What's the deal with umame, the fifth taste?

Factual Questions
1

I heard there is a new taste (as in sweet, salty, bitter, sour) that is called umame. It is apparently the taste of monosodium glutamate. Ive never tasted msg alone but just kind of assumed it was on the salty spectrum. Anyway, who the hell decides one day that there is a new taste, and then proceeds to convince everyone else? How many other tastes remain undiscovered (rhetorical)?

2

Actually it is umami. If you go to http://google.com
and search for umami you will get several different sites with good information.

3

Oh and welcome to the boards by the way.

4

You may also want to check a little known resource called “The Straight Dope”.

Besides sweet, sour, etc., is there a fifth taste sensation, “umami”?

5

You might check out the column: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mumami.html

6

Hey! I recently read somewhere, that thre is an article on The Straight Dope about umami…

7

I’ve got an idea! Maybe Cecil wrote an article on umami!
NNAAAaahhhh!

8

Sorry just signed up and asked every question i ever wanted answered. Ill do my research first :slight_smile:

9

OK, ever had Ramen noodles? That’s what umami tastes like. It’s not actually just MSG: There’s several proteins that taste umami. Glutemate is just the strongest of them, and MSG is the most familiar form of glutemate.