Vapid sentence is vapid

[conuly]

"MSG can give foods a savory, hard-to-define flavor called umami."

(Emphasis mine)

Quick! Without listing off foods that taste sweet or simply referring to the presence of a sugar, define "sweet". Don't like that assignment? Then do the same for "salty", "bitter", or "sour". I'll wait.

Actually, "savory" is enough of a definition on its own. Therefore, we could more accurately say simply that "Glutamates such as MSG give foods the savory flavor known as umami". Because that's what umami is - it's the detection of a glutamate by our tastebuds, in the same way that sweetness is the detection of sugar by our tastebuds and so on.

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

We have this picture book about the guy who invented instant ramen, and it's awesome except that in the end note for parents they describe MSG as "a preservative" and I am bewildered at how someone could research and write a whole picture book on Momofuko Ando and not know what MSG is.

Umami is maybe a roasted or protein flavor? Which is yes, savory. I have no idea how to do sweet. It's pure and sometimes makes your teeth hurt? None of the other flavors make your teeth hurt, but that's probably not all that helpful.

[conuly]

...can msg even be used as a preservative? Of course salt and vinegar and sugar all can....

[crystalpyramid]

Maybe it's a preservative like spices are, where it helps things keep tasting good? But I doubt it is in a literal way like salt or sugar.

[adrian_turtle]

Most spices don't get called preservatives, though. Sausages are often heavily peppered, but it's the drying or smoking or salting that preserves them, not the peppering. Pickling is a preserving method, but pickling cabbage works just as well whether you are making it plain or with pepper. (Sauerkraut lasts all winter. The hard part was EATING it all winter, until the fresh vegetables came up in the spring.)