Tokyo, Japan — Kikunae Ikeda was eating soup. Kelp broth, nothing special. But he stopped. The taste was... something. Not sweet. Not sour. Not salty. Not bitter. Something else. Something without a name.
He spent the next year boiling kelp.
The Crystals
38 kilograms of kombu, evaporated down to residue. What remained: glutamic acid. The taste he'd been chasing.
He called it umami. Deliciousness, roughly. 1908. Western science didn't recognize it as a basic taste for another century.
The Monks Knew
Buddhist monks had been making dashi for hundreds of years. No meat, no fish — their rules forbade it. So they coaxed depth from kelp and dried shiitake. Both happen to be loaded with glutamates.
They didn't know the chemistry. They knew the taste. They knew which kelp to harvest, how long to steep it, what ruined it. The knowledge passed temple to temple. No one wrote the science down.
The Packet
Ikeda patented MSG — monosodium glutamate — in 1909. Licensed it to a company that became Ajinomoto. The little red-and-white packets conquered Asia, then the world.
MSG is just the glutamate isolated. Same compound as in kelp, parmesan, tomatoes, fish sauce, soy sauce. The monks' secret, crystallized and cheap.
The Argument
A dashi master in Kyoto was asked why he didn't use MSG. Same compound. Cheaper. Faster.
He said: "Same compound. Not the same memory."
He still harvests his own kombu.
The Facts
- Kikunae Ikeda discovered glutamic acid in 1908
- "Umami" translates roughly to "pleasant savory taste"
- Western science didn't accept umami as a basic taste until 2002
- Glutamate receptors were identified on the human tongue in the early 2000s
- Foods high in natural glutamates: parmesan, tomatoes, soy sauce, fish sauce
- Ikeda went on to create MSG (monosodium glutamate)
- Fermented foods are typically rich in umami
- Breast milk contains high levels of glutamate — umami is our first taste
Sources
- Ikeda's original 1908 paper
- "Umami: Unlocking the Secrets of the Fifth Taste"
- Journal of Neuroscience taste receptor research
