The majority of customers don't know what is the extra that makes the food taste better in the other restaurant. We'll tell you, it's the umami, which is a myriad of flavours that almost bursts in your mouth. But how do you achieve it?
When we are asked what flavours we know, we usually list 4 things. Sweet, bitter, salty and sour. This is where the fifth taste comes in, umami, which somehow makes everything taste better.
What is umami?
In 1907, a Japanese professor, Kikunae Ikeda, discovered that there is a taste, a sensation, that is different from the four characteristic sensations of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. He finally formulated the fifth taste as intense, aromatic and salty at the same time. As this would be too long a description, he used the term “umami” for it, and we have used it ever since. Later on, we managed to make this flavour more specific, which is chemically monosodium glutamate. It is perceived intensely and for a long time on the tongue and in the throat. He not only formulated it, but also found out how to produce it and what foods it is found in. And this was most welcome to chefs, who were able to use it consciously.
What food has umami?
We already know that glutamate is the salt of glutamine, which is produced by a kind of fermentation. During the process, amino acids are released, so that the salt of glutamine, or umami, becomes higher and higher in the raw material.
Let's look at an example: during fermentation, soy glutamate is released, so the resulting soy sauce is a real umami that you can season and flavour.
The success of food in a restaurant
Many of the Asian cuisine is attributed to foods containing umami, but fortunately this is not the only thing that is. The justly famous and much-loved Italian cuisine also has umami. Not surprisingly, these in Parmesan and are found in prosciutto. Both are a delicacy Matured, which ends up with complex flavours in your mouth that you can't resist. Famed explorer and experimental chef Heston Bluementhal has identified 14 tomatoes in which he found umami. No wonder then why these cuisines have become world famous.
How do you know it's umami?
The first taste is a taste explosion, a taste bomb in the mouth that you don't expect. It tightens the tongue at once, but it's still sweet, and the experience lingers in the mouth and in the memory. We crave it, we savour it, but we can't eat as much of it because we simply get full faster than we would with any other food.#
