Submitted by Stuart Broz on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 7:39am
Along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, umami is one of the five primary flavors that humans can detect via receptor cells on their tongue. The term umami was coined in 1908 by Dr. Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University, who was investigating the active ingredients in kelp that lead to the savory taste of dashi broth, a staple of Japanese cuisine. This lead him to isolating monosodium glutamate (MSG) as the chemical responsible for that taste. The Ajinmoto company was created to market MSG.
