Harness the Power of Umami in Your Cooking

Great culinary tips from experts at Polish culinary conference

Interest in umami seems to be spreading throughout the world! In the wake of the 'New Frontiers of Taste' event at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK earlier in the month (click here for details), June 28 saw another event getting to grips with umami.

This time the setting was the Fifth International Conference Culinary Arts and Science (ICCAS) held at the Warsaw Agricultural University in Warsaw, Poland, and the keynote speech was given by Dr. Jacqueline Marcus, Assistant Professor and Chair of the Culinary Nutrition Program at Kendall College, Chicago, Illinois, USA. The event also featured a tasting demonstration by ever-popular sake sommeliers Isake, who were also present at the Cheltenham event.

Dr. Marcus's talk focused on the culinary applications of umami. She provided the audience with a host of mouthwatering ideas to accentuate their own cooking using the power of umami, many of which we summarize here.

Savouring a Feast of Umami

Before any of this got underway, however, the 150 attendees were treated to an umami-rich lunch served in the agreeable surroundings of the university courtyard, and in the company of Dr. Marcus. Some of the delights to be found on the menu she created included green bean salad with anchovy and dried shrimp, smoked catfish, grilled white fish with sweet soy sauce, broiled/grilled tomato with Parmesan cheese, celery and walnut salad with creamy dressing, beef steak with lemon and salt, and saute of shiitake mushrooms.

The theme linking all of these dishes was umami-rich ingredients, further complimented by an array of umami-rich seasonings, for example the sweet soy sauce enhancing the grilled white fish. In some cases, umami-rich ingredients were combined to boost the umami effect, such as the broiled tomato with the Parmesan cheese. The dishes were paired with sake, which due to the umami inherent in the sake further accentuated the delicious tastes. The result was a uniquely memorable lunch that undoubtedly brought home to diners the power of umami.

Culinary Art of Umami with Dr. Marcus

As the audience digested their lunch, Dr. Marcus began her lecture. She covered various interesting topics, including the history of umami in cookery, scientific discoveries which have led to a greater understanding of the umami taste, the key differences between the uses of umami in Asian and Western cuisine, and how it is utilized by some of the world's top chefs in their culinary creations. One of the most practical aspects of her talk, however, was when she described umami as a 'secret ingredient' that can be used to enhance dishes in four specific ways.

The four major applications of umami

●Flavour Partner
You can add umami to a dish to compliment existing flavours. Dr. Marcus cited the example of seafood bisque where the existing umami taste of the seafood could be accentuated by the addition of fortified wine and umami-rich mushrooms.

●Flavour Layerer
The different tastes in a particular food peak at different times, and then combine to provide a unified finish. Umami can enhance this flavour layering process. Dr. Marcus used cocktail sauce as an example here, explaining that while ordinary cocktail sauce may be a combination of tomato products and chilli sauce to provide heat, an umami enhanced version might combine the naturally occurring umami in the tomatoes with the sharpness of some wasabi and umami-rich soy sauce.

●Flavour Balancer
Adding umami to other flavours can help to contrast, cancel or balance them, and make the overall taste of the dish more satisfying. For example, when umami in soy sauce, is added to pungent flavours such as Chinese five spice powder, curry powder, garlic or ginger, their pungency is downplayed, and instead their hot/savoury taste is magnified.

●Flavour Catalyst
Umami can often act as a 'backbone' in a dish, preventing the primary flavours from disappearing. For instance, an aged beef steak, already rich in umami, can be further enhanced by adding truffle butter, lemon juice and a little salt (as demonstrated by the luncheon dish).

Umami in action

Another interesting part of Dr. Marcus' speech acted as a valuable 'users' guide' to umami, by outlining some of the ways in which foods rich in umami can be skillfully incorporated in cooking.

●Umami + Salt
Adding umami to salt has the effect of accentuating the salty taste. This means that it is possible to lower salt intake without sacrificing the salty taste. A little preserved food, which is naturally high in umami, can be added to dishes to impart a salty flavour without a substantial increase in sodium. These might include a few artichoke hearts, capers, olives or gherkins

●Umami + Cured/Smoked Meats
The umami-rich, salty taste of bacon and other cured or smoked meats has a number of effects on other flavours with which it is served. It enhances the sweetness in eggs or peas, accentuates the sour taste in wine sauce, and can counteract bitterness, as what may be found in game or cabbage.

●Umami + Wine
Umami can affect not only the other flavours in a dish, but also the wine that may be drunk with a dish. Sweetness contained in umami-rich sauces such as hoisin, teriyaki, cocktail or tomato sauces can increase the perception of acidity in wine. Umami-rich foods can also bring out the bitterness and astringency in wine. Being aware of these effects can help you match food and wine more skillfully, for example:

Beef Bourguigonne and aged Burgundy wine is a good match because both the dish and wine are high in umami.

Pairing young, tannic wines such as Zinfandel with umami-rich dishes such as shrimp cocktail or steak may bring out bitterness, but adding salt and a squirt of lemon to the steak (as the Italian dish Beef Steak ala Fiorentina) may reduce this effect.

Revelatory Sake Tasting with Isake

Hearing about an array of delicious umami rich dishes meant that the audience had worked up something of a thirst, and fortunately sake sommeliers Isake were on hand to quench this thirst, with one of their famous tasting sessions.

Twenty lucky audience members were invited to take part, and they got a chance to sample not only some premium Japanese sake, but also to appreciate how the umami present in the sake accentuates the taste of chocolate more so than other beverages, namely liqueur wine and fortified wine. Each taster tried some dark chocolate, followed by liqueur wine, and then water to cleanse the palate. They then repeated the exercise each with fortified wine and sake.

The tasters concluded overwhelmingly that the sake definitely accentuated the taste of the chocolate, and that the aftertaste lingered longer. Comments such as, "I can see the influence of sake with chocolate," and, "I discovered the differences" were commonplace.

Classically, chocolate has always been teamed with sweet-tasting beverages such as sweet wine and port. The combination of chocolate and sake is new. Isake suggested that the audience members try this new combination, possibly when they next throw a dinner party. One audience member summed up the views of many present when he said he couldn't wait to try out the combination of chocolate and sake with chocolate mousse. With that comment, a general air of agreement and contentment settled over the conference hall.

【Audience Voice】
Umami in Poland: ‘New Culinary Possibilities’

Traditional Polish soup, zurek

Mr. Carlos Gonzales-Tejera
Public Relations Manager, STALGAST Kitchen Equipment

The audience received both segments of the seminar with a great deal of enthusiasm, and many people eager to ask questions approached both Dr. Marcus and the members of the Isake team. Here are the thoughts of one audience member.

"I was brought up growing accustomed to ingredients with a lot of umami, for instance chorizo sausage, tomatoes and anchovies, as I was born in the Dominican Republic, of Spanish origin. Besides these ingredients, because of my father's job, I had many opportunities to come into contact with Japanese food, and soy sauce was always kept in the food store cupboard.

"I think that at present, awareness of the word 'umami' in Poland is still very low, but even so there are plenty of traditional foods that are rich in umami, for instance zurek, a soup containing fermented flour, and salted pork bacon.

"What's more, the popularity of Oriental cuisine is increasing in Central Europe, and you can see restaurants offering menus that feature Japanese soy sauce and fermented fish sauces from Thailand and Vietnam.

"Just like the rest of Europe, Poland is entering the age of being a 'culinary melting pot', and thanks to this, it's becoming the case that it's possible to experience not only the Western umami taste, but also that of the Orient with its Eastern umami taste.

"I think that having a greater variety of umami ingredients within reach opens up many new culinary possibilities. In particular, by melding together different umami flavours, it will be possible to give rise to completely new tastes.

"In order to do this, however, much more information is required, and even a food professional such as myself can make discoveries at events such as today's seminar."