Umami Paste

  Posted on July 25, 2011  by Leslie Blythe  No comments

I just bought a tube of Taste No 5 at Fresh & Easy market.  Of the tastes known to man, including sweet, sour, salty and bitter, it is the “fifth taste,” umami, that has been most difficult to pinpoint – until now.

Umami – associated with savory flavors found in mushrooms and some cheeses – in paste form is now being sold in the United States. The paste is called “Taste No. 5”.

For the last 102 years, since its discovery by Japanese scientists, umami has remained an elusive taste, more familiar to scientists than to chefs. For this reason “Taste No. 5” creator Laura Santtini decided to take umami out of the laboratory and into the kitchen.

“I wanted to get away from the notion that umami is something of interest to scientists that no one else can really understand,” she tells the Telegraph. “The truth is that umami should be of interest to anyone who has a tongue.”

To achieve this taste, Santtini used ingredients like anchovies and porcini mushrooms. “Umami is part of our everyday eating lives, it is just that many of us don’t know what to call it. It is what gives depth of flavour to food,” she says. “Every food culture has its umami-rich ingredients, whether it is seaweed in Japan or Parmesan in Italy.”

According to a 2000 study out of the University of Miami, the human tongue possesses receptors that only react to glutamate, a chemical commonly found in savory foods. This means that the tongue is pre-programmed to crave umami.

Here is more info – http://www.laurasanttini.com/umami.html
http://www.umamiinfo.com/