Welcome to an episode of Eating the Past. I am host Jeannie Sur. We have recently been talking about the science of cooking so today I would like to talk about a popular additive that was created in a lab, this additive is Monosodium glutamate also known as MSG. When I think of MSG I automatically imagine something like Chinese food. But MSG is added in a wide variety of foods. Most commonly in condiments such as ketchup, mustard, BBQ, mayo, salad dressing. It is also in a lot of canned soups and mixes, as well as soup products like bouillion. It’s also in spices and spice blends. And it is obviously in a lot of fast food, or at least obvious to me because it is a quick and cheap flavor enhancer.
But MSG is also commonly found in processed meats—and snacks in general, like chips, potato and corn chips, snacks that are considered addictive. But surprisingly to me, MSG also occurs naturally. It is naturally found in tomatoes, certain cheeses like parmesean, seafood like anchovies, oysters, clams, shrimps, basically the most delicious seafood. And not only tomatoes but other vegetables like mushrooms, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. It is also found in soy sauce and miso. Pretty much MSG is found naturally in foods that can be described as having a profile of umami. I guess I should have known. MSG is used because it adds umami to foods.
Also I should say umami is my favorite taste. Umami if you didn’t know is considered one of the basic elements of tastes. The common ones are, sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami. Umami is also called savory. While there usually are five sometime people say there are 7 different tastes, the other two are fat and spicy. I would definitely add spicy to my list, I’m very unsure about fat. I’m not quite sure what taste fat occupies. But according to the journal “Chemical senses” the taste of fat isn’t necessary pleasant. They say it’s not really about the taste but sensation or texture, almost a rancid oil. It doesn’t sound pleasant and I’m not convinced.
But back to my favorite taste, umami is the taste of savory. I like to think of it as adding depth to food, somehow umami makes food taste richer and deeper. It is also described as meaty or brothy, I can live with that. For me we can’t discuss MSG without discussing umami. MSG was first discovered or created by a Japanese Professor of Chemistry Kikunae Ikeda around 1907/1908. But by 1909 he had patented MSG to produce it commercially. It’s been told that he discovered MSG when one day he was eating soup and realized the soup was tastier due to the addition of kombu, a type of seaweed. As an aside, to make a broth base my mother always cooks kelp with anchovies, it creates a great umami stock. But whether this story is true or not this is the legend of how Professor Ikeda was inspired to create MSG.
He is also said to have studied MSG and realized it occurred naturally in foods. His theory was that humans developed a taste for MSG because it signaled the presence of proteins. Although I’m not sure if his theory has been definitively proven. But more recently, scientists at Tohoku University have discovered that the function of MSG naturally in foods might be that it makes food tasty, which sounds intuitive and bit too obvious but in short this “enticement of tastiness,” serves a function when someone might have an impaired sense of taste.
But to conclude I can’t leave this episode without addressing the controversy surrounding MSG. Other than the fact that this is a product produced in a lab, MSG has been often linked with Chinese food, even though as I’ve said in this episode it does occur naturally and is found in a variety of foods. It has also been linked to something that has been called Chinese restuarant syndome, which is the presence of migraines after eating chinese food, the culprit being MSG. The studies on this link is inconclusive and can be suspect. But it is an intriguing question and one I maybe hope to explore in another episode. Thank you for joining me today on another episode of eating the past. Please join us every week on Sunday right after the splendid kitchen.
