I don't know how many of you people watch Uncle Roger on youtube but he's a big fan of MSG and regularly puts around a spoon full of it into his mouth directly. I bought an original pricy packet of Ajinomoto MSG from Amazon to see if it really Makes Shit Good!
So apparently it's made from sugarcane juice and tapioca powder. 100% vegetarian. Each crystal looks like some chemical salt and I took a pinch of it directly into my mouth. It tastes like very light sugar and salt combined in one crystal. You still need to use salt in food because this is not salty. It seems to sort of replace some overpowering tastes and brings it down.
Does it really make food taste better or enhance flavour? Here I find the claim subjective wrt Indian food. I tried it in Dal, on green chilli pickles, on raw tamarind fruit (imli), and raw finely chopped onion with red chilli and salt as spice and every time the result is different.
Dal tastes sweet. Not overpowering sweet but like a little bit of sugar was added to it.
Green chilli pickles tastes like the chilli heat was removed a lot and you can smell the green chilli.
raw imli (the dark brown one) tastes like all the sourness was removed from it. It tastes like something sweet and salty.
Raw onion and red chilli and salt - no red chilli taste. Raw onions taste got watered down. Couldn't taste the salt.
I'll try it on a lot more food and spices directly. But this is just my opinion. I don't think this msg has much use in Indian cooking since it alters the taste of food so drastically. Maybe my taste buds are dead and I'm getting wrong taste.
So just take this post as is - with a grain of salt. I think everyone should get a small packet of this substance and try it at home. You know, just for the heck of it. Maybe it is useful in some scenario where kids complain about too much spice in food and adults complain about too less spice in food and you could add a little msg in kids food so they cant taste the spice.
So apparently it's made from sugarcane juice and tapioca powder. 100% vegetarian. Each crystal looks like some chemical salt and I took a pinch of it directly into my mouth. It tastes like very light sugar and salt combined in one crystal. You still need to use salt in food because this is not salty. It seems to sort of replace some overpowering tastes and brings it down.
Does it really make food taste better or enhance flavour? Here I find the claim subjective wrt Indian food. I tried it in Dal, on green chilli pickles, on raw tamarind fruit (imli), and raw finely chopped onion with red chilli and salt as spice and every time the result is different.
Dal tastes sweet. Not overpowering sweet but like a little bit of sugar was added to it.
Green chilli pickles tastes like the chilli heat was removed a lot and you can smell the green chilli.
raw imli (the dark brown one) tastes like all the sourness was removed from it. It tastes like something sweet and salty.
Raw onion and red chilli and salt - no red chilli taste. Raw onions taste got watered down. Couldn't taste the salt.
I'll try it on a lot more food and spices directly. But this is just my opinion. I don't think this msg has much use in Indian cooking since it alters the taste of food so drastically. Maybe my taste buds are dead and I'm getting wrong taste.
So just take this post as is - with a grain of salt. I think everyone should get a small packet of this substance and try it at home. You know, just for the heck of it. Maybe it is useful in some scenario where kids complain about too much spice in food and adults complain about too less spice in food and you could add a little msg in kids food so they cant taste the spice.
