Flavour science: The tastemakers

The ubiquity of MSG

FIRST umami. Then kokumi. For many Japanese the classical gustatory quartet of sour, sweet, salty and bitter seems insufficient. They suggest there are other basic tastes, and are prepared to back that suggestion with scientific research.Umami, imparted by glutamic acid, a type of amino acid, and most commonly associated with a derivative of that chemical called monosodium glutamate (MSG), was identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a chemist at what was then Tokyo Imperial University (now called the University of Tokyo). Ikeda wanted to pin down an ineffable taste he identified in dashi, a soup stock made from tuna and seaweed. When he found glutamates were the cause, he gave their effect a name compounded from the characters for “delicious” and “taste”.Kokumi, similarly compounded from “rich” and “taste”, has been the subject of scientific inquiry in Japan since the 1980s, but is less familiar in the West. It is as much a feeling as a taste, and is described variously as “mouthfulness”, “thickness” and “heartiness”. Garlic, onions and scallops are all said to possess it. But, though the source of kokumi is...



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