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Ammonium chloride tastes like nothing else. It may be the sixth basic taste
- ekianjo 3y ago> umami Since when is umami a new real flavor and not just a marketing term?
- jessekv 3y ago1908?
- didgeoridoo 3y agoLMWTFY: > Umami was first scientifically identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda,[27][28] a professor of the Tokyo Imperial University. He found that glutamate was responsible for the palatability of the broth from kombu seaweed. He noticed that the taste of kombu dashi was distinct from sweet, sour, bitter, and salty and named it umami.[16] > Professor Shintaro Kodama, a disciple of Ikeda, discovered in 1913 that dried bonito flakes (a type of tuna) contained another umami substance.[29] This was the ribonucleotide IMP. In 1957, Akira Kuninaka realized that the ribonucleotide GMP present in shiitake mushrooms also conferred the umami taste.[30] One of Kuninaka's most important discoveries was the synergistic effect between ribonucleotides and glutamate. When foods rich in glutamate are combined with ingredients that have ribonucleotides, the resulting taste intensity is higher than would be expected from merely adding the intensity of the individual ingredients.[14]
- rokkamokka 3y agoIt's just the name of the taste of monosodium glutamate, pretty much.
- dekhn 3y agono. MSG is isolated, purified, and salt-bound form of glutamate. umami is more complex- it's usually a combination of several amino acids and nucleosides. MSG on its own, or nucleosides on their own barely taste like much, while umami is ... quite rich.
- Synaesthesia 3y agoMany foods contain umami like tomatoes, or Parmesan, which is why they contribute so much to a dish’s flavour.
- justinclift 3y agoSeems to be widely accepted in Japan (and not just recently), at least according to some Japanese friends.
- sentientslug 3y agoThe term “umami” is of Japanese origin, so yes.
- hot_gril 3y agoIt's a real flavor that also became an overblown marketing term.
- lbotos 3y agoHow are you in Japan and not aware of Umami? You are in Umami heaven! Go find some Kombu (https://www.justonecookbook.com/kombu/ https://www.justonecookbook.com/kombu/), soak it in water and then take a sip. Literally pure Glutamate aka Umami.
- codedokode 3y agoWhy human distinguishes so little flavours? I thought that tongue is like a chemical laboratory detecting hundreds of different substances. Also, why detect sweet or sour taste? Wouldn't it be better to detect energy-rich and useful components (like meat or fat) and poisonous/harmful (like mushrooms)?
- xen0 3y agoThat's what taste kind of does...
- PhasmaFelis 3y agoSweet is energy-rich. And sour/bitter are often poisonous.
- codedokode 3y agoIs meat or fat, or cheese sweet? Usually sweet is the harmful, unhealthy food like candies. Because of sweetness children often prefer unhealthy food to healthy and useful.
- mrweiner 3y agoFruit is sweet.
- codedokode 3y agoFruits in nature are often not sweet at all. Wild apples are hard, small and sour, for example.
- chownie 3y agoCounterpoint, practically every fruit ending in "berry" is sweet and naturally grows that way without human intervention
- PhasmaFelis 3y ago
- cmiller1 3y agoThere are other candidates for true "flavors" that our tongues may contain receptors for that are currently being researched. Kokumi - the presence of broken down amino acid chains common in aged protein products such as blue cheese or dry aged beef https://www.fooddive.com/news/kokumi-the-sensation-that-makes-tasting-better/553761/ https://www.fooddive.com/news/kokumi-the-sensation-that-make... Oleogustus - the presence of certain lipids that in small amounts may make foods taste richer but may in fact be a way for us to detect rancid fats that we shouldn't ingest https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q3/research-confirms-fat-is-sixth-taste-names-it-oleogustus.html https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q3/research-co...
- the-dude 3y ago3 days ago : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37808088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37808088
- crazygringo 3y agoThe article doesn't make clear why it should be considered a sixth taste, as opposed to simply sour: > They found that ammonium chloride triggers a specific proton channel called OTOP1 in sour taste receptor cells. This sates a key requirement for a flavor to qualify as a primary taste. That makes it sound like it's part of sour, not something new. And that seems kind of confirmed, by the report of it being "sharp and sour", before salmiak's other flavors also kicked in: > “The first time I sampled salmiak… I spit it out on a Copenhagen street corner. It wasn’t that this powerful little pastille was bad. It’s just that my taste buds had never quite been lit up that way: smacked with a layer of sharp and sour salt dust, then soothed by something bitter and caramel-sweet. It felt simultaneously fascinating and… abusive? Or at least odd, like a knocked funny bone.”
- Synaesthesia 3y agoSome things simply are not a combination of sweet, sour, bitter and salty.
- Iulioh 3y agoForgot umami
- crazygringo 3y agoBut on the tongue, aren't they? (Including umami as a fifth.) Everything else is flavor provided by the nose, not the tongue, as far as I know. And it's combined with texture and mouthfeel, but those aren't strictly taste. I'm asking here, how is ammonium chloride any different from sour on the tongue?
- Synaesthesia 3y agoWell I haven’t tried it, so I can’t speak to that, but it’s possible. Just like Umami is something unique.
- Akronymus 3y agohttps://youtu.be/sR8M4zARBXY&t=330 https://youtu.be/sR8M4zARBXY&t=330 Apparently the flavour by smell is somewhat of a myth
- selimthegrim 3y agoAlso known as "salmiak" in Finland in the eponymous snack or in "Turkish pepper"
- bafe 3y agoAmong the things I liked about my two (brief) stays in Helsinki was the vast choice of salmiakki candy (and chocolate and ice cream) available in every supermarket