Sometime in 1908 a certain professor named Ikukanae Ikeda from TOkyo Imperial University in Japan discovered that there is more to sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Yes, something that is not taught in our school - the 5th basic taste which is coined as Umami. Umami is the taste found in glutamate which can be found in cheese, tomato and meat. That is why spaghetti dishes which contains parmesan, tomatoes and meat is an irresistble dish.
The discovery of glutamate was initially found from the seaweed used in Japanese soup stock. It is funny though that we were taught not to put or use Mono Sodium Glutamate or MSG in our dishes as they claim to have certain risks in our health. In fact, glutamate lessens sodium intake because it only contains 1/3 sodium content of table salt.
Today, they are celebrating 100 years of the 5th basic taste which is Umami.
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