In the West, we have identified only four basic tastes—sour, sweet, salty, and bitter—that, through skillful combination and technique, create delicious foods. Yet in many parts of East Asia over the past century, an additional flavor has entered the culinary lexicon: umami, a fifth taste impression that is savory, complex, and wholly distinct.
Combining culinary history with recent research into the chemistry, preparation, nutrition, and culture of food, Mouritsen and Styrbæk encapsulate what we know to date about the concept of umami, from ancient times to today. Umami can be found in soup stocks, meat dishes, air-dried ham, shellfish, aged cheeses, mushrooms, and ripe tomatoes, and it can enhance other taste substances to produce a transformative gustatory experience. Researchers have also discovered which substances in foodstuffs bring out umami, a breakthrough that allows any casual cook to prepare delicious and more nutritious meals with less fat, salt, and sugar. The implications of harnessing umami are both sensuous and social, enabling us to become more intimate with the subtleties of human taste while making better food choices for ourselves and our families.
This volume, the product of an ongoing collaboration between a chef and a scientist, won the Danish national Mad+Medier-Prisen (Food and Media Award) in the category of academic food communication.
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue: How it all began
- What exactly is taste, and why is it important?
- The basic tastes: From seven to four to five and possibly many more
- Why do we need to be able to taste our food?
- There is more to it: Sensory science, taste, smell, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, texture, and chemesthesis
- Is there a taste map of the tongue?
- Why are some foods more palatable than others?
- A few words about proteins, amino acids, nucleotides, nucleic acids, and enzymes
- Glutamic acid, glutamate, and the glutamate ion
- Glutamic acid and glutamate in our food
- How does glutamate taste, and how little is required for us to taste it?
- The first four: Sour, sweet, salty, and bitter
- The physiology and biochemistry of taste
- The interplay between sweet and bitter
- Taste receptors: This is how they work
- When words fail us: Descriptions of tastes
- The fifth taste: What is umami?
- Science, soup, and the search for the fifth taste
- Glutamic acid and glutamate
- What is the meaning of the word umami?
- From laboratory to mass production
- How MSG is made
- A little letter with a huge impact: The ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’
- The Japanese discover other umami substances
- It all starts with mother’s milk
- Umami as a global presence
- Umami has won acceptance as a distinct taste
- And umami is still controversial…
- 1 + 1 = 8: Gustatory synergy
- Amazing interplay: Basal and synergistic umami
- Detecting umami synergy on the tongue and in the brain
- Japanese dashi: The textbook example of umami synergy
- The art of making Japanese dashi
- Nordic dashi
- Dashi closer to home—a Japanese soup with a Scandinavian twist
- Seaweeds enhance the umami in fish
- How to make smoked shrimp heads
- Recipe:
Potato water dashi with smoked shrimp heads
- Many substances interact synergistically with umami
- A breakthrough discovery of yet another synergistic substance
- The interplay between glutamate and the four classic tastes
- A simple taste test: Umami vs. salt
- Recipe: Monkfish liver au gratin with crabmeat and vegetables
- Umami-rich ‘foie gras from the sea’
- Food pairing and umami
- Creating tastes synthetically
- Umami: Either as little or as much as you like
- Umami from the oceans: Seaweeds, fish, and shellfish
- Seaweeds and konbu: The mother lode of umami
- A world of konbu in Japan
- Fresh fish and shellfish
- Cooked fish and shellfish dishes and soups
- Recipe: Pearled spelt, beets, and lobster
- Umami and the art of killing a fish
- A traditional clambake: New England method, Danish ingredients
- Recipe: Crab soup
- Recipe:
Clambake in a pot
- Everyday umami in ancient Greece and Rome
- Fish sauces and fish pastes
- Recipe: Patina de pisciculis
- Modern garum
- Recipe:
Garum
- Recipe: Quick-and-easy garum
- Recipe: Smoked quick-and-easy garum
- Shellfish paste
- Oyster sauce
- Sushi and fermented fish
- Katsuobushi
- Catching katsuo to optimize umami
- Niboshi
- The hardest foodstuff in the world
- Kusaya
- Nordic variations: Horrible smells and heavenly tastes
- Fish roe
- Seven friends, The Compleat Angler, and a pike
- Umami from the land: Fungi and plants
- Umami from the plant kingdom
- Recipe: Seriously old-fashioned sourdough rye bread
- Recipe: Anchovies, grilled onions, sourdough bread, pata negra ham, and mushrooms
- Dried fungi
- Fermented soybeans
- Soy sauce
- Production of shōyu
- Miso
- Recipe: Deep-fried eggplants with miso (nasu dengaku)
- Recipe: White asparagus in miso with oysters, cucumber oil, and small fish
- The Asian answer to cheese: Fermented soybean cakes
- Nattō
- Black garlic
- Shōjin ryōri: An old tradition with a modern presence
- Recipe: Grilled shōjin kabayaki: ‘fried eel’ made from lotus root
- The enlightened kitchen
- Tomatoes
- Recipe:
Baked monkfish liver with raspberries and peanuts
- Recipe: Slow-roasted sauce with tomatoes, root vegetables, and herbs
- Recipe: Fried mullet with baked grape tomatoes, marinated sago pearls, and black garlic
- Green tea
- Umami from land animals: Meat, eggs, and dairy products
- The animal kingdom delivers umami in spades
- Recipe: Mushrooms, foie gras, and mushroom essence
- Homo sapiens is a cook
- Preserving meats in the traditional ways
- Air-dried hams
- Salted beef: Pastrami and corned beef
- Bacon and sausages
- Dairy products
- Blue cheeses
- Aged, dried, and hard cheeses
- Recipe: Parmesan biscuits with bacon and yeast flakes
- Eggs and mayonnaise
- Harry’s crème from Harry’s Bar
- Recipe: Harry’s crème
- Umami: The secret behind the humble soup stock
- Soup is umami
- Recipe: Chicken bouillon
- Osmazome and The Physiology of Taste
- Amino acids in soup stocks
- A real find: A dashi bar
- The taste of a beef stock
- Recipe: Green pea soup with scallops and seaweed
- Ready-made umami
- Knorr and Maggi: European umami pioneers
- Making the most of umami
- MSG as a food additive
- Other commercial sources of umami
- Hydrolyzed protein
- Umami in a jar
- Yeast extract
- Nutritional yeast
- Recipe: Dressing with nutritional yeast
- More sources of umami for vegans
- Recipe:
Eggplant gratinée with garlic, anchovies, and nutritional yeast
- Ketchup
- Recipe: Oysters au gratin with a crust of nutritional yeast and smoked shrimp head powder
- Bagna càuda
- Recipe: Bagna càuda
- Worcestershire sauce
- Umami in a tube
- Twelve easy ways to add umami
- Quintessentially Danish: Brown gravy, medisterpølse, and beef patties
- Recipe: Old-fashioned Danish medisterpølse
- Slow cooking: The secret of more umami
- Recipe: Beef patties, Danish style
- Recipe: Chicken Marengo
- Recipe: Cassoulet
- Recipe: Beef estofado
- Ratatouille and brandade
- Recipe: Sicilian ratatouille
- Recipe: Brandade with air-dried ham and green peas
- This is why fast food tastes so good
- Recipe: Three-day pizza with umami—not really a ‘fast food’
- Green salads and raw vegetables
- Umami in dishes made with small fowl
- Recipe: Quail pâté
- Cooked potatoes: Nothing could be simpler
- Rice and sake
- Recipe: Risotto
- Beer
- Recipe: Oxtails braised in wheat beer
- Umami in sweets
- Recipe: Umami sorbet with maccha and tomato
- Mirin is a sweet rice wine with umami
- Recipe: White chocolate cream, black sesame seeds, Roquefort, and brioche with nutritional yeast
- Umami and wellness
- Umami and MSG: Food without ‘chemicals’
- Umami satisfies the appetite
- Why does umami make us feel full? The ‘brain’ in the stomach
- Umami for a sick and aging population
- Umami for life
- Epilogue: Umami has come to stay
- Technical and scientific details
- Umami and the first glutamate receptor
- Yet another receptor for umami
- Umami synergy
- The taste of amino acids
- Taste thresholds for umami
- Content of glutamate and 5'-ribonucleotides in different foods
- Bibliography
- Illustration credits
- Glossary
- Index
- The people behind the book
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