The Essence Of Deliciousness
Umami is a relative new comer in our taste sensations, it essentially represents proteins, needed and craved by our own bodies. It cannot be recreated by other tastes, stands on its own and has its own receptors, so is classified as a genuine player in the world of taste profiling.
It was actually isolated over a hundred years, a Japanese chemist, Kikunae Ikeda, discovered that the ionic form of glutamic acid, was responsible for the ‘deliciousness’ he found in his wife’s cooking. I bet he lived off of that discovery for some time! I make a note to let my better half know how much I enjoyed her cooking, even stretch to do the washing up. But to go to the level where you decide to search for a new ‘scrumptiousness’ taste, as no current taste sensations can capture what you are being fed! That’s gold medal level husbandry. But you know his world breaking scientific discovery, would have been forgotten the instant he came home late without letting her know, he would be re-classified as a “selfish prick” the minute he deftly closed the door behind his drunk ass. Since his 1907 discovery; productised by extracting the amino acid of seaweed and stabilising with water and salt, we have grown to love the comforting power of Umami, even if it still sounds a bit ‘foreign’ to the western ear. It essentially describes meaty or savoury notes, or as the Japanese refer to it: The ‘essence of deliciousness’, I think we all need to use that term from now on, even saying it out loud makes me smile. Foods strong in umami flavours have a high level of the amino acid, glutamate, a term we would have come across in the 80s in its form - Monosodium Glutamate – to Americans – MSG. To Japanese - Aji no Moto, or “Essence of taste”. MSG, what a cold dead term, the Americans completely losing all romantic notions, almost weaponizing it, it has been reduced to a code, column and commodity. MSG got brought back to America after the world war, the exposure to Japanese army rations and the rise in post war mass production of food, gave a white powder that produced ‘taste’ a prime role in factory foods, picking up those bland meals produced in vats.
The backlash to MSG came served with a dose of racial bias, surprisingly MSG carries much less risk than refined sugar, which saw nothing like the social backlash. Scientists did carry out tests to check the claims of MSG health risks, by injected large amounts of MSG into the brains of mice. They discovered the mice suffered some side effects. You injected shit into their brains?! What do you expect? I prefer mine on my noodles. It’s also in the nomenclature – artificial additive, flavour enhancer, MSG.. it’s a far cry from Sugar, salt, vinegar, Wochstershire, wostashershire sauce. Many people suffered the side effects of “Chinese restaurant syndrome” (honestly, it’s a thing) due to the power of nocebo; a relative of placebo. Nocebo is a condition where people show symptoms based on a negative reaction. I have made no secret of my views on the power of the mind in our enjoyment of food, painful memories and fear are powerful tools, it’s why we only get drunk on ouzo once.
Now a days umami is top of the billing, coming back as kombu, soy, miso, bonito and the seaweed that we can’t get enough of. Interestingly Marmite has the highest umami levels on the planet, yeast extract, glutamate occurs naturally in yeast. Marmite is one of the finest ingredients in the kitchen, on toast before the poached egg, spooned into the stock for a beef stew, added to mince, warmed and drizzled on white fish.. it has Umami, it has that deliciousness, but it needs respecting as it can kill everything in its path. So let’s tackle the killer question, how do we balance Umami in our meals? for the majority of us it comes in our meat, cheese, broths and tomatoes anyway, these work on their own to give us that sensation. It’s not a taste sensation we find lacking in the bulk of our meat and two veg meals. So where in our kitchen do we find it wanting? and where can it get exciting? Umami and Sweet is not a conventional pairing as it doesn’t naturally occur. Acid and salt in fermented goods we see match seamlessly, soy sauce being pin up for the salt, umami pairing. There is really not a lot going on there, just a two-dimensional dark salty rich hit. That said it a must have in every kitchen to beef up any dish. I throw it on anything that lacks depth, stocks, salads, Brexit supporters, Fast and furious X, Rishi Sunak and any Kardashian sister. You look at Umami through a sweet spy glass and we see Ingredients such as miso, parmesan and mushrooms frequent a place on the dessert trolley. Adding miso to a caramel gives it a longer flavour, literally a meatiness that sets the stage for the rich flavours to mellow against, but then we have been caramelising onions and mushrooms, to sit alongside beef for a long time. The kick of sugar a welcome contrast to the rich T-bone steak smouldering on the plate.
It’s not too hard to then see a caramel sauce with morels served with a firm poached pear, but it needs to be managed skilfully, less is more, the only thing that stops us is our experience and confidence, Mushrooms in caramel, what next? Cheese cake…. Cheese. Cake! A good balance of sugar and umami can be found in Asian dressings and glazes, frequently paired with honey, maple syrup or at times just sugar (rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and sugar whisked together is a staple and ready in seconds) honest to god; and the baby jesus, you cant go wrong mixing a spoon of miso, one of honey, then mix in a splash of vinegar and some oil, just keep tasting it till it feels right to you. It can be spread on anything before roasting, to turn the volume up, I mean anything - fish, meat, squash, mushrooms, cauliflower, white chocolate, pears, bananas.. you name it. Miso should be one of your store cupboard stables for this reason alone.
If you aren’t keen on all that foreign stuff, then look at the healing power of bacon. If step away from the full English and start to look at bacon as a seasoning, then we realise its true potential. Its unnerving power and agility, its ability in a sandwich, to either enrich peanut butter or dance a medley with a chunky sweet and sour marmalade. It’s little Smokey nuggets we know as lardons find their way into every French dish from the 80s. They love cream, be it in a quiche Lorraine, or with potato in tartiflette.
Added to slow cooked sweet onions they top hot dogs to pizzas. Fried off in a pan, the rich fat and crispy nuggets are prime for the addition of naturally sweet vegetables such as carrots, corn, parsnips and sweet potato, or as a preserve, Bacon jam is common pub menus from Slough to Stevenage, the last one I made had coffee, sugar and lardons all cooked down into some sticky crunchy crack.
Sweetcorn and smoked bacon – a chowder isn’t worth eating without the bacon, sweetcorn has a wonderfully buttery sweetness I have paired with roasted white chocolate in desserts before. And of course, our Christmas classic “Devils on horseback” - Smokey bacon wrapped dates – who on fucks earth named that? Were they having a bad day? Were they on acid at the time? There was a rumour it came from the Norman riders, who raided villages with rashers of bacon hanging on their armour, they did this to strike fear.
I have yet to suffer a raid like this, but I should imagine an 8 plus foot horse clad in metal, with a hefty mace wielding head case thundering in my direction, with the intention of dismembering me is enough. I doubt I will be pushed over the edge by 3 portions of Sainsburys smoked back bacon, waving around his armpit. It’s different now a days though, we have gone soft. Huge parts of Chiswick can be taken, not by force, just by riding in with a gluten heavy sourdough loaf in each hand. Such is the vulnerability of the upper middle classes. Deliciousness’s relationship with bitter and sour is not as exciting, more complimentary, there is no contrast, just another dimension. Think of it as dropping in a missing piece, you aren’t going to set the world on fire, but the dish will feel fuller or richer. A James Milner.
The best example I can think of is a Caesar Salad, this is a salad that we never fancy, then the minute we eat it we are all ‘My god! I can’t believe how tasty this is!’, ‘That Dressing?!’, ‘it’s filling, but I don’t feel full’, before we know it we have asked for extra bread to mop up the sauce and last few drops of oil. So what goes on? It’s a great piece of cooking as it has; at his heart, the bitter crisp lettuce. It works with baby gem cut in slices, the core, with all its bitterness still intact. You have the acid heavy dressing, into which you mash parmesan and anchovy, both high in Umami and salt, making this cold ass, crispy plate of lettuce feel like an actual meal!
Now we all know by bacon I am referring to the essence of deliciousness. Could we interchange those ‘essence of deliciousness’ rich foods? Could we add Miso to peanut butter? Sweet fried onions? Carrots? Or bacon to caramel, served with a fruit that has a bit of acid, maybe an apple or pear? Is the penny dropping? looking at ingredients in their basic form - acids, sugars, and ‘essence of deliciousness’ does simplify things. You see, you can’t really fail if you keep the ingredients to a minimum and taste as you go, the worst that can happen is it doesn’t taste nice, yet Subway is a multi-million-dollar company?!
We are seeing how the art of cooking, isn’t being a slave to a recipe that complicates matters, but instead, understanding what tastes need to be present to give us that satisfaction of eating. We think a little more like that when cooking and we might be on to something. The more we taste our food and engage with it, the more likely we are to taste the difference, it helps if we are open to look for it. Umami has also taught us the power of our own mind, in putting barriers in the way of our enjoyment of food. These fears; peddled at an even greater pace today, fill us with reservations, they succeed in making us fear for our health negatively, yet we struggle to embrace the benefits of eating positively. It’s fear that stops us from exploring, in both areas we know – sourcing better produce, substituting ingredients etc. and in areas we don’t – trying new ingredients(snake fruits, yam, seaweed) and experimenting with new pairings.
The truth is, if we were confident using all these products, food wouldn’t be more expensive, because we could just substitute and adapt.
Last week Morrisons had a sign up outlining the new restrictions, A limit of two packs of tomatoes per customer.. why? Because tomatoes are promoted in every supermarket in the western world, included in millions of recipes, farmed in mahoosive volumes and a commodity market that is worth 43 million. But it’s also true that the nature of this set up is failing, the quality of this product is shit, the recipe books must list ingredients available in supermarkets or publishers fear customers would feel lame, and supermarkets just want to increase their profits. Its also true that and we don’t have to play along.
I know I promised recipe examples, but the ‘essence of deliciousness’ felt like an empty topic, and I knew the challenge would give me something, and it did. I also figured people might not read this in order, so wouldn’t miss out or feel let down.
Anyway, onwards and sideways. Exciting times are ahead, I have a concept pop up in the pipeline – Pare – there are no menus, no ingredients, no grape, or growers, just wine and sharing plates ordered by flavour profile, and the opportunity for you to mix and match. See what combinations test your own palettes. I am excited by the experiment, and it lends itself to the use of AI and some data capture.
Till the next week!
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