Umami ( from Japanese: うま味, pronounced [ɯmami]), or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes. It is characteristic of broths and cooked meats. People taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to glutamates and nucleotides, which are widely present in meat broths and fermented products. Glutamates are commonly added to some foods in the form of monosodium glutamate (MSG), and nucleotides are commonly added in the form of disodium guanylate, inosine monophosphate (IMP) or guanosine monophosphate (GMP). Since umami has its own receptors rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors, scientists now consider umami to be a distinct taste. Food, beverages, or condiments that have a strong umami flavor include meats, shellfish, fish (including fish sauce and preserved fish such as Maldives fish, katsuobushi, sardines, and anchovies), dashi, tomatoes, mushrooms, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, meat extract (Bouillon cubes), yeast extract (beer, Marmite, Vegemite), kimchi, cheeses (Parmesan, Asiago cheese, or blue cheese), as well as sauces such as A1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce. In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda of the University of Tokyo scientifically identified umami as a distinct taste attributed to glutamic acid. As a result, in 1909, Ikeda and Saburōsuke Suzuki founded Ajinomoto Co., Inc. which introduced the world's first umami seasoning: monosodium glutamate (MSG), marketed in Japan under the name "Ajinomoto." MSG subsequently spread worldwide as a seasoning capable of enhancing umami in a wide variety of dishes. In 2000, researchers at the University of Miami identified the presence of umami receptors on the tongue, and in 2006, Ajinomoto's research laboratories found similar receptors in the stomach.
Etymology A loanword from Japanese, umami can be translated as "pleasant savory taste". The original word has various orthographies: うまみ, うま味, 旨味, meaning "deliciousness". However, in its original sense, it is normally used in its adjectival form umai (うまい, 旨い). The arrangement of glyphs うま味 for umami was proposed in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda to refer to the particular savory component he was researching. While the written forms are often used interchangeably, in the 1980s Japanese researchers suggested that うま味 should be used for the flavor while 旨味 is the more general sense of tasty.
Background Scientists have debated whether umami was a basic taste since Kikunae Ikeda first proposed its existence in 1908. In 1985, the term umami was recognized as the scientific term to describe the taste of glutamates and nucleotides at the first Umami International Symposium in Hawaii. Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5'-ribonucleotides such as "inosinate and guanylate". (guanosine monophosphate, GMP, and inosine monophosphate, IMP). It can be described as a pleasant "brothy" or "meaty" taste with a long-lasting, mouthwatering, and coating sensation over the tongue. Umami enhances the palatability of a wide variety of foods. Studies in genetically engineered mice in which individual TAS1R genes have been deleted indicate that the TAS1R1/TAS1R3 complex is solely responsible for umami taste, whereas TAS1R2/TAS1R3 is solely responsible for sweet taste. As expected, a genetic knockout of TAS1R1 selectively abolishes umami taste, a knockout of TAS1R2 specifically abolishes sweet taste, while a knockout of TAS1R3 eliminates both sweet and umami taste. Specialized taste bud cells detect the chemical species perceived as umami by humans. Glutamate in acid form (glutamic acid) imparts little umami taste, whereas the salts of glutamic acid, known as glutamates, give the characteristic umami taste due to their ionized state. GMP and IMP amplify the taste intensity of glutamate. Adding salt to the free acids also enhances the umami taste. It is disputed whether umami is truly an independent taste because standalone glutamate without table salt ions (Na+) is perceived as sour; sweet and umami tastes share a taste receptor subunit, with salty taste blockers reducing discrimination between monosodium glutamate and sucrose; and some people cannot distinguish umami from a salty taste. Monosodium L-aspartate has an umami taste about a quarter as intense as MSG, whereas ibotenic acid and tricholomic acid (likely as their salts or with salt) are claimed to be many times more intense. Peptides can also generate an umami taste, with 52 of them being known to do so as of 2017 (although 20 of them are contested).
Discovery
Glutamate has a long history in cooking. Fermented fish sauces (garum), which are rich in glutamate, were used widely in ancient Rome, fermented barley sauces (murri) rich in glutamate were used in medieval Byzantine and Arab cuisine, and fermented fish sauces and soy sauces have histories going back to the third century in China. Cheese varieties are rich in glutamate and umami flavor. In the late 1800s, chef Auguste Escoffier, who opened restaurants in Paris and London, created meals that combined umami with salty, sour, sweet, and bitter tastes. However, he did not know the chemical source of this unique quality. Umami was first scientifically identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a professor of the Tokyo Imperial University. He found that glutamate was responsible for the palatability of the broth from kombu seaweed. He noticed that the taste of kombu dashi was distinct from sweet, sour, bitter, and salty and named it umami. Shintaro Kodama, a disciple of Ikeda, discovered in 1913 that dried bonito flakes (a type of tuna) contained another umami substance. This was the ribonucleotide IMP. In 1957, Akira Kuninaka realized that the ribonucleotide GMP present in shiitake mushrooms also conferred the umami taste. One of Kuninaka's most important discoveries was the synergistic effect between ribonucleotides and glutamate. When foods rich in glutamate are combined with ingredients that have ribonucleotides, the resulting taste intensity is higher than would be expected from merely adding the intensity of the individual ingredients. This synergy of umami may help explain various classical food pairings: the Japanese make dashi with kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes; the Chinese add Chinese leek and Chinese cabbage to chicken soup, as do Scots in the similar Scottish dish of cock-a-leekie soup; and Italians grate the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese on a variety of different dishes.
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