Umami infusion techniques

[Batard]

I was recently reading about umami, and how chefs are trying all sorts of techniques to infuse food with that special flavor. I've read all about Kikunae Ikeda, glutamate, inosinate and guanylate and the wide range of foods that contain them -- everything from hard cheese to mushrooms to seaweed to breast milk. But other than some strange anecdotes about people adding dashi to oatmeal, I haven't read anything practical about how this translates to cooking in my kitchen.

I experimented a bit with varying degrees of success. Hard cheese rinds do improve the broth, but after adding a bit of Kombu and mushroom water to the beef marinate, the food was much blander than the original recipe. I obviously have no idea what I am doing.

Does anyone here know the term "Kombu Jime"? Anyone have successful techniques for incorporating this magical fifth flavor to the foods they cook?

[Peter the eater]

. . . . Anyone have successful techniques for incorporating this magical fifth flavor to the foods they cook?

Marmite paste is soluble and flavorful, and it delivers the glutamate. Dashi pellets are also a powerful ingredient.

[isomer]

You might find some useful information here: Umami Information Center...

[Hiroyuki]

Like zuke (marinating in soy sauce), the primary purpose of kombu jime (also called kobu jime) was preservation. Sashimi, which is highly perishable, can keep for days if kombu jime'ed.

Kombu jime is usually applied to raw white-fleshed fish. Besides imparting umami to the ingredient, another benefit of kom jime is that the kombu absorbs excess water from the fish, making the fish tougher. But, don't expect that the effect of kombu jime is as great as seasoning with vinegar, salt, sugar, etc. Like many other Japanese dishes, the key to success is subtlety.

[Chris Amirault]

There are lots of products made to deliver the MSG: Accent, Maggi seasoning, virtually all bouillon cubes.

[Qwerty]

But doesn't something with meat (i.e. fish, chicken, beef, etc) by definition already have umami in it? I'm curious if adding soy to a ribeye would somehow enhance the taste of the "meatiness." I doubt it.

I understand the idea for some vegetables (and even things like mushrooms have umami) but I don't get the idea of stacking it on proteins. Seems like adding sugar to honey to make it sweet.

[emilyr]

I think it's more like having both sugar and honey in a recipe. It doesn't change one or the other, but it makes a more complex sweetness. When you add umami to an already meaty/savory/umami food, you build up the flavors.

[slkinsey]

But doesn't something with meat (i.e. fish, chicken, beef, etc) by definition already have umami in it? I'm curious if adding soy to a ribeye would somehow enhance the taste of the "meatiness." I doubt it.

Beef has by far the most free glutamate of any non-cured meat, at around 110 mg per 100 g (almost a factor of ten more than chicken or pork). Presumably aging naturally increases this amount, and one would expect to see some variability according to what the animal ate. This is nowhere near the amount found in, say, parmigiano reggiano, which is closer to 1,200 mg per 100 g.

[Batard]

There are lots of products made to deliver the MSG: Accent, Maggi seasoning, virtually all bouillon cubes.

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There’s a lot more to umami than MSG though. Doritos uses five different types of glutamates, and they do it for a reason. Then there’s inosinate, guanylate, and adenylate, which are not glutamates, but certainly contribute to umami.

Like zuke (marinating in soy sauce), the primary purpose of kombu jime (also called kobu jime) was preservation.  Sashimi, which is highly perishable, can keep for days if kombu jime'ed.

Kombu jime is usually applied to raw white-fleshed fish.  Besides imparting umami to the ingredient, another benefit of kombu jime is that the kombu absorbs excess water from the fish, making the fish tougher.  But, don't expect that the effect of kombu jime is as great as seasoning with vinegar, salt, sugar, etc.  Like many other Japanese dishes, the key to success is subtlety.

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The first time I heard of kombu jime it was being used to prepare beef. But the technique was never explained. The kombu may pull excess water from the meat, and have the effect of concentrating the 'beefiness' of the dish. But that’s not "infusion", it's more like extraction. I'm a lot more interested in the infusion possibilities.

I'm finding that umami-rich ingredients have a tendency to round out flavors. And while that is handy to know, I tried adding a few umami components to a braised beef dish I have been making for years, but I think those additions just flattened out all the flavors that were making the dish tasty. There were no more spikes of flavor. All it did was wash out most of the 'color' out of a dish, not improve it.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Batard (log)

[Lilija]

I work with umami a lot, at my job. Unfortunately, I am not a scientist, only a taste panelist, but I do have some narrow insight.

-Umami is found in naturally in LOADS of things, stuff you would never even imagine, like tomatoes and mushrooms. In fact, we determined that tomatoes have a potent umami element. Cheeses, yeast based things, fermented foods, seaweeds, obviously meats. We ate and rated tons of natual foods, for umami.

-Different ingredients, like the aforementioned Dorito glutimates, as well as yeast extracts, MSG, and other stuff that I can't think of offhand, produce different umami flavors ranging from sweet, to tangy, to metallic, to bitter. They naturally range far and wide in saltiness, too. We spent months tasting straight umami in water, from a multitude of sources. Umami without the salt element is straight up icky.

-This might seem like common sense, but salt enhances it, and it enhances salt. Weirdly enough, sweet brings it out more, too.

It's late, and we haven't done umami in a few months, specifically (we've moved on to parsley), but I might be able to answer some questions, relating to its flavors, and capacity as an enhancer. Like I said, I'm no scientist, just a victim, but I definitely spent a lot of time with the flavor.

As far as my favorite way to get a quick umami kick...double dashi pellets, an extra spoonful of red miso, in my miso soup, with toasted nori crumbled on top. It's like a direct hit to the brain. Not that I crave it much after studying it so in depth, last year

Edited January 12, 2009 by Lilija (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

You might find some useful information here: Umami Information Center...

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the recipe for Adobo on this link is really quite full of infused umami try it!

[Magictofu]

Lilija, you mentionned that different sources of Umami have different flavour profile. I assume that this is because of the various chemical compounds that forms the ingredient or is it because there are a variety of glutamates with different tastes?

[nickrey]

Mushrooms are a strong source of umami and one of the best ways of intensifying the flavour of mushrooms is to dry them.

I take dried Shiitake mushrooms (from China, bought at our local supermarket, or try an Asian grocer) and put them into the electric coffee grinder that I dedicate to grinding spices. The result is shiitake powder, which can be added to food to give a really nice umami hit.

As I use the grinder for some strong Indian spices, I cleaned it out first by grinding some rice and cleaning out the resultant coriander/cumin/chili flavored residue.

[Lilija]

Lilija, you mentionned that different sources of Umami have different flavour profile. I assume that this is because of the various chemical compounds that forms the ingredient or is it because there are a variety of glutamates with different tastes?

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It's because of the variety of glutamates. I'm not sure what it's called, but once we did a comparison study between the flavors of a yeast based umami vs. good old MSG. The yeast based flavor was sweeter, rounder, and more complex.