Umami: The Fifth Basic Taste

The flavor of food is determined by a number of factors including taste, smell and temperature, with the most important aspect being taste. We are all familiar with the gustatory experience of four basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

Nearly 100 years ago, however, a Japanese scientist, Professor Kikunae Ikeda, discovered a taste that could not be classified under the well defined qualities of sweetness, sourness, saltiness or bitterness. It is now internationally recognized as the fifth basic taste called UMAMI, which describes the pleasurable “savoriness” of the food.

The taste of Umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand the flavor of food, making it deliciously, continuingly savory, meaty and mouthful.

Most people do not recognize it, but Umami can be detected in foods such as tomatoes, parmesan cheese, ham, chicken, beef, seafood and mushrooms. Commonly used flavoring ingredients such as patis, bagoong, soy sauce, oyster sauce, bouillon cubes, are abundant in glutamates. Many foods rich in glutamate are used to enhance flavor.

Prof. Ikeda ascertained the existence of Umami when he was investigating the main taste substance in dried seaweed or kombu. He was able to determine, through numerous scientific experiments, that the distinctive taste in kombu was produced by a substance called glutamate. He named the unique taste “UMAMI.”

Although it was a Japanese scientist who first labeled the distinctive taste of glutamate as Umami, extensive research shows that it has existed traditionally in Western and other Asian cultures, as well. In ancient Rome and Greece, fish sauce called “Garum” is produced and used in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, some 2,500 years ago.

Meat is a rich source of Glutamic acid, and is fundamental for the production of flavor in European cooking. As in the Filipino “Bulalo,” the flesh and bones of beef boiled together makes a savory soup base; and with fresh vegetables and herbs, form the essential base for delectable sauces and dishes in Europe and America. Referred to as broth or bouillon, these meaty liquids are added to soups, sauces and various recipes as potent flavor enhancers.

Similarly, cured pork is used to provide a rich savory taste in Spanish, Italian and German cuisine. Chorizo, Pepperoni and frankfurters are a few examples from the vast assortment of cured sausages typically used to add flavor and richness to many prepared foods. In the Filipino cuisine, adding fish sauce “patis” to the Chicken Ginger dish called “Tinola,” and fish paste “bagoong” to the common mixed vegetable dish, “Pinakbet,” enhances savoriness, also termed as “malinamnam” in Tagalog language. With garlic and vinegar, soy sauce is used to enhance the flavor of the internationally famous Filipino meat dish “ADOBO.” Patis, bagoong and soy sauce are high in glutamate content produced by of shrimps and/or fish, and soybeans.

While the medium itself varies from seafood products in Asia to meat stocks in Europe, the Umami taste which comes from glutamates, is common to them all. We describe the experience it offers – “savory,” “brothy,” “meaty,” “mouthful” or “malinamnam” – we all seem to want it and enjoy it as fundamental part of what makes our food taste good. However, in the absence of a common term in Filipino dialect, “Ma-UMAMI” could be the appropriate coined term to describe the resulting “blooming of the flavor” which is the unique pleasurable taste of glutamates named Umami in our food.