New way to tickle your tastebuds

MOST of us can tell if something tastes sweet, sour, bitter or salty.

But it’s only in the past few years that we in the West have learned about a fifth taste known as ‘umami’, which was discovered by a Japanese professor in 1908 and is produced by a type of amino acid that provides the savoury flavour in meat, mushrooms, Parmesan and a lot of Oriental cooking.

Now, Japanese food scientists have identified what they believe is a sixth basic taste.

I first learned about this in the brilliant new book The Diet Myth by Tim Spector, in which he says that as well as the five main tastes, ‘we may even have a sixth one called kokumi, meaning heartiness’.

Whether it exists is not yet officially proven, as Professor Spector tells me: ‘For years we were sceptical that umami existed, but now we know it is real, and the latest proposed sixth taste, kokumi, is still hard to prove but should become accepted when we discover the genes underlying it.’

Garlic, onions and scallops are all examples of foods said to taste ‘kokumi’, and again, it’s a flavour and texture which comes from certain amino acids and is meant to invoke a feeling of richness in the mouth.

It is said to explain the difference in taste between hastily cooked beef stew and the same stew that has been cooked on a low heat for 12 hours.

Legendary U.S. food writer Harold McGee explained it well after doing a taste test of kokumi- rich foods, saying: ‘The flavours seemed amplified and balanced, as if the volume control had been turned up and an equaliser turned on. They also seemed to cling to my mouth and to last longer before fading away.’

As and when kokumi is officially recognised, we may be able to buy tubes of kokumi flavour in the supermarkets.

Until then, we can eat foods said to be rich in it (aged cheese, fish sauce, foie gras and yeast extract are also all said to contain it) or satisfy ourselves with tubes of Umami — Taste # 5 Umami Paste, which costs around £3 a tube, is available at Waitrose, Ocado and Sainsbury’s.

Rub it onto meat before roasting or baking it, or stir a squirt into soups, sauces or mince to give your cooking an addictive new savoury edge.