What is umami?
Sweet, sour, salty and bitter we all know. But there is a fifth basic taste: umami. Although the name may sound exotic, you encounter umami almost every day. Think of a piece of aged cheese, a ripe tomato, mushrooms or a well-made stock.
Umami provides a full, savory flavor that makes dishes richer and deeper. It is often the reason a dish has "that little extra," without you being able to point to exactly why.
In this blog you will read what umami exactly is, where it comes from and how you can easily add more umami to your own dishes.
What does umami mean?
The word umami comes from Japanese and roughly means "delicious savory taste" or "pleasant taste".
The taste was described in 1908 by the Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda. He discovered that the savory taste of kombu (a type of seaweed) was caused by glutamate, a naturally occurring amino acid.
Since then, umami has been recognized worldwide as the fifth basic taste, alongside:
- Sweet
- Sour
- Salty
- Bitter
- Umami