Newsletter Series 001 – December 12, 2023
What is Umami?
The word is out, Umami in pure form is MSG (monosodium glutamate). It is now scientifically accepted as the 5th taste, evoking savory, full bodied and meaty flavor sensation. The other four known taste are salty, bitter, sweet and sour. Each taste comes with a meaning. Sweet signifies carbohydrates for energy, bitter warns you that the food maybe toxic, or may need taming to become agreeable like bile and bitter melon. Your taste bud helps you recognize amino acid and protein. Umami is the savory meaty taste of food or the 5th taste. It comes from 3 compounds naturally present in plants, meats and seafood. They are the glutamate in free form. Glutamate is a non-essential amino acid and is a key compound in cellular metabolism, taste and neurotransmission. Free glutamate is high in meats and some vegetables, inosinate from seafood and guanylate in plants. MSG is the pure form of umami and can be purchased in the store as MSG, Ajinomoto, Vetsin, etc… If you combine beef, seafood and vegetables in a dish in the right proportion, you are creating a dish that is umami or savory.
MSG is a flavor enhancer. In 3rd world countries such as part of Southeast Asia where the economic condition makes meat unaffordable MSG is added to dishes to enhance the flavor of the dishes. In Japan, dashi a broth made of Kombu and bonito flakes from skipjack tuna is ubiquitous in their kitchen. Kombu is rich in glutamate. It is consumed as broth and a vital ingredient to miso soup and as ingredients to cooking to create that savory taste.
When you put food in your mouth, the taste perception is a result of the chemistry between taste buds, odorant receptors and food ingredients combined together. This includes glutamate, a salt of the glutamic aid, specific ribonucleotides, glutamic salt, including monosodium glutamate (MSG) potassium glutamate and calcium glutamate. The interaction of this compounds with the glutamic receptors elicit the taste perception of umami.
Umami is not new. We had been creating umami as evidenced by some many dishes in existence that are savory. The French chefs create umami by boiling cracked veal and vegetable scraps in a stock pot .The broth serves as a flavor enhancer and is added io dishes to enhance the flavor and elevate the taste of food to achieve Umami.
When you eat a dish that has high levels of free glutamate, your body respond by creating more saliva and digestive juices in your mouth to help digest the proteins. MSG is a flavor enhancer, making salty foods taste saltier and sweet food sweeter. In Vietnam, the government is involved in nutrition program to reduce salt to minimize the prevalence of hypertension. They are looking into MSG as substitute for salt because it is lower in sodium as compared to table salt. When using flavor enhancers, one should have an educated palate to adjust these ingredients to determine if more or less salt or sugar is needed. Combining umami rich ingredients to your dish results in a dish that is flavorful. In one of the movie series of Netflix Fermat’s cuisine, the chefs confer with one another while creating a dish to prepare for a site visit of a Michelin star critic. The French restaurant that they are working at is a Michelin star restaurant.
Finding the right food combination for the dish they are preparing requires knowledge and skill of foods and ingredients and how they interplay in a dish. All the chefs are familiar with the glutamate compounds and how they work. After tasting a dish, each chef details their critique about the taste of the food, and make recommendations on what is needed to achieve the umami taste. The quest is to determine what food combination can create a synergy of flavor that evokes savory. As chefs, they all have educated palate and can detect an unacceptable flavor.
Combining different meats, seafood and vegetables and ingredients rich in free glutamate and another ingredient that is rich in inosinate or guanylate. They concluded that combining 2 of the 3 compounds is enough to evoke a savory dish. In this Netflix series, they created a dish of Grilled rack of lamb with crab sauce for an unforgettable delicious dish. The compound used in the dish is free glutamate from the lamb and inosinate from the crab sauce. Side dish is grilled eggplant and mint sauce and pain de compagne, a richer version of the pain de perdu. The guest was delighted with the magnificent presentation and savory taste of the food served.
One of the richest vegetable sources of umami is tomatoes. It is a vegetable that is high in free glutamate and is one of the rich sources of umami. Tomato is the major ingredients in catsup, tomato sauce and tomato base sauces. When tomato is combined with meats, pasta and or vegetable, the resulting flavor is savory. Eating umami burger (with anchovies, soy sauce etc.) with sliced tomato is eating an umami bomb. Pizza with tomato base sauce is delicious, with the cheese and tomatoes combined, the taste of course is savory.
Spaghetti with meat sauce with parmesan cheese is a favorite of all, young and old. This dish is loaded with umami from the meat sauce, the tomato, and parmesan cheese. A charcuterie board is not complete without a variety of cheeses. Aged cheeses are especially high in free glutamate. This is because when cheese ages, the protein breaks down, and creates more protein and free glutamate.
In China, Japan and Southeast Asia almost all the recipes written in these countries include MSG as an ingredient. Unknown to many in the United States, MSG is used in the food manufacturing industry and is an ingredient to many sauces and food preparation. Packaged and frozen foods are now labeled to make the consumer aware of what they are eating. Cured meats and fermented or age meats and vegetables like kimchi are especially rich in guanylate. The curing and ageing process breaks down the protein into more free glutamate. People from the East Coast customarily cures their beef or steak in the refrigerator before cooking for the protein to breakdown and creates more protein and more free glutamate.
Have you ever wondered why Ceasar salad with Ceasar dressing is the most popular salad in the world? It contains free glutamate from the cheese and eggs and inosinate from the anchovies and guanylate from the romaine lettuce. The synergy of this ingredients in the right proportion creates that delicious savory taste called umami.
Here’s some pictures of MSG and flavor enhancer
FDA list MSG as GRAS.
