UMAMI PASTE TO BE LAUNCHED
Food writer and product developer Laura Santtini is to launch a cusine paste which is a blend of a number of “Italian” ingredients such as Porcini mushroom, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. Waitrose will be among the stockists.
She is calling this “Taste No.5″ which relates to the Umami phenomenon, which is the western world’s “discovery” of the “fifth” taste over and above the four which the orientals have known about for thousands of years.
In the west we have referred to sweet, sour, salty and bitter because these are the areas of the tongue which carry taste buds especially sensitive to these stimuli in food.
However the Chinese have always had the fifth taste which they call “golden” and refers to the savoury delicious taste which comes from chicken stock, roasted sesame, onions, garlic and foods rich in natural monosodium glutamate.
The Japanese learned to distil this natural MSG and called it Aji No Moto.
A white crystaline powder, Aji No Moto is referred to by Oriental chefs as “spectacles for the tastebuds”.
MSG has fallen into disrepute because in some people it is said to cause hot flushes when used in excess. This effect is called MSG syndrome or Kwok’s syndrome and in the USA many Chinese restaurants give the diners the opportunity to “Hold the MSG”.
However natural MSG has always been present in food ingredients such as tomatoes, cheese, seaweed, porcini mushrooms and fermented fish.
The Romans knew the effect well and used fermented fish entrails called Garum or Liquamen to enhance the flavours of their dishes.
Even today a true Bolognese sauce is flavoured with a touch of anchovy paste, or some chopped anchovies.
You may think that to have fish in meat dishes is rather odd, but if you are familiar with Thai food, you will already love the Thai Fish Sauce, which goes so well with chicken, this is a demonstration of Umami.
For more information on Umami click here.
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