In the spirit of scientific experimentation, I just took one for the team.
I dashed a small quantity of MSG powder into my palm and took a lick. At first, it was only very slightly salty… then an odd, mellow, vague “roundish” flavor of, I dunno… meat?.. took over.
By itself, it’s kinda of repulsive. Just like salt, but in a more, um – visceral sense – where as straight up salt is like a punch in your face.
As I suspected, on its own, it’s weird and dull and funny-tasting. But once added into anything salty or savory, it turns into magical tastebud powder. “Flavor Enhancer” is definitely a good term, as it magnifies the tasty part of… taste.
“Umami” is not something Kikkoman dreamt up. It is the official term for to the “5th taste” it was recently discovered that we have taste receptors for. (In addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter.)
Umami means “pleasant savory taste” in Japanese. I assume they chose it because English doesn’t have a single word for what umami is.
Right, that’s what I was trying to say, but you said it better. I knew about the japanese word for this “5th” taste way before Kikkoman started running those ads, and to me it seemed an obvious attempt at marketing the virtues of MSG, by appropriating the word to americans (and thereby not drawing the direct correlation between MSG and umami because of MSG’s stigma).
I think the word “savory” describes the taste just fine.
Umami is also present in the hydrolyzed yeast product added to commercial soups and stews. One of my goddaughters had a playfriend who refused to eat homemade beef stew, she insisted on canned commercially made only. I just started adding a small dollop of vegemite to my stew, and she couldn’t tell that it was not chunky soup beef and veggie soup [what she considered stew, that was what her mother fed her:rolleyes:]
The Cliff’s Notes: There was a movie called Blue Velvet in which Dennis Hopper, playing a character named “Frank Booth,” tormented under duress whats-her-name’s character and made her do some messed-up stuff. Including games including lines such as “It’s Daddy, shithead, where’s my bourbon?”
Also, “Mommy, mommy, baby wants to fuck.” It’s not meta, but it does depend on knowing basic canonical texts. The screenplay is the text, for those of you not familiar with the film or basic cinematographic terminology.
It’s one of the reasons I like to lick Lowrey’s seasoning salt straight out of my hand, sometimes. However, I kind of object to its use in Lowrey’s Microwave Pork Rinds. It kind of adds an “over meaty” flavor to something that is already meaty and the other spices kind of clash.
I’m all for MSG. It is pretty damn magic. That said, it can be overused by unskilled cooks. It should be an enhancer, not a substitute for good ingredients and skilled seasoning.
Everyone in China cooks with it- it’s put out on the table along with salt. If it’s bad for you, than one billion people must have a headache every day.
I don’t really know what it tastes like. I know it’s in certain foods but it’s not like I’ve ever eaten plain MSG (sounds kind of gross!) or inquired into each and every thing I’ve eaten to compare the foods with MSG and the foods without it.
It’s bad for me in the same way that loads of salt is bad for me.
I eat heavily-salted food and MSG-laden foods with abandon, but I don’t pretend that overprocessed fast foods and snack foods are in any way “good” for me.
I don’t add it to many foods that I make myself, but I do have a tube of “seasoned salt” that I’ll punch up mac&cheese with when I’m feeling lazy.
Still, MSG = yummy.
To me, umami tastes like raw/rare meat - salty and rich and mineral/metallic. MSG is much more salty than that, and a little more spicy.
To perhaps explain that association, I’m severely anemic, and I like the taste of blood, copper, and rust, so that has to be taken into consideration. Yes, thank you, I know my tastebuds are odd.
How to explain MSG? Maybe…you ever “suck” on a cube of good cheddar? Or maybe eat some collard greens with a good ham base? Eat some really good ma po tofu at a restaurant, and can’t figure out why you can’t reproduce it at home? It’s a dull, encompassing, puckering deep, meaty flavor, that coats your tongue if you were to remove the salt and other flavors. Ever eat any Steak or Ribs flavored Herr’s Potato Chips?.. it’s that aftertaste.Chew up some teriyaki jerky in your mouth and hold it… Swallow, that meaty flavor that remains is an enhancement of MSG. It’s almost “sagey”.
Does Lowrey’s make more than one kind of seasoned salt? Mine has a red cap - and states in more than one place “No MSG.” I’ve only seen this one in the stores I’ve shopped at, and I must have it on my stove-popped popcorn. Other stuff by them may have it, but the seasoned salt doesn’t. I’m mot really for or against the stuff, but this being the SDMB, gotta be clear, right?
Well, I guess it doesn’t if it says so… I guess I was just talking about Lawry’s as a sort of Generic term for seasoning salt. I have some generic seasoning salt that isn’t Lawry’s and I’m pretty sure it has MSG, or “natural flavoring” or “hydrolized soy protein” in the mix. The Lowrey’s Hot Microwave Pork Rinds, which definitely contains MSG, apparently have nothing to do with the seasoning salt Lawry’s, although they use a pretty close knock-off of The seasoning salt in their “Original” Pork Rinds.
While MSG does (obviously) contain sodium, it’s a lower proportion of sodium than in salt, and you need a smaller amount of MSG than of salt for a given amount of flavor. So if you were to replace all your salt consumption with an equivalent amount of flavor from MSG, you’d be cutting your sodium intake considerably.
