What is umami?
Umami is the fifth basic taste, alongside sweet, sour, salty and bitter. It is a savory, meaty flavor that comes mainly from glutamate in foods.
The Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda identified umami in 1908 while studying kombu, a seaweed used to make the broth dashi. He found that its rich taste came from glutamate, an amino acid, and named the flavor umami, from the Japanese word umai, meaning delicious. He later developed monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a seasoning.
For decades, Western scientists debated whether umami was a separate taste. In the early 2000s, researchers found specific taste receptors on the tongue that respond to glutamate, which confirmed it as a basic taste.
Foods rich in umami
Umami-rich foods include ripe tomatoes, aged cheeses like Parmesan, mushrooms, soy sauce, fish sauce, cured meats, anchovies and meat broths. Breast milk is also rich in glutamate. Chefs often combine several umami ingredients because they boost each other, which is why tomato sauce with Parmesan tastes so satisfying.
Did You Know?
Human breast milk contains about ten times more glutamate than cow's milk, so babies taste umami from their very first meals. Many scientists think this savory taste helps people recognize foods rich in protein.