- Today we're talking umami and MSG.
We're going to learn a little bit about them
history behind it, and what they're really used for.
Stay tuned.
Now, it's a common misconception that
there's these taste maps that you learn about
in the third grade where you can taste sour here,
and bitter back there, and sweet in front,
and salty on the sides.
It's farce.
Not true.
It also fails to cover a very important flavor
that you might not have heard about.
Umami. Not eww mommy.
So what the heck is umami?
Umami is pretty much savory food flavor.
In Japanese it can be described as
pleasant, savory taste.
It can also be described as having
a very meaty or brothy flavor.
It induces salivation.
In the right concentrations it is simply delicious.
What gives it the flavor is glutamate,
or glutamic acid, which is an amino acid
commonly found already in mushrooms,
tomatoes, your body, parmesan cheese.
Very common.
Umami was discovered in 1908 by
a Japanese scientist, Kikunae Ikeda.
Something like that.
I definitely butchered that.
Kikunae Ikeda.
He noticed the flavor of a
common broth made from seaweed,
kombu, which imparted a distinct flavor
separate to other flavors such as
taste and sour and sweet, what not.
And he named that, umami.
And in 1985 it was recognized as a
scientific term for the taste describing glutamates.
Now your first encounter with glutamates
and umami was actually breast milk.
Breast milk actually has 10 times more glutamates
than cow's milk.
Now, one way to enhance the umami flavor is MSG.
So, what the heck is MSG?
(whimsical music)
MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is simply the
glutamates binded to the monosodium part.
So, monosodium glutamates.
So it's just the glutamates attached to salt.
And it's only 12% sodium.
Now you may have heard differently that
MSG can give you neck pain and nausea and headaches
after eating a heavy meal of Chinese food,
and this term is sometimes known as
Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.
You may have even felt the effects yourself
after a heaping portion of greasy Chinese food.
Now, that could be a placebo, or it could be
that you're eating greasy Chinese food.
Because it turns out that there are no conclusive studies
that MSG is harmful to your health,
although the myth that it is
is quite pervasive.
The myth started when a man wrote in to the
New England Journal of Science describing
these headaches that him and his friends were getting,
and this neck pain and all these different ailments,
and he described it as Chinese Restaurant Syndrome,
and he blamed the effects on MSG.
And the media picked that up without checking the facts
and that's how the myth was born.
However, it is recognized by food regulators
such as the FDA that MSG is completely safe.
And it has been since 1959.
There have been extensive studies on MSG,
or monosodium glutamate, and it makes sense
that MSG is safe because it's a natural compound.
The glutamate in MSG is the same as the glutamate in
parmesan, in tomatoes, in mushrooms, in soy sauce.
If you've had an italian pasta with parmesan cheese on it
you've probably had more MSG and more glutamates
than if you were to have a General Tso chicken dish.
Now, I've recently begun to experiment with it
in my dishes.
I'll just add, like, a little bit, do it to taste,
because there's a certain concentration you want,
and it adds a ton of flavor.
You really get that umami taste and
the taste is really long, like it lasts long.
You can really feel it there for a while.
And it's a very distinct flavor and you recognize it.
It's the taste of savory-ness.
I now think it's one of the most powerful
flavor enhancers for making food taste amazing.
Well, savory food.
Try it with some scrambled eggs to start.
It's really cheap.
Now, there's other ways of getting that umami flavor.
So, you can do that by incorporating ingredients
that have umami flavor.
As mentioned, mushrooms and tomatoes,
or fish sauce has really high concentrations
as does miso paste.
And the parmesan cheese.
But if you just want to go simple and add
a little bit of flavor, or a lotta bit of flavor,
MSG.
And you can find this at your asian grocer,
or at your local grocer under this brand: Ajinomoto.
Or Accent is another common brand.
But yeah, just look in the salt section
and you should be able to find it.
And this was like a couple bucks, so.
Now, don't take my word for it,
learn about it from other reliable sources.
Do your own research but I'm sure you'll come to
the same conclusion that MSG is completely safe
and can bring food to 11.
- What we do is if we need that extra push
over the cliff, you know what we do?
- Put it up to 11. - 11, exactly.
- Now this stuff is amazing for soups, for stocks,
for stir-frys or a little fried vegetables.
Just experiment with it.
It's really meant for dishes that you want to
make more savory.
So you're not going to be putting it on
dessert, or apple pie, per se.
I hope you like this video.
Leave a comment down below
what your thoughts are on umami and MSG,
what you would use it for.
I want to know what you're thinking.
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I make cheap, healthy, and tasty meals and
sometimes videos like this.
So, thanks for watching. Bye guys.