[Sca-cooks] 5th Taste?

[Brett McNamara]

Traditional Japanese food has lot of "subtle" flavors, which is
another way of saying bland.  They also like many oddly bitter things,
like fish guts and rotten cabbage.

The one element that seems to be highly prized is fattiness.  You're
not really going to pick up on the fatty flavor of good Toro, the
fattiest part of the tuna, unless you eat it raw.  With a basic diet
of fish and rice even small variations in taste and mouth feel would
be far more apparent.

I suspect that Umami might be a much rounder flavor than higher acid
would suggest.



On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 08:31:24 -0400, Carol Eskesen Smith
<brekkefranksdottir at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Not astringent, then?  MSG is a different order of flavor.
> 
> Regards,
> Brekke
> 
> 
> >From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
> >Reply-To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> >To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> >Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 5th Taste?
> >Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 21:28:43 -0400
> 
> 
> >
> >Also sprach Carol Eskesen Smith:
> >>Allso tannic acid?  The "dry" effect along with acid?
> >
> >Yeah, tannins do have a sort of astringent effect (why I tend to prefer
> >Chinese to Indian teas).
> >
> >However, a look at the Web seems to push for the 5th taste being a sort of
> >Glutamate flavor, that grilled steak/soy-sauce flavor.
> >
> >I don't know that I buy the theory as expressed, but it's out there...
> >
> >>Regards,
> >>Brekke
> >>(very happy gramma, of a kid with EXCELLENT lungs - which he exercised
> >>fully ALL last night!)
> >
> >I prefer people with strong opinions. Especially when they're shorter than
> >me... ;-) May whichever powers that have blessed Logan with good lungs
> >bless his heart as well.
> >
> >Adamantius
> >--
> >  "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
> >       -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt,
> >07/29/04
> >_______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
> 
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