You’re familiar with the four tastes that register on the tongue: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. But a little-known fifth taste deserves some attention. Umami (oo-mom-ee) is not a new invention—we’ve been tasting it at least since ancient times, but weren’t able to scientifically identify it. We have only known, across the centuries, that a certain condiment or seaweed or mushroom had a pleasing brothy savor.
The word umami is Japanese, but doesn’t have a direct translation to English. The closest we have come is “delicious”—not very specific! And the concept has not been fully studied; in fact, it was only in 1990 that umami was internationally accepted as a fifth taste, perceived only on the tongue, like sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.
Still, chefs know how to add “deliciousness” to a dish: Foods high in umami include miso broth, parmesan cheese, asparagus, many seaweeds, scallops, dried mushrooms, and soy sauce. MSG, developed in the early 1900s in Japan, became known as an “instant” umami, and is still used in many foods to simulate flavor cheaply. If you put MSG, which looks like elongated sugar crystals, on your tongue, the sensation is of a slightly salty chicken broth, without an actual poultry flavor. But true umami is much more complex than this, and exists in many hundreds of foods.
Dried mushrooms and many seaweeds are among the foods highest in umami.
Is umami detectable in wine? Absolutely. You can taste it in many Champagnes and sparkling wines, and in some chardonnays, as a result of their contact with yeast cells after fermentation. The umami taste may correspond with a brioche or yeast aroma in these wines. In red wines, yeast can impart umami during a long, cool fermentation.
For more information on umami, check out the Umami Information Center.
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