Ways to enhance umami

For millennia, cooks all over the world have found ways to intensify the umami taste in their food. Methods such as drying have the added benefit of prolonging the life of the ingredient, while others, such as ripening, enhance the aroma, colour and overall appeal of the foodstuff.

One of the main aims in cooking worldwide is to increase the amount of umami substances contained in food, because we inherently find it appealing, and because it is associated with a number of nutritional and gustatory benefits. As a result, human beings all over the world have developed a wide variety of methods for collecting, preparing and cooking food which ensure umami is maximised. In some cases the increase in flavour is the main reason that these processes are carried out; in others there are more practical considerations. Indeed, most, if not all, of the umami-rich ingredients and dishes examined elsewhere in this publication, including dashi, fall into one of the main categories described here.