More About Umami

Here are some resources for readers interested in learning more about umami.

How to Cook With Umami Foods – Learn how cooking with umami foods and a few simple techniques can add more umami flavor to dishes.
Everything You Need to Know About Umami – One of five universal basic tastes, umami is found in ingredients and cuisines throughout the world, and for the cook who knows what they’re doing, it can be the secret to truly delicious cooking.
Understanding Umami Flavor With a Simple Taste Test– The best way to understand what is umami flavor is to try it yourself. This taste test is an easy way to learn how to add more umami taste to your cooking.

Book Description

In the West, only four basic tastes have been identified – sour, sweet, salty, and bitter that form the basis of taste. However, in many parts of Asia, an additional flavor has entered the culinary lexicon over the past century called umami, which is wholly distinct from the other four.

Combining culinary history with research into chemistry, food preparation, nutrition, and culture, Mouritsen and Styrbæk write about what we know about the concept of umami from ancient times to today. Umami flavor can be found in soups, stocks, meat dishes, air-dried ham, shellfish, aged cheeses, mushrooms, and ripe tomatoes, and it can enhance other tastes to produce delicious food.

Researchers have also discovered which substances in ingredients bring umami flavors out, providing curious cooks with a road map to prepare delicious dishes with less fat, salt, and sugar.

This volume, the product of an ongoing collaboration between a chef and a scientist, won the Danish national Mad+Medier-Prisen (Food and Media Award) in the category of academic food communication.