Umami, Umami Taste, Umami-Rich Foods

Umami, Umami Taste, Umami-Rich Foods. So what is Umami or 旨味 in Japanese? Umami is known as "one of the five generally recognized basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue". Literally, Umami means roughly as "tasty" or "deliciousness" and to some extent, it also translated as "brothy", "meaty" and "savory". Often, Umami is associated with the source foods such as meat, cheese, and mushrooms. Umami is widely used as food enhancer.

Umami Taste. The Umami taste is exhibited upon the detection of an acid called Glutamic Acid, wherein, Carboxylate Anion can be generally found. It is a natural amino acid that occurs in cheese, broths and stocks, meats and other foods that are heavy in protein content. Such acid is also known as Glutamates. While major chefs around the world are constantly discovering new additions to their cooking legacy, they can't seem to deny that they are salivating over the merits of Umami. For some reason, Umami is branded as the "Fifth Taste". As referred by Stevenson Swanson of theage.com, "Umami is the "mmmmmm" in meat. It's part of the pizazz in a pepperoni pizza. It's what makes people cheer for cheese".She further remarked that the "fifth taste" that is neither salty, sweet, bitter or sour. 100 years ago, a Japenese scientist was able to isolate the Umami / savory taste, out of his curiousity on the distinct flavor of the Japanese seaweed soup, dashi. Ikeda highlighted that Umami is enhanced from curing, aging, browning and slow-cooking of foods.

Umami-Rich Foods. What are the Umami-rich foods? Take a look at the categories below for your quick reference, courtesy of umamiinfo.com.

Sea Foods
Kombu (brown algae)
Seaweed
Katsuobush/Dried bonito flakes
Niboshi/Small dried sardines
Bonito
Mackerel
Sea bream
Tuna
Cod
Prawns
Squid
Oysters
Shellfish

Meat
Beef
Pork
Chicken

Vegetables
Tomatoes
Shiitake mushrooms
Enokitake mushrooms
Truffles
Soy beans
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Chinese cabbage
Carrots

Others
Parmesan Cheese
Green tea

The above-mentioned foods contains high quantities of Umami elements. I think most of us have already taken them but just the concept of the "Fifth Taste" or Umami thing is missing. We have experienced the battling tastes between saltiness, sweetness, bitterness or sourness among our daily foods on the table but the way on how to achieve the unique taste was quite unearthed. But now you know what is Umami, Umami Taste and Umami-Rich Foods. The next time around, you got something to tinker up in your kitchen.

Source: wikipedia.org, www.theage.com.au, www.umamiinfo.com / Photo: wine-pages.com