Japan Culinair: Umami

Umami, the 5th Taste

The taste of umami [旨み] was discovered by Professor Kikunae Ikeda in the beginning of the 20th century. It was a whole century before the umami taste receptors on the tongue were discovered by scientists in 2002, next to our tastes of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Umami is a natural glutamate, an amino acid, that produces a savoury and long-lasting taste. It is also manufactured as an artificial food additive that we know as MSG (monosodium glutamate), E621 and others. Umami is a taste enhancer. It is added to many ready-made foods. Because of umami, up to 40% less salt can be used. It is also said that MSG might be bad for your health, and some people are sensitive to it.

Luckily, the very satisfying umami flavour is naturally present in a wide range of foods that can be easily used in our daily food routine. To name but a few: tomato, onion, mature cheese (with Parmigiano Reggiano as number one), mushrooms (especially dried ones like shiitake), truffle, sardines, seaweed and much more.

In the Japanese kitchen, we add umami to our dishes, for instance in the form of soy sauce, miso, katsuobushi [鰹節] (dried, smoked and shaved bonito) and dashi made with kombu [昆布] and/or dried shiitake, natural rice vinegar, different kinds of seaweeds, tsukemono [漬物] (vegetables made durable and extra tasty through fermentation), and not to forget the sweet and salty umeboshi [梅干し] (a salt pickled Japanese plum, which is really a small apricot).

Umami Bombs

I love to “stack” umami flavours to make umami bombs. For instance, small sweet peeled tomatoes marinated for 24 hours in thick tomato juice with a bit of good natural rice vinegar and some sugar. Then serve them with a drop of the marinate and sprinkle them with yukari, a furikake with dried shiso leaf, salt and sugar. You could also add a little bit of dried yuzu peel or a bit of finely grated peel of a salt-preserved lemon.

 Jeannette Stakenburg, Hoevelaken, January 15, 2022