Adrian's Web Log » Food http://blog.inceweb.com/adrian Adrian's second brain. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:50:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Umami and MSG http://blog.inceweb.com/adrian/2008/01/13/umami-and-msg/ http://blog.inceweb.com/adrian/2008/01/13/umami-and-msg/#comments Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:47:00 +0000 admin http://blog.inceweb.com/adrian/2008/01/13/umami-and-msg/ I have come across an old article in the Observer (2005) titled “If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?” which discusses the fifth flavour – umami – and glutamate, commonly referred to as Mono Sodium Glutamate or MSG.
As the presence of MSG is often a criticism of Chinese take-away food – we don’t bother stocking it for sales to home chefs – the most fascinating part of this article is the list of foods containing glutamate (and therefore giving that umami taste) including:

    parmesan and other cheeses (seems obvious)
    tomatoes
    soy sauce
    mushrooms

I’d have to agree with the conclusion of the article though – if you want to enhance flavour, add one of these “natural” sources of glutamate, rather than reaching for the MSG.

]]> http://blog.inceweb.com/adrian/2008/01/13/umami-and-msg/feed/ 0