“Umami is a depth of flavor that creates a lusciousness that invigorates your palate, almost making it mouth-watering,” says Allen Dabagh, chef at Boutros in New York City.
Umami comes from glutamate, inosinate and guanylate compounds in foods such as beef, pork, gravies, broths, seaweed, seafood, meats, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms.
Throughout history, a lot of umami flavours were created through the process of fermentation or preservation e.g. seaweed, and parmesan cheese. Umami was discovered in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese scientist who also created monosodium glutamate (MSG) enabling him to add umami flavour to any dish he made. Originally there were only four recognised basic taste groups and umami became the fifth in the 1980’s. In 1985 researchers proved that umami was not the result of a blend of any of the basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter), but an independent taste. It also has its own particular receptor for its taste. It was then recognised as a scientific term to define the taste of glutamates and nucleotides.
Glutamate has been used in cooking for a long time – fermented fish sauces were commonly used in ancient Rome and as far back as third century in China. When it comes to food manufacturing, chefs have tried to improve the flavour of foods low in sodium with umami flavours. For example, chefs can create “umami bombs” – these are dishes composed of a variety of umami ingredients like mushrooms, fish sauce, oysters, etc. Worcestershire sauce offers a source of umami and is used by Taranaki Bio Extracts in some bone broths and bouillons to support balanced flavour.
Most people don’t know that “umami balances the taste and enhances the palatability of a wide range of foods.” (Kikkoman – the tasty secret of umami)
The science of umami sees it produced by a number of amino acids and nucleotides eg glutamate, to provide a rich meaty flavour to food. At Taranaki Bio Extracts it is strong across our range of extracts and broths providing a point of difference for our customers. This comes from our use of mushrooms, tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce across our range and in custom product. Umami is the bringing together of ingredients to create a whole unique flavour in itself.
Examples of umami foods include naturally brewed soy sauce, marmite, miso, anchovies, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce. Other sources of umami are beef, pork, chicken, mackerel, tuna, seafood, seaweed, tomatoes, mushrooms and a range of cheeses.
Taste receptors on our tongue and mouth engage with the umami from foods that have high levels of amino acid glutamate. It’s the slow cooking or preservation process that causes these foods to be umami, e.g. raw meat and mushrooms aren’t very umami, but cooking and curing or fermenting them enables release of the amino acids that our taste receptors recognise as umami. Umami is responsible for deepening the flavours of foods.
In earlier years Umami was most commonly associated with Asian foods. This was most likely due to its discovery by a Japanese scientist, but today we recognise it as a savoury flavour common across a range of international ingredients including those here at Taranaki Bio Extracts. If you’d like to learn more about our products or discuss your requirements for a custom ingredient, please be in touch – https://taranakibioextracts.com/contact/
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