Warning: A Promite vs Vegemite vs Marmite thread...

[Gob]

I really like this stuff,



but I have to admit that cashew butter is fucking scrummy!!

As is Hazelnut butter.



and almond butter;

[Joe Guy]

I'm not sure I'd like pnut butter & marmite but I'll try it.

Or with bleu cheese but why not?

I didn't think I was going to like marmite or vegemite but I do...

I'll let you know!

[Gob]

PNB, marmite, and blue cheese are all rich in umami. If like me your tastes tend to the savoury, rather than the sweet, you'll be blown away!

[Lord Jim]

PNB, marmite, and blue cheese are all rich in umami.

What the hell is "umami?"

The ancient Japanese art of paper folding, with a ghetto attitude?

"You gotta problem with that? well that was umami..."... "

[Gob]

The fifth taste...



peasant!

[Lord Jim]

umami can be translated "pleasant savory taste"

Yeah, umami was a "pleasant savory taste" to every lad on the docks...

[Sean]

PNB, marmite, and blue cheese are all rich in umami. If like me your tastes tend to the savoury, rather than the sweet, you'll be blown away!

This sounds like a combination I shall be trying in the not too distant future...

[oldr_n_wsr]

Jiff is what we buy. My son would haved starved to death if there wasn't peanut butter (and mac-n-cheese).
Personally I like peanut butter on toast with slices of banana.
On a ritz it's good also.

[rubato]

MSG = Umami = "Accent"


http://www.cornellcollege.edu/chemistry ... 12/msg.pdf

And the subject of nutcase dietary advice:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... inets.aspx


Countered here:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/monoso ... te/AN01251

[Econoline]

MSG = Umami = "Accent"

Ummmm....not exactly.

What's in a Name? Are MSG and Umami the Same?

Bruce P. Halpern

Address correspondence to: Bruce P. Halpern, Departments of Psychology and Neurobiology and Behavior, Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-7601, USA. e-mail: bph1@cornell.edu

The Japanese word `umami' has a long past. It was already in use during the Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate) of Japanese history, which ended in 1868 (Mason, 1993). In Japanese, `umami' often connotes a cognitive category (Yamaguchi and Ninomiya, 1998) of taste, or perhaps flavor, with definitions that include deliciousness, flavor, relish, gusto and zest (Inoue, 1983). In effect, the Japanese word `umami' can denote a really good taste of something—a taste or flavor that is an especially appropriate exemplar of the flavor of that thing (Backhouse, 1978).

Recognition of a role for sodium salts of glutamic acid in flavor has a shorter history. In 1909 Dr Kikunae Ikeda reported the isolation of metallic salts of glutamic acid from a brown kelp [tangle, genus Laminaria (Guiry, 2002), `konbu' or 'kombu' in Japanese] commonly used in Japanese cuisine, and recognition that the (mono) sodium salt of glutamic acid imparted a familiar and highly desirable flavor to foods (Ikeda, 1909; Murata et al., 1985). Dr Ikeda noted that the flavor could be described as delicious, nice or palatable (`umai' in Japanese). It seemed to him to be related to his impressions when he ate meat or bonito (dried marine fish flakes; `katsuobushi' in Japanese), and was based upon a taste that differed from generally recognized basic tastes. He accepted the suggestion that this taste could temporarily be called `umami'. In a later publication, in English (Ikeda, 1912), he chose to use the description `glutamate taste'.

The taste of monosodium glutamate (MSG) by itself does not in any sense represent deliciousness. Instead, it is often described as unpleasant, and as bitter, salty or soapy (Yamaguchi, 1998; Halpern, 2000, 2002). However, when MSG is added in low concentrations to appropriate foods, the flavor, pleasantness and acceptability of the food increases (Halpern, 2000). These differences illustrate the distinction between the taste of a single tastant and the effects upon flavor of tastants in a food (Lawless, 1996).

MSG is a tastant, as is salt (NaCl). We can study transduction mechanisms for NaCl or MSG, and peripheral and central gustatory neural responses, in a particular species, while recognizing that the gustatory mechanisms and responses discovered in one species may be quite different from those in another (Halpern, 2002). For human responses to NaCl, we talk about salt taste, or saltiness. In similar fashion, for MSG it is appropriate to speak of glutamate taste, as Dr Ikeda did (Ikeda, 1912). Flavor, derived from human descriptions of foods and beverages, depends upon mixtures of tastants (and odorants) but represents aspects that emerge from the array of tastants and odorants, and their matrix (Halpern, 1997). In general, individual tastants are not described as delicious. In isolation, the taste of neither NaCl nor MSG is delicious. In similar fashion, naturally occurring tastants, such as potassium chloride or phosphate salts, amino acids like glycine, arginine and alanine, and nucleotides such as adenosine 5′-monophosphate, taken alone, are not described as delicious. However, these same tastants, combined in appropriate proportions with NaCl and glutamic acid (or MSG), yield the flavor of boiled crab (Konosu et al., 1987), and may be characterized as delicious, perhaps with reports of `umami'.

In other words, monosodium glutamate (or any other glutamate) has the same relationship to umami that fructose (or glucose or dextrose) has to sweetness, and that sodium chloride has to saltiness. And as with salt, sugar, drugs, and sex, all things in moderation...

[TPFKA@W]

I like Jif. I hate the tasteless, oily crap that is "natural" peanut butter. On a toasted slice of French bread if possible.

May need a slice now....

MSG is to be avoided at all costs. My ankles swell up at the thought of it.

[Joe Guy]

I used to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and loved them. They were sliced 'bread & butter' pickles. Maybe I'll try that one again.

[TPFKA@W]

I used to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and loved them. They were sliced 'bread & butter' pickles. Maybe I'll try that one again.

We had peanut butter, pickle, and mayo sanwiches. I limed them back when but can't consider it now.

[Gob]

Umami has nothing to do with MSG;

Umami /uːˈmɑːmi/, a savory taste,[1][2][3] is one of the five basic tastes, together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. A loanword from the Japanese (うま味?), umami can be translated "pleasant savory taste". This particular writing was chosen by Professor Kikunae Ikeda from umai (うまい) "delicious" and mi (味) "taste". The kanji 旨味 are used for a more general meaning to describe a food as delicious.

The human tongue has receptors for L-glutamate, which is the source of umami flavor. For that reason, scientists consider umami to be distinct from saltiness.

Many foods that may be consumed daily are rich in umami. Naturally occurring glutamate can be found in meats and vegetables, whereas inosinate comes primarily from meats and guanylate from vegetables. Thus, umami taste is common to foods that contain high levels of L-glutamate, IMP and GMP, most notably in fish, shellfish, cured meats, mushrooms, vegetables (e.g., ripe tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, spinach, celery, etc.) or green tea, and fermented and aged products (e.g., cheeses, shrimp pastes, soy sauce, etc.)

See also # 5 taste.

[kristina]

I used to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and loved them. They were sliced 'bread & butter' pickles. Maybe I'll try that one again.

Haven't tried the bread and butter pickles, but Skippy Super Chunk and Claussen Kosher Dills together are divine...

[Guinevere]

Gag -- I hate peanut butter, unless its in a reeses cup, or for the two PBJ sandwiches I have a year.

But I love umami flavors -- mushrooms and aged beef and cheese being some of the great ones -- which of course, all work well together (see, e.g., the fabulous aged rib eyes I grilled for Easter last year, and served with a blue cheese sauce and sauteed mushrooms and spinach on the side).

This year we're all headed to Stowe -- something different -- and Mom turns 75 on Monday, so we're taking her to the Trapp Lodge where she can exalt in being where Maria walked

[Lord Jim]

aged rib eyes I grilled for Easter last year, and served with a blue cheese sauce and sauteed mushrooms and spinach on the side).

Mmmm...

That does sound yummy....

[Gob]

[weeps] Blue cheese sauce....she said blue cheese sauce....[/weeps]

[Joe Guy]

Gag -- I hate peanut butter, unless its in a reeses cup, or for the two PBJ sandwiches I have a year.

You're the first person I've known that hates peanut butter. I don't like jelly on peanut butter and can't figure out why other people do. It's like adding sugar to coffee. That indicates that you don't like the flavor of it.

Adding Marmite to peanut putter might be a bit different though because it might enhance rather than mask the peanut flavor.

[rubato]

They are exactly the same:

".. recognition that the (mono) sodium salt of glutamic acid imparted a familiar and highly desirable flavor to foods ... "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

"... Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5’-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and inosine monophosphate (IMP).[8] It can be described as a pleasant "brothy" or "meaty" taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue. The sensation of umami is due to the detection of the carboxylate anion of glutamate in specialized receptor cells present on the human and other animal tongues.[9] [10] Its effect is to balance taste and round out the overall flavor of a dish. Umami enhances the palatability of a wide variety of foods.[11] Glutamate in acid form (glutamic acid) imparts little umami taste; whereas the salts of glutamic acid, known as glutamates, can easily ionize and give the characteristic umami taste. GMP and IMP amplify the taste intensity of glutamate.[10][12]

yrs,
rubato