I’ve been using Lao Gan Ma’s classic Chili Crisp a lot, but as much as I love the stuff I don’t love MSG or preservatives. I prefer naturally occurring umami flavors vs. taking the shortcut. I just ordered Fly by Jing and Momofuku since neither contain MSG nor preservatives, and I know Trader Joe’s has one too.
Curious to hear other people’s thoughts on the different brands out there, favorite uses, etc.
This is an incredible recipe that I’ve made a few times, but also an incredible pain to make and quite expensive to source the ingredients for a condiment
The salts are all great. The tingly on roasted veggies is magic. So is the spicy on eggs or anything Asian or pizza. And the savory is good on just about anything at all, particularly toasted meats.
I don’t think expensive is necessarily better, but I like that the Momofuku version has no MSG or preservatives. I find that umami-rich ingredients have more depth whereas MSG is a bit one-dimensional.
It’s like the condiment version of getting a good bottle instead of Two Buck Chuck, but I still buy LGM.