Umami-rich British Condiments

On 8th December 2008, during their visit to Japan, two top chefs working in the United Kingdom, Claude Bosi (Hibiscus, London) and Sat Bains (Restaurant Sat Bains with rooms, Nottingham), agreed to take part in a dietary education class, focused on umami and conducted entirely in English, for 40 second year high school students at Hiyoshigaoka Municipal High School in Kyoto. Each chef taught the students a recipe for an umami-rich dish with a distinctly British flavour. Claude's dish was "Cheese on Toast with Lea & Perrins sauce", with Sat preparing "Sautéed pork with Marmite".

The umami content of the ingredients in these dishes is as follows.

This chart shows the levels of umami (free glutamatic acid) found in the Parmesan, Cheddar and Lea & Perrins sauce used in Claude's "Cheese on Toast", and the Marmite used in Sat's "Sautéed pork with Marmite". Click to view diagram

Parmesan cheese is one of the most umami-rich foods in the world, with 1680mg of free glutamate per 100g. For Cheddar cheese (matured for four months) the score was 78mg/100g, for Lea & Perrins 34mg/100g, whilst Marmite － a highly condensed condiment － recorded 1960mg for every 100g.

The Lea & Perrin's sauce used in Claude's "Cheese on Toast" is a brand of Worcestershire sauce, a light, liquid sauce used for flavouring. The Lea & Perrins that Claude brought with him especially from the United Kingdom was a limited edition, extra-mature blend, but the regular version is found throughout British households, and is available in around 100 countries throughout the world (*1).Claude encouraged the students to try a little taste of the Lea & Perrins on its own, which the students described variously as "sour" and "spicy". After splashing a few drops on top of the cheese on toast, however, students soon discovered that the cheese and Lea & Perrins sauce combined extremely well together, with each enhancing the umami of the other.

Sat, on the other hand, made use of Marmite, a dark brown, sticky condiment made from yeast and vegetable extracts. It was first launched in the UK a century ago, and nowadays is often spread onto bread and crackers, as well as being used to enhance meat and fish dishes, as Sat showed in his recipe (*2).The Marmite was a perfect match for the rich, aromatic flavour of the saute´ed pork, which certainly proved popular amongst the students. Sat then had each student try a small amount of the Marmite on its own － which they described as "intense" and "....wow". "Marmite has a really unique taste," Sat explained, "and British people tend to either love it or hate it, but we must remember that it's primarily a condiment, so you can use it as part of a dish to bring out the umami already present in the other ingredients".

Recipes for both dishes are set out below so that you can try them out for yourself.

Cheese on Toast with Lea & Perrins Sauce

Ingredients:

Sliced bread

Cheese, grated, 30g per slice (Parmesan, medium Cheddar, around half and half)

Lea & Perrins sauce, 3ml per slice

1. Cut the crusts off the bread, and grill until golden.
2. Place the grated cheese on top of the toasted bread.
3. Splash on some Lea & Perrins, and grill until the cheese is bubbling.

Sautéed pork with Marmite

Ingredients:

Pork rib meat (unsliced)

Marmite

1. Season the unsliced meat with salt and slowly heat for 24 hours using a vacuum cooking technique(*3) until cooked through(*4).Umami levels will increase if the meat is covered with kombu (kelp)
2. Slice the meat into 8mm wide pieces, and sauté in a Teflon trying pan, ensuring they do not stick.
3. Whilst the meat is still hot, brush with Marmite on one side.

(*1)Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins) product homepage.
(*2)Marmite (Unilever UK Limited) product homepage.
(*3)Vacuum cooking:a technique whereby raw food is placed in a bag,either with or without seasonings / spices, and cooked at a low temperature in hot water,then served.
(*4)If using raw rib meat,season with salt and pepper,and sauté well until fully cooked through.