Savoriness

NOT FAR FROM MY PARENTS’ HOME in Bombay is the fishing village of Chimbai. The catch is spread over large mats or hung over long strings attached to bamboo poles—fish such as the Bombay duck (actually a fish, also called bombil or bummalo) and shrimp. The air smells briny with the unmistakable scent of fish. The fish and shrimp are added to curries and stews and also cooked with chillies and vinegar to form hot pickles with a distinct savory taste.

Savoriness—or the now more commonly used Japanese word, umami—is the taste most recently inducted into the group of canonical tastes. Savoriness or umami will remind you of meaty and bone brothlike tastes. Glutamate, one of the most well-known sources for savoriness, was discovered in 1908 by the Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda in a seaweed, kombu. This discovery led researchers on a path of discovery of gathering data to demonstrate that the response to this ingredient was indeed unique and satisfied the necessary criteria to qualify as a taste (see Qualifications to Be a Taste).