Why do so many foods have a ‘chicken’ flavour, when the flavour tastes nothing like chicken?
In: Other
Because they want meat flavor (Glutamate), and chicken is cheap and plain, so if you want to make a dish that normally has meat, without adding meat (like ramen, because you need the shelf life) then you use “chicken flavor”, lamb flavor for example is expensive and many people don’t like it, beef is even a little strong, and fish can have a lot of off flavors.
Anyways, the process of making the flavoring is make meat broth (boil chicken in water), and then boil the water completely out. What’s left is meat protein concentrate, which in practice is nearly 100% MSG, and it imparts a strong meaty flavor. Cheap things will add extra MSG to reduce cost, but this will wash out the chicken flavor. In Asian cooking they often will use oyster sauce or fish sauce which is basically just concentrated fish broth and has a similar flavor profile. Soy sauce is the vegetarian equivalent. All are essentially straight MSG (and water), and make a dish taste meaty and add a bit of their own flavor.
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