Taste
While salt and sugar can technically be considered flavorants that enhance salty and sweet tastes, usually only compounds that enhance umami, as well as other secondary flavors are considered and referred to as taste flavorants. Artificial sweeteners are also technically flavorants.
Umami or "savory" flavorants, more commonly called taste or flavor enhancers are largely based on amino acids and nucleotides. These are typically used as sodium or calcium salts. Umami flavorants recognized and approved by the European Union include:
| Acid | Description |
|---|---|
| Glutamic acid salts | This amino acid's sodium salt, monosodium glutamate (MSG), a notable example, is one of the most commonly used flavor enhancers in food processing. Mono and diglutamate salts are also commonly used. |
| Glycine salts | Simple amino acid salts typically combined with glutamic acid as flavor enhancers. |
| Guanylic acid salts | Nucleotide salts typically combined with glutamic acid as flavor enhancers. |
| Inosinic acid salts | Nucleotide salts created from the breakdown of AMP. Due to high costs of production, typically combined with glutamic acid as flavor enhancers. |
| 5'-ribonucleotide salts | Nucleotide salts typically combined with other amino acids and nucleotide salts as flavor enhancers. |
Certain organic and inorganic acids can be used to enhance sour tastes, but like salt and sugar these are usually not considered and regulated as flavorants under law. Each acid imparts a slightly different sour or tart taste that alters the flavor of a food.
| Acid | Description |
|---|---|
| Acetic acid | Gives vinegar its sour taste and distinctive smell |
| Ascorbic acid | Found in oranges and green peppers and gives a crisp, slightly sour taste. Better known as vitamin C. |
| Citric acid | Found in citrus fruits and gives them their sour taste |
| Fumaric acid | Not found in fruits, used as a substitute for citric and tartaric acid |
| Lactic acid | Found in various milk or fermented products and give them a rich tartness |
| Malic acid | Found in apples and gives them their sour/tart taste |
| Phosphoric acid | Used in all Cola drinks to give an acid taste |
| Tartaric acid | Found in grapes and wines and gives them a tart taste |
Read more about this topic: Flavors, Flavorants or Flavorings
Famous quotes containing the word taste:
“When I develop my recipes I always look for ways to create what I call the Big Taste. While I enjoy eating simple grilled foods, what interests me when I cook are dishes with a taste that is fully dimensional.”
—Paula Wolfert, U.S. cookbook writer. Paula Wolfert’s World of Food, Introduction, Harper and Row (1988)
“It is not to everyone’s taste that truth should be pronounced pleasant. But at least let no one believe that error becomes truth when it is pronounced unpleasant.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Carlyle has not the simple Homeric health of Wordsworth, nor the deliberate philosophic turn of Coleridge, nor the scholastic taste of Landor, but, though sick and under restraint, the constitutional vigor of one of his old Norse heroes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)