Umami is the fairly widely accepted fifth addition to the four horsemen of taste: salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. It’s sometimes translated (from the Japanese) as “savory” but that’s not very satisfactory.

Just as there are specific receptors on the tongue that can isolate salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, there are also umami receptors on the tongue that center around molecules of glutamate .Those receptors detect the presence of glutamates, especially glutamates found in “flavor-packed” foods like anchovies, dried tomatoes, miso, soy sauce, fish sauce, parmesan, dried mushrooms, and many other foods. Check out the NY Times article of two weeks ago on the subject:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/dining/05glute.html

(I disagree with some of the assertions in the article–like the one that says umami as a fifth taste has not yet been generally accepted by experts–but overall it’s excellent).

Read more about it at my umami salt entry:

http://www.breakawaycook.com/blog/archives/41

Love the site, all sorts of interesting things I never knew I needed to know. Although I don’t have a specific comment about the lasagne aside from “yum”, I have a question about an ingredient. I’d like to find things to do with caraway seeds. Aside from cabbage I never use it. I’ll bet I ve had the same jar of caraway seeds for 35 years! I once tried to toast the seeds without much effect. I like the flavor and would like to find other applications for it. Any suggestions? Hope you like caraway.

Liv

http://www.breakawaycook.com/blog/archives/41

With the change in blog formats, I think your umami salt recipe has disappeared – which breaks my heart as I have been dying to try it. Is there any chance of a re-post? I think I can produce a reasonable facsimile but I’d love to try it the way you invented it.

Thanks!

Claire — yes, I think there is such a thing. It can get very intense. This lasagna sits right on the border; I wouldn’t want want any more umami than this. That said, it’s really delicious, with wallops of bursting flavor in each bite. On the upside, each bite is so satisfying that you can’t help but pause between bites, which results in eating far less than normal. It’s diet food, but of the very best kind!