[LukeBMM]

It's worth keeping in mind that, in the Extreme Imagination Conference 2019 keynote, Prof. Zeman described "about half" of over 2000 folks his team has studied as multimodal. So for roughly 50%, it's purely a matter of visual processing and doesn't apply to other senses (like your examples), while the other half include multiple (or all) senses.

That being said, I'm one of the folks who have to choose how to add spices when I cook based upon what I remember working together in the past. As I understand it, some (perhaps only a talented few and perhaps including some unimodal aphants) are able to use the same part of their brain that processes taste and smell to imagine the taste and smell of new combinations of flavors.

Another quirk: I don't think I get songs stuck in my head in the same way as others. I may have a particular verse or rhythm on my mind... but I'm pretty sure that I'm lucking out in this regard.

In all the cases mentioned, I'm reasonably capable of predicting or extrapolating outcomes based upon past experiences (I don't stick my hand on many hot stoves, for example). But my brain just doesn't seem to run through the process of recreating sensations to get there.

[missingrib]

That's interesting. I think I have aphantasia (the way people describe their visualizations seems very strange/foreign to me although sometimes I think I can visualize some things) but I can hear music very well in my head. The other sensations I cannot imagine at all.

Particularly, the idea of imagining pain and feeling it is strange to me.