Do You Know Umami?

When we were growing up, we learned that there
were four basic tastes: salt, sweet, sour and bitter. We
were told that our taste buds had special taste receptors
in particular zones  on our tongues that detected these
four tastes and that all other components of flavor came
from our olfactory sense–the sense of smell.

There is a fifth basic taste.

It is called “umami,” and a Japanese scientist named Kitunae Ikeda isolated one compound 
which contibutes this taste back in 1908. Working with a seaweed broth, he isolated the 
amino acid, glutamate, as one of the sources for the taste which is described as “meaty, 
rich, savory and satisfying.” Glutamate itself was already a known substance, having been 
discovered in 1866 by a German chemist named Dr. Karl Ritthausen who discovered it while 
studying gluten in wheat.

“Umami” itself is a compound Japanese word, from the root words, “umai” meaning “delicious,” 
and “mi,” meaning “essence,” and while it is often used to describe the flavor enhancing 
ability of the salt form of glutamate, ,monosodium glutamate, that is not the only proper 
context for its useage. 

In fact, researchers have found that umami accurately describes the flavor of many amino 
acids and proteins. In 2000, researchers at the University of Miami discovered the taste 
receptor for umami, which essentially proves that umami is a basic taste, for which humans 
had evolved a hunger. This receptor, named “taste-mGluR4″ responds not only to glutamate, 
but in greater and lesser degrees, to every other amino acid and nucelotide. 

Considering the myriad of uses to which amino acids are put in the human body, it is no 
wonder we are programmed to enjoy their flavors. Amino acids are necessary in building 
muscles, enzymes and other chemicals necessary to bodily function. 

So, what does all of this mean to cooks?

Does this mean we need to study chemistry and put MSG in everything?

No. 

It means we just need to look at what foods have large supplies of naturally occurring 
glutamates and amino acids and combine them with the principles we already know of good 
cooking, to help us make our dishes even more delicious.

It isn’t like any of these ingredients are new or anything. 

People all over the world have been cooking with glutamate and amino acid rich foods for 
thousands of years. 

Take a look at the foods surrounding the new cookbook, The Fifth Taste  and think 
about how many of them you have in your kitchen right now. If you are like me, you probably 
have plenty of umami sitting in your cupboards, refrigerators, shelves and countertops, just 
waiting to add goodness to your next meal. A quick glance at my illustration should identify 
soy sauce, nori, dried and fresh shiitake mushrooms, red wine, truffle oil, parmesan cheese, 
sun dried tomatoes and tomato paste.

Every serious cook in the world is bound to have one or two of those ingredients in their 
kitchen at any given time. The concatenation of jars, bottles, tubes, packages and loose 
items above are just what I pulled off my shelves this morning when I went on a mission to 
find good examples of umami-rich foods.

The Fifth Taste: Cooking With Umami by David and Anna Kasabian.

After sweet and salty, sour and bitter, there is umami—the fifth taste. Discovered at the beginning of the last century
by the Japanese, the word umami translates roughly to mean "deliciousness"—an understatement if ever there was one.
Rich, deep and intensely savory, umami exists in a number of foods, many of which can be blended into a mouthwatering
puree of tomato, garlic, anchovy paste, black olives, balsamic vinegar, porcini mushrooms, parmesan cheese, olive oil and
just a touch of sugar and salt. Squeeze it into sauces, gravies and risottos to add remarkable depth of flavor. Add it to
pastas, soups and stews. Smear it on fish, meat or vegetables. It's pure "deliciousness".

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