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Home/Condiments/Umami: The Fifth Taste

Umami: The Fifth Taste

Umami Paste 51

There has been a lot of talk lately about the discovery of the fifth taste, umami (oo-MA-mee), also described as savory, meaty, or deliciousness. The elusive taste is created on the tongue when carboxylate anion of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring amino acid common in meat, cheese, stock, and other protein-rich foods, is detected.

Derived primarily from glutamate, a naturally occurring amino acid, umami is a distinct flavor and can’t be produced by combining other flavors. This means it’s one of the primary flavors, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

In retrospect, I have always been aware of umami. It’s that elusive, mouth filling, long lingering, savory something that separates a bland dish from a dish you just can’t stop eating.

At the Northwest Culinary Academy in the 1980’s, I named this elusive something “intensity” and taught my humble theory to hundreds of students over the years. I was always aiming for a felt balance between sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and the thing I called intensity.

Another way I described intensity was “big taste.” I even gave students a short list of processes and ingredients that could potentially amplify this aspect of a dish. However, there is no “magic bullet” ingredient or combination of ingredients that will elevate umami in just the right way in every dish. Each dish should be considered on its own.

Anchovie paste1

Flavor Balancing: Cheap Tricks

If I am making a sauce, soup, stew, or braise, and the flavor is not fully developed, the first thing I consider is reducing the liquid. With sauces, this almost always does the trick.

The second thing I consider is salt level. Without enough salt, flavor does not come through.

The third thing I check is the balance between sweet and sour. You may be surprised by how truly sweet some savory dishes are; for instance, a soup made of butternut squash, carrots, or corn. If not brought into balance with a sour (acidic) partner, the soup will taste bland, and the palate will tire of it rapidly. My first choice for a balancing acid is lemon or lime juice, my second choice is vinegar (but this often must be reduced to soften the more aggressive acids). Wine will also work, but it should be added at the beginning of the cooking process to evaporate the alcohol.

If every element is in balance and the dish still lacks umami, a judicious amount of one or two of these ingredients may save the day: Asian fish sauce, anchovy paste, demi-glace (my favorite), dried shitake mushrooms, Parmesan, reduced brown stock, soy sauce, tomato paste, #5 Taste Umami Paste, or Worcestershire sauce. But, it is very easy to ruin a dish by overdoing any of these, so caution is the rule. And what is appropriate for one dish may not be appropriate for another.

Soy Sauce

Umami Mojo

To broaden the possibilities even more, here is a list of ingredients and processes that are now thought to contain considerable umami:

· aging
· aged cheese
· almonds
· anchovies
· anchovy paste
· bacon
· bean paste
· bell peppers
· beef, aged and tougher cuts
· beer
· black beans
· black olives
· bonito flakes
· bread, slow-risen, artisanal
· browning (Maillard reaction)
· carrots
· cheese, aged
· chicken
· clams
· corn
· crab
· cured ham
· cured meats
· curing
· dashi (dried kelp and bonito)
· demi-glace
· duck, long cooked
· eggs
· fermentation
· fish
· fish sauce, Asian
· garlic
· green tea
· ham
· ham hock
· herring
· horseradish
· jerky
· ketchup
· legumes
· lobster
· mackerel
· Marmite
· meat
· miso
· MSG
· mushroom paste
· mushrooms, dried
· mushrooms, shiitake, portobello, morel, porcini
· mussels
· olive oil
· olives, black
· oyster sauce
· oysters
· pancetta
· parmesan cheese
· peas
· pickling
· porcini mushrooms, dehydrated
· pork
· potatoes
· prosciutto
· red wine
· ripeness
· salmon
· salt pork
· sake
· sardines
· sausage, cured
· scallops
· shrimp
· seafood
· sea vegetables, usually dried
· seaweed, dried
· shrimp, dried
· soy beans
· soy sauce
· squid
· steak, aged
· stock, meat-based
· sunflower seeds
· sweet potatoes
· Tabasco
· tea, green
· tempeh (fermented soybean curd)
· Thai fish sauce
· tomato paste
· tomatoes
· tomatoes, dried
· truffles
· tuna
· vinegar, balsamic
· vinegar, red wine
· walnuts
· whiskey
· winter squash
· Worcestershire sauce

Shitake mushrooms 2

Enter Laura Santtini and Taste #5 Umami Paste

Then, as if on cue, restaurateur, Laura Santtini, launches Taste #5 Umami Paste and takes the media by storm. Ms. Santtini describes her paste as a “little tube of magic” and suggests that you slather it on just about everything, from steak to prawns, it makes no difference. She suggests this magical paste will “transform your life in the kitchen.” A blurb on her website says, “Tasty and transformational, this powerful natural “flavour bomb” is designed to empower cooks of all levels, making novice cooks good cooks, good cooks great cooks, and great cooks extraordinary cooks.” Wow, all that from a TUBE?

Well, who am I to doubt the transformational powers of umami? I quickly order three tubes from Amazon, and they arrive a couple of days later. I rip open a package, puncture the seal, and squeeze an oozing, brick-red blob of magic onto my forefinger.

Expecting to be BLOWN AWAY, I taste: Intense. Anchovies in the lead, with tomato paste, dried mushrooms, Calamata olives, something cheesy, and salt playing close backup. Good balance between sweet and acidic. Not bad. In fact, it has a fuller, rounder flavor that anchovy paste, which it could supplant. But I am sadly not transformed. (In fact, I feel foolish for buying 3 tubes, which will surely last a decade or longer.)

To test my palate, I check the ingredients listed on the package.

Kalamata olives

Ingredients in Umami Paste #5 (in order of weight):

· tomato paste
· garlic
· anchovy paste (which in turn has anchovies, salt and sunflower seed oil)
· black olives
· balsamic vinegar
· dehydrated porcini mushrooms
· parmesan cheese
· olive oil
· wine vinegar
· sugar
· salt

I got close. But here’s the kicker. I don’t put anchovy paste in every dish. Not by a long shot. But if all the hype is to be believed, perhaps I should. Taste #5 Umami Paste Ice Cream Sundae anyone?

Nevertheless, during this exploration of umami, the idea of a super-savory pesto grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want the pesto to contain anchovies or dried seafood of any kind. Those elements are distinctively assertive and can be added easily if and when needed.

Stay tuned for Umami Potion #9, coming up next. It will not transform you into an instantly better cook, but I think you will find it delicious and useful nonetheless.

Resources

  • Delicious Days: Umami Butter – Your Fridge is your
    Friend
  • Fidgety Fingers: Make Your Own Umami Ketchup with
    Heston Blumenthal
  • Foodie with Family: Bacon Jam
  • Island Vittles: Five Ways to Up Your Umami
  • Laura Santtini: Taste #5 Umami Paste
  • Leite’s Culinaria: Leite’s Loves…Taste No. 5 Umami
    Paste
  • Mail Online: You’ve tried sweet, sour, bitter and
    salty … now tubes of the fifth taste to be sold in supermarkets
  • Next: Food Matters: Kings of Umami
  • NPR: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter … and Umami
  •  Nuts about Fruit: Black Garlic: Umami to the Max
  • Onlifemag: What Breast Milk, Parmesan Cheese and
    Seaweed have in Common
  • The City Cook: Cooking with Umami
  • The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami
  • The Nibble: Trends: Umami, the Fifth Taste
  • The Rooter to the Tooter: Give & Take: Pain Perdu Farci (with Bacon Jam)
  • The Sense of Taste
  • The Umami Information Center
  • Umami Girl: Mark Bittman’s Tomato Jam
  • Umami Information Center

I Love Hearing from You!

If you have read this far, please leave a comment. Include your blog URL and CommentLuv will automatically link back to your most recent blog post. Also join LunaCafe on Facebook for daily adventures in the OtherWorldly Kitchen.  I appreciate your support more than I can say. Blessings…Susan

Copyright 2011 Susan S. Bradley. All rights reserved.

Written by:
Susan S. Bradley
Published on:
July 17, 2011

Categories: Condiments, PantryTags: #5 Umami Paste, flavor balancing, meaty, savory, the fifth taste, umami, Umami Potion #9

About Susan S. Bradley

Intrepid cook, food writer, culinary instructor, creator of the LunaCafe blog, author of Pacific Northwest Palate: Four Seasons of Great Cooking, and former director of the Northwest Culinary Academy.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jim McPartlin

    August 6, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    I recently ate in a restaurant in Malta where I had Grouper served with bulgar wheat and pumpkin. The fish was dressed with a dark well reduced paste that was so intense and delicious; it was incredible and really addedd to the meatiness of the Grouper. I asked the chef what it was and he said it was just reduced tomatoes. I’d read about Umami quite a bit before and up until that point couldn’t really put my finger on exactly what it was. Amazing.

    • Susan S. Bradley

      August 7, 2011 at 11:04 am

      Jim, that sounds fantastic! You remind me that I have a dish in my repertoire that features a very intense, reduced tomato with a touch of anchovy sauce. It’s spectacular with a sauteed salmon filet. And so simple. I’ll put the dish on my post list.

  2. Kevin (BBQ Smoker Site)

    July 26, 2011 at 10:32 am

    We’re constantly on a quest for the Fifth Taste! We do as much Asian cooking as we can, and have recently started using Bragg’s Liquid Aminos as a substitute for Soy Sauce. Nice flavor but man, watch out as it packs a salty punch!

  3. BBQ Grail

    July 26, 2011 at 7:43 am

    Just wanted you to know your blog post was featured on The BBQ Grail’s 10 Posts Worth A Look for this week. http://wp.me/pwBnV-1YQ

    • Susan S. Bradley

      July 26, 2011 at 9:17 pm

      BBQ Grail, thanks so much for including me in your list, much appreciated! 🙂

  4. Allison

    July 19, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    Thank you for this review. I too was expecting more of this product. Don’t get me wrong, it is good and I will find use for it. But for me, it seemed to be missing something. Last time I tossed it with pasta and added capers which made me happy. It is also nice mixed in with steak marinade. Perhaps it is meant to help build flavor than to be a dominant flavor.

    • Susan S. Bradley

      July 20, 2011 at 10:49 pm

      Allison, yes agree. It’s a nice product that I may use once in awhile (and with considerable restraint) in my kitchen — the the same way I use anchovy paste — once in a great while. But it just doesn’t warrant the hype it has recieved or the strange claims on the website. Thanks for chiming in. 🙂

  5. rose

    July 18, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    an extensive, interesting review! I would add one item I have found that ‘makes “it” different’:
    Eden’s Ume Plum Vinegar from the health food store! Great post! thanx

    • Susan S. Bradley

      July 20, 2011 at 10:50 pm

      Rose, thanks! I lOVE vinegars and will look for the one you mention. Can’t have too many wonderful vinegars.

Trackbacks

  1. LunaCafe Umami Pesto #9 says:
    February 1, 2015 at 11:37 am

    […] explored the umami (oo-MA-mee) phenomenon in the previous post, Umami: The Fifth Taste. Now it’s time to make a little umami magic of our own. But, as I mentioned in the earlier post, […]

  2. BBQ Grail’s Ten Posts Worth A Look says:
    July 26, 2011 at 7:03 am

    […] Luna Cafe:  Umami, The 5th Taste […]

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