It was touted as a nutritional wonder, helping bland but nutritious food become delicious. The resulting sodium salt form of glutamic acid (the acid with just a single sodium molecule) became famous for its ability to imbue a meaty flavor into dishes, or just naturally enhance the flavor of food. In 1909, Ikeda began mass-producing Ajinomoto (meaning “essence of taste”), an additive that came out of his creation of the first method of industrially producing glutamate by way of fermented vegetable proteins. Non-meat food sources like tomatoes and Parmesan cheese have high levels of glutamic acid. The FDA estimates that the average adult consumes 13 grams of it a day from the protein in food. Glutamate is one of the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitters in brain, playing a crucial role in memory and learning. In the body, glutamic acid is often found as glutamate, a different compound that has one less hydrogen atom. He determined the molecular formula of the crystals: C 5H 9NO 4, the same as glutamic acid, an amino acid designated as non-essential because the human body, as well as a large smattering of other plants and animals is able to produce it on its own. A new frontier of taste had been discovered, and Ikeda wasted no time monopolizing on his discovery. When he tasted the crystals, he recognized the distinct savory taste that dashi lent to other foods, a taste that he deemed umami, from the Japanese umai (delicious.) It was a breakthrough that challenged a cornerstone of culinary thinking: instead of four tastes-sweet, salty, bitter and sour-there were now five. After days of evaporating and treating the seaweed, he saw the development of a crystalline form. He then took the seaweed and ran it through a series of chemical experiments, using evaporation to isolate a specific compound within the seaweed. Ikeda was able to isolate the main substance of dashi–the seaweed Laminaria japonica. For some reason that was generally accepted but inexplicable, dashi made these meatless foods meaty–and Ikeda was determined to find out why. My favorite variety of nutritional yeast comes in the form of flakes and is sold in the bulk bin section of all-natural grocery stores.In 1908, over a bowl of seaweed soup, Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda asked a question that would change the food industry forever: what gave dashi, a ubiquitous Japanese soup base, its meaty flavor? In Japanese cuisine, dashi, a fermented base made from boiled seaweed and dried fish, was widely used by chefs to add extra oomph to meals–pairing well with other savory, but meatless foods like vegetables and soy. Often I use a small amount so that you wouldn't necessarily recognize it in a recipe. This heightens the flavor of everything from roasted vegetables, soup, stews, gravies, sauces, grains, and bread. Because it is high in glutamic acid, it has naturally occurring umami. "My number one key ingredient for adding umami to any dish or recipe is nutritional yeast. Raquel Pelzel is the author of Sheet Pan Suppers: Meatless and Umami Bomb: 75 Vegetarian Recipes That Explode with Flavor. Pickle juice is awesome in the same way: I love adding a splash to a salad dressing. Yes, the kimchi is delicious, but the juice adds intensity and flavor to stir-fries and eggs-or drizzled over avocado toast. "I have Mama O's Vegan Kimchi in my fridge right now and my kids and I eat it like Doritos (if Doritos were eaten with a fork) but the key here is the kimchi juice. I use it to make a brine for soaking tofu or pulverize it with spices (coriander, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, paprika, and garlic powder) and sugar to make a pastrami-style dry rub. " Lapsang souchong tea is also smoky and wonderful.
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