06/05/08 Umami part one

I've always liked the taste of beef, but I really didn't know why. Actually, I never did need to analyze why I like it. Well, I read an article in Beef magazine by Diana Barto and now I know why I like the taste of beef. The reason is umami. Umami is the taste of protein. Turns out when we were taught in school there are four basic tastes  sweet, sour, salty, and bitter; the scholars missed a basic taste and that is umami. The term originated with a Japanese scientist who discovered glutamate was the main active ingredient in kombu seaweed that produced the taste Japanese love. Umami comes from the Japanese word  umai which means delicious. In the late 1990's researchers at the University of Miami Medical School actually isolated taste receptor cells in the tongue that detect the umami taste. Umami is not a taste unique to beef  it is the protein taste so many of our foods have this quality, but the wine industry and then the beef industry were the first to recognize the importance of umami. A new book of recipes The Fifth Taste: Cooking With Umami has been written by a chef and his wife and the beef industry has developed research to understand and enhance the umami taste experience. I'll tell you some of the interesting details of those studies tomorrow. I'm Jeff Keane. Beef May 2008