Salty, sweet, bitter, sour… umami (ã†ã¾å‘³).
There is a fifth taste. Its name means something like “deliciousness.” It was isolated and named by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda in 1907, Glutamic acid, or glutamate.Glutamate doesn’t “work” by itself, so it’s most commonly added as MSG.
If you add vodka to tomatoes, the alcohol acts as a solvent, releasing the naturally-occurring umami in the tomatoes.
Guess what… the flavor industry already knows this, even if you didn’t. They have been adding MSSG and other umami agents into processed foods for years. They could make garbage taste good if they wanted. Now that’s power. Links:- Article about the Umami Café in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., run by Jonathan Pratt
- Society for Research on Umami Taste also has a English version…. see also their Links section.
- International glutamate information service in English, German, and Spanish… tells the history of MSG and has references to scientific papers
- There is also a woman who is a blog/orkut/friendster celebrity who identifies with the word umami. Hapa power!