In salt shakers right on the table no less:
Somewhere in Chinatown sits a large warehouse, filled to the brim with barrels of MSG left over from the good old days. It’s owners, however, are no longer scratching their heads…
Asian home cooks have NEVER stopped using it.
I’ve a big shaker sitting on my countertop.
My wife wanted to make a batch of Chex Mix, and I didn’t know whether we had Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, so I bought a jar rather than searching. It tasted sucky, and I finally realized it didn’t have MSG. Because we are old and we never throw stuff away, I did a more thorough search and found the old jar, which has the MSG prominently featured among the ingredients. Tastes way better.
Of course the umami receptors on your tongue react mainly to MSG and in a way there is no substitute. Cooked meat, cooked mushrooms, avocado, etc. have MSG but not ADDED MSG. Glutamate is one of the 20 amino acids from which protein is made, and cooking hydrolyzes the protein (just as soy protein is hydrolyzed in the production of soy sauce). Thus cooking meat or adding soy sauce gives you MSG that you can taste, but it is in levels comparable to the other amino acids and therefore less likely to give you “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” – neurological symptoms which I have had once or twice.
By the way at neutral pH glutamate will have an overall negative charge so it has to have a positive counter ion. Hence the sodium. What’s in your beef stew making it taste good is indeed “mono sodium glutamate” from protein hydrolysis.
I believe that Anthony Bourdain once said he wouldn’t mind MSG in his breakfast cereal.
I dig MSG, I just worry when it’s a substitute for savory developing techniques.
I never understand why so many people are afraid of MSG.
MSG naturally exists in a lot of savory food that people love.
Like a slowly cooked tomato sauce or chicken soup. It is just a chemical. It does not matter how it is produced…it has the same property and impact on your body.
what is the impact on the body exactly?
A lot depends on quantity. Just as with salt a little can be good and a lot can be terrible. A lot of low end Chinese restaurants in the US were in the habit of dumping large quantities in as a substitute for decent cooking.
Also, some people have an allergic reaction (which is obviously stronger the more there is present). It is apparently rare in the general population but common in the Jewish population which happened to be the main customers at Chinese restaurants in metropolitan areas for many years. While I’ve never been tested for the allergy I know that after eating at some Chinese restaurants I would feel an overwhelming fatigue as well as some other lesser symptoms that I don’t recall offhand.
Are Jews really the main customers of Chinese restaurants in metropolitan areas? I know the US jokes about customers on Christmas day… UK Chinese restaurants are generally Cantonese, and pork is quite hard to avoid often.
That can be said to almost everything we put in out body. Moderation is always important. A moderate amount of sugar gives your energy, but a large amount cause diabetes. A moderate amount of wine gives you enjoyment and health benefit. excess amount of alcohol is bad.
My point is it is unfair to give msg such a bad image.
Why do you think us Jews are there?
Not any more certainly, but that was my impression from the time when I was growing up.
LOL, I still remember my mother telling the story of when my great grandmother found out that my great uncle Leo was eating shrimp at a Chinese restaurant.
There is a footnote in Leviticus 11 that provides that treif wrapped in egg roll wrappers is permitted
We went to a Cuban themed dinner Sunday and I was reminded how much I love black bean soup. I have searched out the Goya b.b.s. and really loved it – it also was recommended as an ingredient in Huevos Rancheros somewhere online. I was searching to see if it still exists and came across this
http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/01/17/goya-black-beans/
The soup I loved actually has MSG listed as an ingredient. But notice that the article is from 2007 so that may have changed. I went to Shop-Rite (usually good for canned stuff) and they had lots of Goya but not the soup. I will have to check one of the Mercados over in New Brunswick, I know I found it somewhere.
PS still listed on Amazon so that’s evidence it is still around, AND the listed ingredients do include MSG.
http://www.amazon.com/Goya-Black-Bean-Soup-15-Ounce/dp/B001M08XYC
Harold McGee, king of popular food science, weighs in…
Now if we could get people to chill about nitrates/nitrites
Farmed salmon vs. river salmon. It does not matter how it’s raised. It’s just fish. See?
How it is produced can do a world of difference.
Alain