Umami

Umami (Japanese for “pleasant savoury taste”) is the fifth basic taste that a person perceives alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It is often described as “meaty,” “brothy,” or deeply rich — it is this that makes a dish especially tasty and satisfying.

Scientifically, umami was identified by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, who established that glutamic acid and its salts (glutamates) are responsible for this taste; the umami nucleotides were found later by Shintaro Kodama (inosinate, 1913) and Akira Kuninaka (guanylate, 1957). Products naturally rich in umami are aged cheese (parmesan), ripe tomatoes, mushrooms, seaweed, meat broth, soy sauce, and fermented foods. Although umami was described as a distinct taste only in the 20th century, cooks around the world intuitively used it for centuries, combining ingredients rich in it. Understanding umami is the key to creating truly deep, balanced, and delicious dishes.