I’m falling in love with cooking and I see on all these shows talk about Umami with ingredients. I get the idea behind the flavor but they don’t excite my taste buds. I feel like I’m missing something.
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You could try this – make two little hamburger patties and get two small skillets hot. Salt and pepper one of them, and drizzle the other one with a 50/50 combo of soy sauce and fish sauce. Cook them both until browned and crispy and try the difference between them.
I think fish sauce is pretty nasty when overdone in uncooked things, but when it’s seared, it’s kinda magical-umami-bomb. It’s really amazing on things like grilled burgers, if you don’t overdo it. I consider the fish sauce/soy sauce combo a real secret weapon for grilling burgers.
It’s one of the basic taste, caused primarily by glutamates and a few other substance when it’s detected by your tongue.
It’s hard to separate this taste from other taste because most food has stronger taste that overwhelm it, but without it the food would still taste less good; it’s like the bass playing behind the lead singer. I think a good way to taste it is to make boiled tenderloin with no seasonings whatsoever. No salts, no sugar, no spices, no oils nor fats, just pure lean pork.
Umami is new. People used to think of sweet and salty. It is the meaty texture that you get from mushrooms, for instance. Also soy.
I have read all the comments on this thread and have absolutely no idea what umami still is. I am seeing it tastes like tomatoes, meat drippings, salty but not salty, msg-related taste, etc. I googled umami, and not seeing much of a straight answer…
So is this a prominent taste, or is it more or a vague background taste because it’s seeming to be something that isn’t obvious
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