MSG: The Saga Continues -- April 28, 2019

On June 22, 2017, I posted this note on "the literature page":

From Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family's Journey Through the Belly of Japan, Michael Booth, c. 2009, 2016, chapter 9: "MSG: An Apology"

• "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome": phrase coined in a 1968 letter to The New England Journal of Medicine
• world's largest producer of MSG: Ajinomoto, a Japanese company; "ajinomoto" - "essence of taste"
• company founded by Professor Kikunae Ikeda; discovered MSG in 1908
• konbu seaweed: natural source of the particularly delicious amino acid called glutamate
• glutamate - nature - seaweed - MSG - umami
• MSG played an important role in adding flavor and mouth-feel to processed foods when these were lost during their industrial preservation
• critics allege: a few years ago Ajinomoto made the hole in the top of the MSG shaker larger so that people would use more
• from transcript of interview recorded with the company's scientific affairs spokeswoman
• MSG: no more processed than salt or sugar; comes from konbu, seaweed
• umami receptor discovered in 2000 (joined the other four taste receptors)
• made the hole in the shaker larger about 30 years ago; reason? steam from the soup was clogging up the smaller hole
• now the rest of the story
• US FDA, UN, and EU: have all given MSG the "all clear"
• merely a man-made glutamic acid produced by fermenting carbohydrates and sugars
• umami and MSG are inextricably linked but are by no means the same thing
• umami: usually referred to as the fifth taste, after salty, sweet, bitter, and sour
• some neurologists now claim there are fifty or more tastes
• Ikeda: noted something common in the complicated taste of asparagus, tomatoes, cheese, and meat; this taste is quite peculiar and cannot be classed under any of the other well-defined four taste qualities
• cheese -- parmesan in particular -- and tomatoes have a powerful umami flavor (quick, name the primary components of pizza; yes, cheese and tomatoes, LOL)
• other foods with strong umami component: air-dried ham, veal stock and Worcestershire sauce
• mother's milk is far richer in umami than cow's milk
• the crust on grilled meat: high in umami flavor
• savory and meaty: words most often used to describe umami
• Japanese most often use words delicious and tasty for umami
• evolutionary explanations
• sweet: tells you sugar is present; therefore an energy-giver
• salt: a bodily requirement
• bitter and sour: useful as warnings of toxins or unripeness (or spoilage)
• so why umami? lets you know the food contains glutamic acid
• glutamine indicates that protein is in the food; protein is essential to our survival, and so it makes sense that we identify something as food
• unlike salt or sugar, there are no obvious go-to foods to get your hit
• glutamine: supports other flavors; add body; enhances other flavors
• umami is an indicator of ripeness and therefore tells us when vegetables and fruits are at their most nutritious
• tomatoes are at their most umami-ish when they are at the peak of ripeness
• konbu (seaweed) has more glutamate than any other foodstuff on earth
• #1 food associated with Japanese umami: miso soup
• katsuobushi, the other main base ingredient of the dashi used to make miso soup (along with water)
• shiitake mushrooms: also extremely rich in guanylate and are often added to miso soup as well
• miso soup: a triple whammy -- konbu, katsuobushi, shiitake
• the Italians were particularly good at generating this synergistic umami effect (think pizza)
• parmesan: second-highest amount of glutamate of all common foodstuffs
• French: veal stock
• British: Marmite, or yeast extract
• health benefits to umami -- you will have to get the book to learn about that; I need to move on

In this weekend's edition of The Wall Street Journal, River Davis says the same thing, brings us up to day. I will provide the link later. I'm reading the hard copy edition. You know, the one you can hold in your hands and turn pages of paper. LOL. [Later: this is the link to the WSJ article.]