umami

UK/uˈmɑːmi/US/uˈmɑːmi/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Umami is the deep savoury taste of meat, cheese and mushrooms. A hit of umami.

It was identified in 1908 and accepted as a fifth basic taste only in the 1980s. Umami comes from glutamates, which is why tomatoes, parmesan and soy sauce all carry it.

Definitions of umami

1nounumamiThe deep savoury taste of meat, cheese and mushrooms.C1
“A spoonful of soy sauce gave the whole dish umami.”

umami is a taste.

Where it comes from

Japanese umami is umai, delicious, plus mi, taste; the taste was identified by Kikunae Ikeda in 1908.

Japanese
旨味
English, today
umami

Built from

旨い · Japanese — delicious
み · Japanese — -ness

From 旨味. From Japanese 旨味, うまみ, from 旨い (“delicious”) + み (“-ness”), which describes the quality of a pleasant, savory taste.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Texture & Touch

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umami in the wild

People taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to glutamates and nucleotides, which are widely present in meat broths and fermented products.
Umami
Since umami has its own receptors rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors, scientists now consider umami to be a distinct taste.
Umami
Dashi forms the base for miso soup, clear broth soup, noodle broth soup, and many simmering liquids to accentuate the savory flavor known as umami.
Dashi
Like modern fermented fish sauce and soy sauce, garum was a rich source of umami flavoring due to the presence of glutamates.
Garum
Katsuobushi's distinct umami taste comes from its high inosinic acid content.
Katsuobushi

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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