鮮味的魔力

How would you describe the taste of amushroom？ Is it sweet？ Sour？ Salty？ Maybebitter？ Or maybe it’s something else—umami.

Umami has been called the “fifthtaste”， a savory2 or meaty3 flavor that is notsweet， sour， salty or bitter.

It was first identified by Kikunae Ikeda，a chemistry professor in Japan. He noticedthat seaweed broth4—a common part ofJapanese cuisine—didn’t really have aflavor that could be described using the fourknown types of taste.

He began studying the composition ofthis broth， and in 1908 identified the aminoacid glutamate5 as the compound6responsible for its flavor.

At first he produced glutamate crystals，and then， by combining glutamate withsodium7， he developed a way to massproduce the flavor as monosodiumglutamate8， or MSG.

In 1909， a company called Ajinomotowas created to produce and sell MSG.

Ikeda called his newly identifiedflavor“umami”until he could think of abetter name. But it seems he never did.

The existence of a fifth taste wasnot really accepted at first—in partbecause umami is a mild taste， andoften accompanied by salty or sourflavors， such as in steak or tomatoes.

In fact， it took almost a century forIkeda’s discovery to be validated9. In2000， umami receptors10 were found inthe brain， and in 2002， they were foundon the tongue.

There’s a synergy11 between thedifferent sources of umami， which iswhy the combination of seaweed anddried fish helps make the broth taste sogood， or why carrots and onions helpbring out the flavor of beef.

你會如何描述蘑菇的味道？甜的？酸的？咸的？也許苦的？或者也許是別的———鮮的。（剩余444字）