like the rest of our anatomy, our taste, smell and flavour receptors decline with age, and we register something like 75% of flavours through their associated smells. So keep it simple and keep portion sizes down. Judging by my own 96-year-old mother, the appreciation of food does not diminish with age, even if appetite does. She likes strong, clear flavours, and food with distinctive textures, in particular fresh, properly cooked vegetables and unadorned fruit. (I found some detailed help on ageuk.org.uk, in the Health & Wellbeing section .) Can a potato ricer be used for Irish-style mash? I have poor wrists and the rigour of Irish-style mashing is getting to me. I don't make mash any other way. One of the advantages of a ricer is that it produces dry mash, all the better for absorbing milk, butter and cream. Good Grips makes an excellent stainless-steel one for £24.51 (though you can get it cheaper on Amazon ), Marks & Spencer has one for £9.50 and Lakeland has a variety from £12.99-£31.99 – the most expensive of those, the Chef'n Potato Ricer , would probably be easiest on your poor wrists. • Got a culinary query for Matthew? Email [email protected] Follow Matthew on Twitter: twitter.com/matthewfort Visit Matthew's blog, Fort On Food