When I was at school I was taught that there are four different basic tastes that our tongues sense: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. But nowadays there’s another taste term that we are having to acquaint ourselves with – Umami.
We’ve know about Umami for some time – it was discovered as being distinct from the other basic tastes in the early 1900s. But is only in recent times that the term has started to become commonplace.
Umami isn’t a flavour you can easily describe. It is more of an enhancing flavour, as when you have savoury foods that are rich in umami it alters the flavour and makes it taste more. It is actually generated by glutimates which naturally occur in many foods but is also badly associated with the artificial flavour enhancer monosodium glutamate.
Understanding that naturally occurring umami-rich ingredients can enhance flavour can also help you craft the flavour of your dishes. The following foods are know to be particularly umami-rich:
- certain fish including anchovies
- yeast extract
- certain cheeses, notably parmesan
- cooked tomatoes
- certain mushrooms
- various seaweeds
And you can see how these how these been used over time across the world to enhance the flavour of dishes. For example, fish sauce in south east Asia and Worcestershire sauce in the UK (which contains anchovies), nori seaweed in Japan, parmesan as a condiment in Italy, and these days yeast extract in a lot of products (commercial stocks and cubes, and many low-salt ready meals).
I have started using some of these ingredients in my cooking in different ways. For example, grinding up some porcini mushrooms in to a powder and adding to a dish adds a little something, as does adding a little parmesan to dish that will take it. Try being a bit more adventurous with these ingredients and you may find some surprising results.
Some useful references:
- Wikipedia: Umami
- Umami Information Center
- How to cook with umami rich foods (has table of natural glutimate levels in umami-rich foods)