Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) in Home Cooking

[Chris Amirault]

Update: a tsp was nice addition to a weak stock that I had on hand. It didn't do anything for the body, of course, but as this was for a tomato-y pozole, that wasn't an issue.

[wesza]

My mother would disown me if she thought i used MSG in my cooking, it's definitely cheating in her book.  For that reason I've never used it and have never found the temptation to either.  It would take all the fun out of buying good ingredients and preparing them with care and skill. 

I get enough MSG eating out, i don't feel the need to replicate that restaurant taste at home.

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I'm with Chris on your comment.

I have lots of fun buying good ingredients and preparing them with care and skill, and I still use MSG. This ingredient is not meant to replace quality, care, and skill; it is meant to enhance flavor.

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How about a legitimate response to your "Mother" ? I'm sure she wasn't aware that one of the largest suppliers of the elements of "MSG" to the human population in general is by it being a natural ingredient of all Nursing Mothers Milk.

It's a Amino Acid without any proved or known allergies to our species beyond simply using more then needed or mixing it with items that are not compatible taste wise. It's almost impossible to avoid since it's natural to many edible food products that almost everyone who thinks they are sensitive or allergies to MSG consume regularly with no effects.

I haven't posted since October 15, 2007 but couldn't resist this topic.

[JimH]

Wow, I just tried some straight. No real taste but it seems to stimulate all of the taste buds starting with the sour area and running to the back of the tongue.

[SheenaGreena]

i'm sure most people know this, but I love to dip pickles into msg. I dont know why...but they taste fantastic.

I also like to add a shake or two to soup, like seollangtang. It brings out the rich meaty flavor and adds savoriness.

However my korean grandmother is incredibly heavy handed when it comes to msg. She will add like a whole tablespoon full or something like that when she is making bean sprout namul. My mother and I on the other hand, tend to use a dash or two...too much and it takes away the taste of the veggie or meat

[Domestic Goddess]

Fiipinos also love msg in their soups, stews and dishes. My mother always tell me to add a pinch or a dash to any fish dish that I am making (especially if it was soup or stew).

MSG is also added to that deliciously addictive Filipino beer snack - chicharon (pork skin cracklings), not during cooking but after when it has cooled down. Salt and MSG are added to give that extra oomph to the flavor. Same thing is done to other crunchy fried things like crispy chicken skin, chicharon bulaklak (pork intestinal fat cracklings) and chicharon bituka (pork intestines cracklings).

[feedmec00kies]

Wow, I just tried some straight.  No real taste but it seems to stimulate all of the taste buds starting with the sour area and running to the back of the tongue.

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Yeah, completely alone in a significant quantity I found it had an almost unbearably strong flavor to it. And the boyfriend complained he could still taste it 10 minutes after he tasted some and washed the taste down with a soda...

[Ce'nedra]

Apparently (according to what I've read anyway), msg really isn't 'bad', but only so when taken in large quantities just like any other food. Supposedly the media has just blown its negative impact out of proportion.

Umm...but don't take my word for it....

[prasantrin]

A long departed elder relative who was illiterate, but has over 1000 Chinese, western and pastry recipes rolling around in his head pounded into me that frequent and over use of msg (and products like Maggi, oyster sauce) was a crutch for inferior cooks.

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Interesting. I was reading a cookbook recently (either one of Fuschia Dunlop's, or Andrea Nguyen's--I think it was the former) and she said, more or less, the same thing.

And I thought it was rather ironic that one of Chris' first experiments involved her recipe for kung pao chicken.

[GlorifiedRice]

Apparently (according to what I've read anyway), msg really isn't 'bad', but only so when taken in large quantities just like any other food. Supposedly the media has just blown its negative impact out of proportion.

Umm...but don't take my word for it....

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I totally concur.

If you look MSG up, it is in EVERYTHING. Not just Chinese American food, but in all cuisines. I think the reaction is like a YAWN, one person does it then the next and the next etc

[ChefZ]

MSG is the essence of umami or "the fifth taste" as mentioned earlier:

Umami was first identified as a taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth. Ikeda isolated monosodium glutamate as the chemical responsible and, with the help of the Ajinomoto company, began commercial distribution of MSG products.

There is quite a long list of foods that naturally have MSG and also have more umami than others. Soy sauce, tomatoes, parmesan, ham, chicken, kelp etc

In Japanese cuisine some traditional recipes call for placing chicken on kelp for 30 minutes on both sides before cooking. What actually happens is a transfer of MSG (umami) from the kelp to the surface of the chicken.

MSG has been "bastardized" over the last decades, with the reason to have allergic reactions, also called CRS Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. Studies in 1993 proofed that MSG did not cause these allergic reactions. Fact is that our bodies need glutamatic acid to function properly, so allergic reactions are to something else than MSG

there is a great blog post on khymos.org here

I have used MSG for sweet/savory chutneys. A few years back I made a bitter orange marmalade and added some MSG. It suppressed the bitterness of the oranges without having to add too much sugar. On kymos.org you can also find in the same post firther down a chart which explains how the five tastes suppresses or enhances each other depending on concentration of each. That explains why MSG of umami interacts with the other four tastes and why it workes sometimes with sweets and other times not.

Usually when I get a request for MSG free because the guests is allergic to MSG, I ask if the guest can consume tomato, soy sauce, dashi, chicken, ham, parmesan, etc... Usually I get the answer "yes they could". I always honor the guests request and would never serve any food with added MSG, I do serve any of the foods listed above, if the guest assured me that it is safe for them to consume.

So to answer the original question. At home if a recipe asks for MSG i will add it. If a recipe does not ask for MSG I might add some if I think it should, that does not happen very often. At work I only use MSG in natural occurring form, execpt in experimental dishes, or when the cooks/chefs cook lunch for ourselves.

Z

Edited February 17, 2008 by ChefZ (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Interesting piece in the NYTimes this morning (click):

Even now, after “Chinese restaurant syndrome” has been thoroughly debunked (virtually all studies since then confirm that monosodium glutamate in normal concentrations has no effect on the overwhelming majority of people), the ingredient has a stigma that will not go away.

But then, neither will MSG.

Cooks around the world have remained dedicated to MSG, even though they may not know it by that name. As hydrolyzed soy protein or autolyzed yeast, it adds flavor to the canned chicken broth and to the packs of onion soup mix used by American home cooks, and to the cheese Goldfish crackers and the low-fat yogurts in many lunchboxes.

...

If you live in the United States and like spicy tuna rolls, Puerto Rican roast pork or Thai noodles, there is a good chance you are eating, and enjoying, MSG. And if you are the kind of cook who likes to keep a globe-trotting kitchen, well, then, some of these MSG-laden ingredients may deserve a place in your cupboard.

I was particularly fascinated by this odd quotation:

“I don’t cook with MSG because that’s not my training, but it definitely has its place,” said Zak Pelaccio, a New York chef whose ride to fame has been greased with Kewpie mayonnaise. One of the dishes that put him on the map was a sandwich of roasted salmon on pumpernickel bread slathered with wasabi aioli: wasabi from a tube and the mayonnaise.

I guess that if you use a product that contains MSG, you can still retain plausible deniability on the issue of "cooking with MSG."

[Katie Meadow]

Interestingly, neither of the two recipes in that NYT article this morning called for MSG as a separate ingredient. It's a peculiar article and it's defense of MSG seems mainly to be: it's in tons of stuff we eat, so enjoy! It would have been more insightful if they had provided non-Asian recipes that included the strategic use of straight MSG in home-cooking. All those sauces have complex favors and large amounts of sodium, so it's hard to know what's what.

And what are "normal amounts," anyway? When I make Vietnamese sandwiches at home I use about 8 drops of Maggi in one sandwich. The Drunkard's Noodles recipe uses a full tablespoon of it along with 2 tblsps of oyster and same of fish sauce--for 2 large portions of food! I am one of those people who used to ask for "No MSG please" in Chinese restaurants, since I did get an unpleasant buzz as I went out the door. I can only assume that they would eliminate the extra dose that was added on top of the sauces that already contained MSG, but it was usually enough. I still believe that less is more, but then my tolerance for salt is pretty low as well.

I checked out that row of products at the top of page 5. Basically it's a junk food extravaganza, implying that the fifth taste amounts to not much more than an overdose of MSG and sodium. No thanks, I'll just have the seaweed broth.

[Magictofu]

I find it weird that all of you seems so enthusiastic about MSG. I find that in many restaurants and prepared meals, there is just too much of it... and when eating it I feel a weird almost puckery sensation in my mouth, as if my tongue is somewhat swollen. I can't eat too much dim sums because of that.

I think MSG is like salt. A little bit enhance the flavors but too much can cause a culinary disaster.

[maggiethecat]

Check out Tim Hayward's blog post, today at The Guardian. Fierce and funny.Right here.

He thinks Chinese Restaurant Syndrome is borderline racist, just for starters.

Edited December 3, 2008 by maggiethecat (log)

[chappie]

I never called it "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome," but my mom and wife both are very sensitive to the large amounts of MSG used by American Chinese restaurants. Haven't read the N.Y. Times piece yet, but their sensitivity to MSG is not something that can be "debunked." I can certainly feel when it's been overused.

Edited December 3, 2008 by chappie (log)

[Ce'nedra]

My mum still uses a bit in her cooking sometimes. She's gone all health-freak-ish but hasn't given msg the kick entirely yet (she's never used all that much of it though).