What is umami taste. Umami - the fifth basic taste, like sweet, sour, salty and bitter - did not know? Magic Taste Attacks Math

I'm slowly paying off my debts. Before gingerbread house the turn will also come for sure - as a rehearsal for the next Christmas (last year, it didn’t work out, it’s a pity - somehow the end of December turned out to be quite tense for me). In the meantime - about the fifth taste of food. Bartalomeo once promised to write about the fifth taste. In the run up to my planned Saturday Asian dinner, this seems to be the right moment. Many, for sure, know that in the international culinary community already, in fact, it is officially accepted to distinguish not four tastes, as we were taught at school, but five - bitter, sweet, salty, sour and umami. Oooooh, how I love that word - "umami". It evokes in me associations not even with Japan (although the term is Japanese, more on that later), but with some kind of rainforest, and the Deep Forest in the background.

Umami is a rather mysterious concept, almost like a gopher: "Do you see him? But he is!" To really feel it, you need, for example, to eat a tomato, chewing each piece at least 30 times and carefully listening to your feelings (very Japanese, in my opinion). The subtle aftertaste that you feel will be this very mind. By the way, this is how it was discovered by the "parent" of the term and concept - the Japanese professor Yakeda Kumikae. Arriving in Germany in 1908, he faced a problem: at that time it was almost impossible to find Japanese products "native" to him in Europe. I had to chew (carefully, of course) asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, meat, cheeses. And at one fine moment, he felt a taste unknown to him until that moment - neither bitter, nor sweet, nor sour, nor salty, nor obtained by mixing them. Returning to Japan, the professor tried to restore his sensations and succeeded, isolating 30 g of glutamic acid from 12 kg of konbu seaweed and obtaining a taste that most closely corresponded to his European discovery. He called the resulting element "umami", which means "delicious". Incidentally, in Japanese Food Industry there is a mandatory indicator - "umami seibun", literally translated as "an indicator of goodness".

Umami is caused by the presence of monosodium glutamate in food, which can be made from wheat gluten or, in the "Japanese" case, from konbu seaweed. What does he give? Roughly speaking, it enhances the perception of "meat taste" by the receptors of the tongue. In addition to umami seaweed, parmesan, shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce and all kinds of fish sauces like "us pla". (By the way, Timur confirmed this: in Vietnam he tried this very “nam pla”, made from rotten fish. He said that the smell was disgusting, but the taste was incredible, richest, he had never tried anything like it before).

I recently accidentally found out that some elderly people, obviously under the influence of domestic TV shows about "what rubbish" food is made from, began to shy away from monosodium glutamate, which, as far as I remember, and in Soviet times present in various foods. And I found this out when the mother of my girlfriend, who lives in France, consulted with me about the choice of "factory" herbs and spices and asked with horror: "Is there no monosodium glutamate ?!" The fact is that in some people this substance can cause a fever, headache and dehydration, a condition dubbed "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" due to the fact that most Chinese food sodium glutamate has been added for centuries. By the way, it can be produced not only in a natural way, extracting from algae or wheat, but also chemically. Well, not everyone gets bad from him. This is an individual reaction of the body, like intolerance to gluten or lactose. So to be afraid, in my opinion, is completely unreasonable. And if it's scary - then try a little bit. Chew a piece dry seaweed- so you will feel great with your minds and, in which case, you will avoid major troubles.

In addition to monosodium glutamate, umami is also contained in some other amino acids: inosinate (isolated in 1913 by the Japanese scientist Kodamo Shintaro from dried tuna shavings) and guanylate (obtained in 1960 by Kuninaki Akira from dried mushrooms shiitake. Has anyone heard of Japanese dashi broth? It is made from konbu seaweed and tuna shavings. One teaspoon is enough for a serving of broth (more precisely, even - hot water) to "comprehend" the taste of umami. It is for this broth that I am going to go in the near future, for example, to the Vladimir market. There, they say, there are Asian ranks.

In the meantime, a few words about the marinade (it was from him that our conversation with Bartalameo began, which led to the fifth taste). At one time, I almost soared up to the ceiling with pride when I found out that my usual marinade, which I brought out for myself and which I use for meat or poultry, almost "to zero" coincides with the ideal formula of the famous chef - Nobuyuki Matsuhisa (yeah , restaurants "Nobu").

The Matsuhisa marinade includes lemon juice, soy sauce, grated garlic and ginger, sea ​​salt and finely chopped cilantro. Everything is mixed in the proportion that your mind or intuition tells you and is poured onto the meat. True, I do not always put ginger and cilantro, but often - mustard and honey. And also - a little olive oil to lean meat.

umami, he is in hey Ching, aka E621, aka MSG, aka Monosodium Glutamate.

Glutamic acid salt was discovered in 1908 by the Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda, who was interested in the amazing taste of soup made from seaweed. In the course of laboratory studies, the scientist was able to isolate the source of taste, namely glutamates contained in algae. The scientist named the found substance umami, which means *delicious* in Japanese. As a result of Kikunae Ikeda's research, industrial production monosodium glutamate - first in Japan, and then around the world.

At first, scientists considered monosodium salt to be just a flavor enhancer, a substance that practically did not have its own bouquet, but at the same time was able to react with other products, giving them a special flavor. And more recently, they discovered that there are specialized receptors on the human tongue that recognize the taste of glutamate and a bunch of other compounds. umami, and some brain cells respond exclusively to them. This has led more and more people to consider umami not only a flavor enhancer, but also a substance that has its own distinct flavor, along with the traditional quartet of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.

While umami is commonly associated with artificial monosodium glutamate, it can also be found naturally in both animal and plant foods, such as tomatoes, tuna, and shiitake mushrooms. The source of taste is the building material of proteins - amino acids and nucleitides, containing, along with glutamates, inosine and guanic acids. These delicious molecules are formed during the breakdown of animal and plant proteins. That is why the processes of preparation, aging and fermentation enhance bouquets umami. Many of the taste preferences that have become established among Europeans and Americans, such as the aroma of Parma ham or Parmesan cheese, owe their superiority to compounds. umami.

The Chinese have been using foods rich in these compounds for two thousand years. Soups enriched with smoked meats and dried seafood, *millennial* duck eggs and pickled soybeans are calling card traditional Chinese food. In every Chinese kitchen among soy sauces and vinegar is definitely worth a jug of glutamate. Celebrity chefs use monosodium salt in their famous dishes, and at the Sichuan Institute, where they teach best chefs, it is considered a common seasoning. The Chinese often call it wei ching*flavor essence* and translated into English as *gourmet powder*. Word ching means not only *essence*, but also *refined*, *talented*. It also means *spirit*, *energy* and *sperm*. Judge for yourself what an amazing word this is.

After learning about the fifth taste from Fuchsia Dunlop from the novel *Shark Fin Soup*, I began to explore and try all natural products. Well, in Chinese or Japanese restaurant an Asian cook, out of habit, sprinkles glutamate after salt. Someone recognized his nature in Italian pizza or just like the Japanese scientist, glutamate did not give rest in the taste of seaweed.

An application for registration of a patent for the production of monosodium glutamate, a substance isolated by him from konobu algae, popular in Japanese cuisine. Since then, monosodium glutamate has been used as a dietary supplement to give food an umami, high-protein flavor. At the same time, the supplement itself does not have the best reputation. We recall the history of the appearance of monosodium glutamate and figure out whether it is worth being afraid of

Traditionally, since Antiquity, there were four basic tastes that distinguish a person and his taste buds (by the way, not separately, as they usually teach at school, but together), and each of them was determined by the chemical characteristics of products and their interaction with the human body. So, sour taste determined by the acidity of the product, the salty taste is felt due to sodium ions and some other metals (popularly - table salt), which are perceived by ion channel receptors on the tongue, and the activation of receptors associated with G-proteins is responsible for the sensation of sweet, and the same processes are responsible for the bitter taste.

It is curious that for many centuries people have felt another, fifth taste, which could not be described or named until the beginning of the last century. Everything changed thanks to the Japanese chemist Ikeda Kikunae, who at the beginning of the 20th century worked at the University of Tokyo. The scientist was intrigued by the taste of dashi broth, which is used as the base for many dishes. Japanese cuisine: It can be described as "mild", brackish but not salty or like any of the four common flavors.

Traditionally, dashi is made from kelp kombu ( Laminaria japonica); Ikeda suggested that a substance could be obtained from kombu, which gives it a special taste. The scientist managed to extract glutamic acid - a white, odorless crystalline powder. Ikeda called his taste umami (from Japanese 旨味 - nice): If you can't remember it right off the bat, good examples of umami foods are parmesan and dishes spiced with soy sauce.

In order to use glutamic acid for industrial purposes, Ikeda synthesized a salt from soy and wheat protein - monosodium glutamate, for which he immediately received a patent. The commercial production of monosodium glutamate (at first - as a separate seasoning) in the early 20s of the last century was taken up (under the supervision of Ikeda) by the Japanese company Ajinomoto. Since then, salts of glutamic acid have been known as food additive E621, or MSG (from the English monosodium glutamate), and are used mainly as "flavor and odor enhancers." In Japan and other Asian countries, monosodium glutamate is used to give food that very umami taste, but in Western countries, including in Russia, the additive, unfortunately, does not have a good reputation.

Ikeda Kikunae and his patent for the production of monosodium glutamate

Imagine a typical trip to the store. Before the customers - two jars of blueberry yogurt two different manufacturers. The first buyer will ask the price and take a jar with a smaller price tag. The second buyer will pay attention to the description of the product on the label: his choice will be determined by the words “natural”, “bifidobacteria” and “contains natural berries” - even if such yogurt is a little more expensive. The third buyer, the most scrupulous and demanding, will turn to the composition, checking it for "naturalness". What exactly “naturalness” means in this case is difficult to understand, but most people look for “E-shki” in the composition of the product - food additives used in the production of yogurt, whose names consist of the letter E and several numbers. It is generally believed that the fewer of them, the more natural the product.

In a simplistic sense, the third customer will be right in choosing the yogurt with the least amount. food additives. In fact, modern food production rarely goes unused additional funds. This, however, does not mean at all that all products are “stuffed with chemistry” and, in order to rid the body of diseases and ailments, you need to move to the village. For example, most food additives of the first category (colors) are synthesized from natural components - for example, yellow-orange dyes E100, curcumins, are obtained from turmeric.

Monosodium glutamate code has the number six and belongs to the group of flavor and aroma enhancers. Therefore, there is even less confidence in it than in dyes: the average consumer does not always understand why it is necessary to “enhance the taste” and why sacrifice the original naturalness of the product for this. The distrust of monosodium glutamate is supplemented by the fact that minds are usually considered to be among the main tastes, mainly in Asian countries or in the developed countries of Europe and America. In Russia, only a few have heard of him. In addition, monosodium glutamate is very often found in the seasoning that comes with noodles. fast food(most likely due to Japanese traditions) and numerous snacks like chips and crackers, which are healthy food are not considered at all.

In fact, if you completely exclude products with E621 on the label from your diet, go to a remote village and eat vegetables from the garden and milk from under the cow, you still won’t be able to get rid of glutamic acid in the body. Moreover, it is impossible in principle. Firstly, glutamic acid (and, as we remember, monosodium glutamate is obtained from it) is one of the twenty amino acids that make up proteins. This means that it is contained not only in protein foods (of both animal and vegetable origin), but is also independently synthesized by the body. Endogenous glutamic acid is one of the excitatory neurotransmitters that activate numerous receptors in the vertebrate nervous system, including, for example, NMDA receptors, dysfunction of which is associated with the development of many mental illnesses and disorders, including clinical depression and schizophrenia.

Monosodium glutamate formula

Glutamic acid, obtained from natural ingredients, is broken down by the body in the same way as artificially added acid. Moreover, this is the same substance, just in the form of a salt - for better dissolution. The only difference is that due to the presence of sodium ions, a little salty taste is added to the taste of umami. Glutamic acid is a non-essential acid: in addition to being synthesized by the body itself, its excess is destroyed in the body.

As for the excess of monosodium glutamate, it does not exist in principle: for example, in the Codex Alimentarius (code international standards foodstuffs) there are no indications on the recommended dose of consumption of the substance (in contrast, by the way, from salt and sugar). Of course, monosodium glutamate has a lethal dose: experiments on rats have shown that the semi-lethal dose of glutamate is about 16 grams per kilogram of body weight. It is easy to calculate that for a person weighing 70 kilograms, a similar dose is more than a kilogram of pure monosodium glutamate. In other words, to die from a glutamate overdose, a person will need to eat about two tons of chips in one sitting: you will most likely die from greed faster than from an excess of "dangerous" substances.

That is why it is inappropriate to criticize certain foods precisely because of the presence of monosodium glutamate in it, considering it the root of all troubles. With the same success, you can criticize, for example, other sources of the notorious substance: chicken meat, spinach, tomatoes, sardines and your own body. And eating chips and instant noodles is still not recommended - but rather because of the imbalance of nutrients, and not because of their umami taste.

Monosodium glutamate synthesis process

Elizabeth Ivtushok

Umami - the fifth basic taste, like sweet, sour, salty and bitter - did not know?

It may seem strange to you, but the taste of umami has been around us literally forever. It is actually one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The umami flavor is savory and is most commonly associated with meats, seafood, and certain vegetables and cheeses such as ham, anchovies, dried mackerel, as well as tomatoes, mushrooms, and some cheeses. By the end of this article, you will know all about umami, so read on!

Literally translated, the Japanese word "umami" means "delicious taste" or "pleasant savory taste" and was coined by Professor Kikunae Ikeda in 1908 when he discovered that monosodium glutamate is naturally present in some food products, reacts synergistically with some ribonucleotides, including

inosinate and glutamate. And that basically means that the chemicals in certain foods interact in specific ways to impress your taste buds.

Umami (Umami) has a mild "protein" taste and a long aftertaste that makes it very hard to describe. Its aroma is fleshy - as if with a taste of broth, pleasant, spicy, umami covers the entire part of the tongue and causes strong salivation.

If you want to truly improve the flavors and aromas of your products, you must understand the science behind it. But don't worry, we will help you! We will explain to you what umami taste is, how we taste it and how umami can be used.

The dry or liquid flavors that we produce, especially for meat and fish products, are carefully selected with an emphasis on umami taste. You can call us and we will advise you on all your questions.

So what is umami taste?

Umami was recognized as an independent fragrance over a hundred years ago by several different cultures. The Romans actually cooked with glutamate for centuries, the Japanese used it too, but it was just another undefined flavor that they could add to dishes as a condiment.

Here is a sample list of natural glutamate and inosinate content - katsuobushi, dried mackerel, sun-dried tomatoes, or dried mushrooms shiitake.

The taste of umami itself is not necessarily pleasant, being described as salty, soapy, and broth-like. But in a relatively narrow range of concentrations and with all the variety of products, it becomes especially pleasant in the presence of other flavors. Umami in excessive amounts makes food less palatable and the optimal amount is usually between 0.1 and 0.8% by weight, the amount of umami found in many natural foods.

Umami (umami) is not just another taste

One of the reasons why umami has been labeled as a flavor in its own right is because umami and ribonucleotides combine to make that flavor. Umami also brings up some of the other basic flavors, sweet and salty in particular. For example, when paired with a salty flavor, the salinity rises to the point that you can use up to 40% less salt than you normally would without adversely affecting the flavor of the dish, so you can use umami to reduce the salt levels in your fish or meat dishes. products.

Umami (umami) does the same with the fatty note of the smell of the product. For example, it adds a slightly smoky bacon flavor to the product, but without the use of fatty ingredients.

Another interesting umami flavor combination that almost everyone recognizes is Sun-dried tomatoes, dried shiitake mushrooms and parmesan cheese found in many different Italian dishes.

Products that contain a large number of natural umami

Some foods are rich in both glutamate and one of the ribonucleotides and can deliver a rich, deep flavor, especially when paired with other foods that contain umami. Glutamate can be found in a wide variety of foods, including meat, seafood, and many vegetables. Guanylate is more commonly found in vegetables, while inosinate tends to be found in meat. Raw meat and many vegetables are high in glutamic acid (glutamate in the form of acid), but it is bound in proteins.

Glutamic acid imparts a bit of an umami flavor, while salts of glutamic acid, known as glutamates, readily ionize and give a characteristic and rich taste minds. Thus, glutamic acid is found in many foods, and to obtain umami, you need to break down these proteins into free amino acids, and nucleic acids into free nucleotides.

Processes such as cooking - boiling, boiling, stewing, roasting, smoking, drying, ripening, pickling, salting, aging and fermentation contribute to the degradation of cells and macromolecules of the product.

Fermentation processes, namely microbes such as yeast and bacteria or enzymes, are by far the most powerful method liberation minds connections.

Here are some foods that are naturally rich in umami flavor that you should be aware of.

Tomatoes - although fresh, ripe tomatoes contain high amounts of glutamate, the umami taste is greatly enhanced after drying. As can be seen from the graph above, maturation increases the glutamate content.

Shiitake Mushrooms - As with tomatoes, once dried, shiitake mushrooms double their glutamate levels per gram.

Many cheeses hard cheeses, such as Parmesan and Bleu, which have gone through all phases of aging, are especially rich in umami flavors. As shown in the table below, the glutamate content of cheddar cheese increases significantly with age.

Soybeans - Used for centuries in a variety of ways, soybeans are the base for soy sauces, tofu and miso paste. fermented soy products contain even more umami flavor.

Cured ham or prosciutto, during the drying process of protein, enzymes are released that enhance the taste of umami.

Fish sauces made from fish such as mackerel, tuna, anchovies, after they have been dried.

Fresh fish, mackerel, tuna and cod are all rich in glutamate.

Seafood, including shrimp, scallops, squid, clams, and mussels all add a great umami flavor.

Algae and sea vegetables such as kombu, nori and wakame, the flavor intensifies when dried.

Potatoes have a high level of glutamate and when stored for a long time at a temperature of just above zero, taste sweeter.

Cabbage is a great umami flavor addition for stir-fries, soups and stews. Plus, it's great as a side dish, especially when fermented.

Below are two tables with the amount of glutamate and nucleotides found naturally in raw materials and products.