Mensam Mundum – World Table: What in the world is umami?
- ESTHER OERTEL
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – We all learned about the four taste categories in school – sweet, salty, bitter and sour. It turns out there’s a fifth category – umami, which denotes a delightfully rich and savory flavor, one that can’t be categorized within the other four.
When compared to how long the theory of the four basic tastes has been around (Democritus, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, added the fourth category, bitter), umami is a relative newcomer. It wasn’t until 2002, when researchers discovered receptors on the human tongue specific to it, that it became universally accepted. (Well, almost universally accepted; there are some detractors.)
It can be a bit difficult to pin down umami. Some describe it as full-bodied and meaty, similar to a richly flavored, well reduced broth.
It’s more than just a flavor, however; it’s also a sensation. Umami coats the tongue, gives a sense of mouth fullness, and has a long-lasting, complex and balanced taste.
It is said that umami has three distinct characteristics: the taste spreads across the tongue, it lasts longer than other tastes, and it provides a mouth-watering sensation.
Think seared meat, aged cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, seafood, green tea, walnuts, and fermented things like soy sauce and kimchi. It’s a diverse grouping, isn’t it?
But what is umami exactly?
To answer this question, we have to go back more than 100 years – to Japan in 1908, when a Tokyo University chemist, Kikunae Ikeda, proposed its existence.
It came about through his enjoyment of a bowl of dashi, a classic Japanese stock made from seaweed. As Ikeda sipped his soup, he recognized that what he was tasting was beyond category. He later wrote that he knew that what he was tasting was “common to tomatoes, cheese, and meat, but … not one of the four known tastes.”
He wanted to discover whether the flavor he was experiencing was a biologically determined taste for something he couldn’t quite pin down.
In his lab, Ikeda examined the molecular structure of a key component of the broth, a variety of seaweed known as kombu (or kelp to us). He determined that one substance, an amino acid known as glutamic acid, was responsible for the intense and pleasurable flavor he experienced.
He named the taste umami, derived from umai, the Japanese word for delicious. The Japanese characters for delicious and taste form the word in that language, and umami can best be translated to English as deliciousness or even yumminess.
The more recent taste research mentioned above has since confirmed that the molecular compounds in glutamic acid – glutamates – bind to specific tongue receptors to create some pretty amazing flavor magic.
Though “meaty” is one descriptor of umami, the flavor is found in food sourced from both animals and plants. Any food in which glutamic acid occurs naturally (or after cooking, aging, or fermentation) is considered umami.
When glutamate breaks down, such as when a piece of meat is cooked, cheese is aged, or a tomato is ripened in the sun, it becomes L-glutamate, which creates the taste sensation that is umami. The more concentrated the flavor (think slow-smoked meats, dried tomatoes, caramelization from roasting vegetables, or reduced stocks), the more intense the umami flavor.
While cooking typically brings out umami flavor, some foods, like corn and peas, are packed with umami when fresh.
Humans have long enjoyed the benefits of umami. More than 3,000 years ago, Greeks and Romans boosted the flavor of their food by using a fermented condiment made from anchovies (much like we use ketchup), and soy sauce has long been used to enhance food in Japan.
Auguste Escoffier, the famed French chef of the late 1800s who changed the course of cuisine, perfected the use of umami in the veal stock he created. He was known to say that a savory fifth taste was the secret to his success.
Many researchers now believe that humans developed a taste for umami because it signals the presence of protein, just as a sweet taste alerts us to needed calories and bitter or sour can warn us of possible toxins. Interestingly, human breast milk is high in umami.
The reason we crave things like cheeseburgers with ketchup or pizza with cheese is because of the umami flavor bomb that the combined ingredients create. Layering on other umami-rich foods like caramelized onions, grilled mushrooms or smoked meats like bacon creates even more flavor intensity.
If you’re an advocate of plant-based cooking like me, utilizing umami-rich foods like tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted winter squashes or nuts adds a satisfying “meaty” quality to foods.
And yes, if you recognized a similarity in the name, monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the chemical basis for umami flavor. Once the flavor source was isolated, Professor Ikeda marketed it as a product named Ajinomoto, which means “essence of flavor” in Japanese.
Today’s recipe is an appetizer packed full of umami that comes from mushrooms and shaved parmesan cheese. The use of dried mushrooms is optional; however, I recommend using them to kick up the level of umami flavor.
Mushroom Medley on Garlic Toasts
If you have access to wild mushrooms, use them in this dish. Otherwise, purchase a variety of fresh mushrooms at your local market, such as button, shiitake, cremini and baby portabella.
3 pounds mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned and stemmed
3 ounces dried mushrooms (optional)
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
¼ cup vegetable broth or white wine
2 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons sweet butter or olive oil
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Toasted baguette slices rubbed with fresh garlic
Shaved parmesan cheese, about 1 ¼ ounces
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Slice fresh mushrooms ¼ inch thick.
Soak dried mushrooms, if using, in a bowl of hot water until tender, about 10 minutes. Rinse and squeeze to dry.
Heat a 12-inch ovenproof skillet until very hot. Add olive oil and fresh mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, over high heat until mushrooms release their liquid, about 10 minutes.
Add the shallots, garlic, and rehydrated mushrooms, if using, and cook until liquid has evaporated.
Add broth or wine, brandy, butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, and the sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme.
Transfer skillet to the oven and roast, stirring twice, for 30 minutes. Stir in chopped parsley.
Serve warm on the garlic toasts and garnish with shaved Parmesan cheese.
Recipe by Esther Oertel.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown.