Tasting Umami

Human Taste

It is interesting how much we have learned about taste since I was a young girl. For instance, when I was growing up we were told that our tongue had specific regions for taste. So, sour taste buds collected on the sides, sweet taste buds on the front, etc. Now we know the cells for taste are everywhere on our tongue (1), the roof of our mouth, and even in our throat. While, apparently there are some regional sensitivities (2), it is very slight.

• Growing up we also believed the tongue was the strongest muscle in the body, but of course our jaw, quadriceps, and gluteus maximus muscles have greater strength..

BrainFacts explains the process of taste this way: When we eat or drink, chemicals like sugars, salts, acids, and amino acids come in contact with specialized receptor proteins on taste receptor cells,” says Steven Munger, director of the Center for Smell and Taste at the University of Florida. The chemicals trigger the cells to release a volley of neural signals, which are eventually routed to an area of the brain devoted to processing taste information, the primary gustatory cortex. The gustatory cortex interprets the incoming signals and integrates them with other sensory information, such as smells, allowing us to perceive flavors, Munger says.

But taste also includes our memories, so certain smells, textures, and taste can trigger a warm and fuzzy (or opposite) memory to enhance our taste experience. As I read up on this topic, I have to say the amount of research that has been done is amazing and speaks to the complexity of taste.

Modern History of Umami

Umami, or savory, is now fully accepted as one of the basic tastes along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. However, the history of umami is fairly recent. Helpfully, umami is so important to cooking, that there is an Umami Information Center dedicated to this one taste alone (the graphics I am using come from their very informative website).

Most cooks already know about Garum, the 5th Century BCE Greek + Roman fish sauce that was used in all sorts of food. What is new, is that we now understand that this sauce essentially introduced umami to their daily meals, much like the fish, oyster, soy, tamari, and Worcestershire sauces do today.

Jumping to the 1800’s, Swiss business owner Julius Maggi decided he wanted to provide a way to help the European working class people provide a nutritious and healthy, yet quick (dehydrated) and tasty soup for their families. So in 1886 he produced the first “instant” or “ready to use” soups, followed in 1908 with “soup cubes”. What he did not understand at the time, was his success was built on umami.

So while an umami sauce or powder has been used for thousands of years, the understanding that this is one of the taste senses has only been around for a little while. It was “discovered” by Japanese Professor Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, and reportedly ignored by the West for most of the 20th Century (3). One Journal reports their assessment that, one of the main reasons for the late recognition of umami taste is the difference in culinary culture between Europe and Japan.

Then in 1909 Ikeda and Saburosuke Suzuki invented MSG (monosodium glutamate), simply to add the new umami taste to food. According to reports, this chemical compound was based off of Dashi.

So interestingly, Japan and Europe were on the same track, each using their own foods and tastes to arrive at umami. FlavorJournal explains: Each of the two inventors happened to use hydrolysate proteins to produce new products. Ikeda isolated glutamic acid from hydrolysate of wheat protein, but Maggi used a free amino acids mixture based on hydrolyzed proteins from beans. It is evident that these inventions reflect the different food cultures of soup stocks in Japan and Europe.

Side Comments on Taste + MSG

Beyond the 5 Tastes

As an aside, science is currently looking into other contenders for taste.

• Calcium (bitter, chalky taste), 
• Kokumi (mouthfullness), 
• Piquance (pepper heat), 
• Coolness (when we feel cool minty fresh without a change in actual temp), 
• Metallicity (which might just be electrical, not a taste), 
• Fat (which might be the feel, again not a taste), and 
• Carbon dioxide (the zingy fizz may be a taste).

MSG

SpruceEats writes that MSG, is a flavor-enhancing food additive used in Asian cooking, fast foods, and commercially packaged food products. It is a white powder derived from a natural glutamic acid found in seaweed, sugar beets, and certain vegetables. Some people find that consuming MSG in food can trigger side effects and symptoms, including headaches, nausea, and more.

On the flip side, the US-FDA has designated MSG as a safe ingredient, causing only minor adverse events, in a very small percentage of consumers. They do not require food labels to note the addition of synthetic MSG.

• MSG is represented by: hydrolyzed protein, autolyzed yeast, and sodium caseinate.
• MSG is in nearly all commercially packaged food unless specified otherwise
  • Chips, crackers, canned soups, instant noodles, soup and dip mix, seasoning salt, bouillon cubes, salad dressings, gravy mixes or premade gravies, and cold cuts and hot dogs
  • Soy-based vegetarian and vegan versions of this food too.
• ScienceFriday writes, most scientists today agree that the notion that MSG causes sickness in humans is unfounded.

Define Umami Taste

Umami Info Center: In scientific terms, umami is defined as the taste of salts combining glutamate, inosinate or guanylate with the likes of sodium ions, such as monosodium glutamate, or potassium ions. Salts of the amino acid aspartate and the nucleotide adenylate are also types of umami substance, weaker than glutamate. Succinic acid, which gives shellfish their distinctive taste, has also been identified as another possible umami substance.

What Foods Have Umami

MSG is considered by many cooks as a cheap and quick replacement for naturally occuring MSG in foods. I do not use the chemical, but prefer to cook foods that have umami compounds, and perhaps without knowing, so do you:

• Corn, peas, tomatoes, red bell peppers, winter squash, potatoes
• Tree nuts: almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc.
• Sea vegetables: nori, wakame, kombu, etc.
• Meat: duck, turkey, dark meat chicken, fresh/cured pork, aged steaks
• Aged and blue-veined cheeses
• Finned fish that are smoked, dried or pickled
• Shellfish
• Fermented soy: soy sauce, tamari, tempeh and miso
• Legumes
• Black olives
• Pickled vegetables and fruits
• Fungi: mushrooms, truffles

How to Add Umami to a Dish

I never add synthetic MSG powder in anything. Instead, if I want to up the umami flavor, I just use the foods that are high on the umami list. Here are some tips on how to add umami to any dish you are cooking.

• Add parmesan-reggiano rinds when cooking a veggie broth
• Any aged cheese will add umami flavors
• Add mushrooms to soups or pasta sauces
• Use veggie powders or pastes
  • Use powdered mushrooms from crushed dried mushrooms, great to up the flavor of mushroom risotto
  • Use tomato paste to amp flavor in sauces or soups
  • Use tomato powder
• Add and use anchovies
  • Make an anchovy compound butter for meats
  • Add a little bit of anchovy to a red pasta sauce
  • Use an anchovy syrup like Scalia Anchovy Colatura di Alici 
• Broths (meat or seafood)
  • Use dashi broths to soups or stews
  • Use seaweed or kelp
  • Use beef broth or other meat or fish stock
• Use umami sauces as an add to foods or to deglaze pans
  • fish sauce or oyster sauce
  • vinegar
  • molasses
  • tamarind
  • worcestershire
  • tamari or soy sauce
• Cook or eat Kimchi
• Use Balsamic vinegar
• Cook with miso paste
• Drink a glass of red wine and splash some in your sauce
• Add potatoes, carrots, tomatoes to a dish or stew
• Use teas in food or with food to up umami
• I have to mention marmite although I do not like the taste myself (too sour and pungent), millions of people however love it

Comment

I generally do not intentionally pay attention to umami, what I do pay attention to is “does this taste good?” Often what I add will be umami-rich ingredients, but it has always been totally unintentional on my part. Now I know what I have been doing all along.

—Patty

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