Umami is now recognized as one of 5 basic food flavors along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Dr. Ikeda from Japan first recognized this taste in 1908. The simple definition of Umami is glutamates and is imparted by foods high in glutamates. It gives a savory taste. Some of the foods that are high in glutamates are tomatoes, anchovies, mushrooms and soy sauce. Chefs and cooks combine it with some or all of the other flavors to get a taste they are looking for. Asians use MSG a lot for the Umami flavor to enhance their foods.
I just started to get interested in the taste to enhance steaks. If anyone else has played with this flavor please chime in; I am not very good at describing tastes and not the best writer. I had read some where they used mushroom powder a lot to enhance steaks. I looked through the different Umami seasonings at Amazon and settled on Taste # 5’s Umami Dust. The ingredients, tomato powder, lemon peel, anchovy powder, (anchovy salt), spices, natural lemon flavor, balsamic vinegar and porcini mushroom powder all sounded good to me. It was $10 for a 2.25 oz. shaker; pretty expensive, but I suspect about $6 was for the free shipping!
When I got it and did a taste test my first thought was Wow I think I may have the best steak seasoning I ever tried. I had some nice thick sirloin steaks to try it on. My son was the first to try it, doing one on my gas Weber Q100. He put it on just before cooking and did the steak 4 min. per side. He said the steak was great but you may want to put the seasoning on early and let marinade for a while.
I got my steaks ready, seasoned heavy with the Umami dust and let set for a half hour before doing on my pellet smoker using grill grates. The steaks were beautiful and tender; but somewhere they had lost the flavor I thought I would get, it was pretty subtle.
Thinking back I think I remember when using mushroom powder it is best to add it near the end of cooking. I think I will use what I have left of the seasoning on steaks seasoned with salt and pepper and then add the Umami Dust when I let them rest. I think the Umami flavor is best used to enhance rather than a seasoning on its own. I would like to use just a mushroom powder for steaks and see how that works too.
Smokin Don