The quest for umami:  can sous vide contribute?

Mathias Porsmose Clausen; Morten Christensen; Trine H. Djurhus; Lars Duelund; Ole G. Mouritsen

doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2018.03.002

The quest for umami: can sous vide contribute?

Mathias Porsmose Clausen, Morten Christensen, Trine H. Djurhus, Lars Duelund, Ole G. Mouritsen

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Umami is the fifth basic taste that humans during evolution have been primed to seek in their diet because it signals protein-rich food and easily accessible amino acids. Umami is elicited by free glutamate and the sensation is enhanced in a synergetic fashion by free nucleotides, such as inosinate. The content of free glutamate in foodstuff can be increased by some cooking, ageing, fermentation, and conservation techniques, of which fermentation is the most powerful. Tenderization by sous vide has during the last decade become widely popular both in restaurants as well as the home kitchen. The question arises whether sous vide treatment of meat increases the umami potential by producing more glutamate. In a pilot study of sous vide preparation of beef tenderloin we have found somewhat surprisingly that this is not the case. Furthermore, an analysis of the texture of the meat showed that sous vide does not tenderize the tenderloin meat, but in fact make it slightly tougher at short preparation times.

Original language	English
Journal	International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science
Volume	13
Pages (from-to)	129-133
Number of pages	5
ISSN	1878-450X
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2018.03.002
Publication status	Published - Oct 2018

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title = "The quest for umami: can sous vide contribute?",

abstract = "Umami is the fifth basic taste that humans during evolution have been primed to seek in their diet because it signals protein-rich food and easily accessible amino acids. Umami is elicited by free glutamate and the sensation is enhanced in a synergetic fashion by free nucleotides, such as inosinate. The content of free glutamate in foodstuff can be increased by some cooking, ageing, fermentation, and conservation techniques, of which fermentation is the most powerful. Tenderization by sous vide has during the last decade become widely popular both in restaurants as well as the home kitchen. The question arises whether sous vide treatment of meat increases the umami potential by producing more glutamate. In a pilot study of sous vide preparation of beef tenderloin we have found somewhat surprisingly that this is not the case. Furthermore, an analysis of the texture of the meat showed that sous vide does not tenderize the tenderloin meat, but in fact make it slightly tougher at short preparation times.",

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T1 - The quest for umami

T2 - can sous vide contribute?

AU - Clausen, Mathias Porsmose

AU - Christensen, Morten

AU - Djurhus, Trine H.

AU - Duelund, Lars

AU - Mouritsen, Ole G.

PY - 2018/10

Y1 - 2018/10

N2 - Umami is the fifth basic taste that humans during evolution have been primed to seek in their diet because it signals protein-rich food and easily accessible amino acids. Umami is elicited by free glutamate and the sensation is enhanced in a synergetic fashion by free nucleotides, such as inosinate. The content of free glutamate in foodstuff can be increased by some cooking, ageing, fermentation, and conservation techniques, of which fermentation is the most powerful. Tenderization by sous vide has during the last decade become widely popular both in restaurants as well as the home kitchen. The question arises whether sous vide treatment of meat increases the umami potential by producing more glutamate. In a pilot study of sous vide preparation of beef tenderloin we have found somewhat surprisingly that this is not the case. Furthermore, an analysis of the texture of the meat showed that sous vide does not tenderize the tenderloin meat, but in fact make it slightly tougher at short preparation times.

AB - Umami is the fifth basic taste that humans during evolution have been primed to seek in their diet because it signals protein-rich food and easily accessible amino acids. Umami is elicited by free glutamate and the sensation is enhanced in a synergetic fashion by free nucleotides, such as inosinate. The content of free glutamate in foodstuff can be increased by some cooking, ageing, fermentation, and conservation techniques, of which fermentation is the most powerful. Tenderization by sous vide has during the last decade become widely popular both in restaurants as well as the home kitchen. The question arises whether sous vide treatment of meat increases the umami potential by producing more glutamate. In a pilot study of sous vide preparation of beef tenderloin we have found somewhat surprisingly that this is not the case. Furthermore, an analysis of the texture of the meat showed that sous vide does not tenderize the tenderloin meat, but in fact make it slightly tougher at short preparation times.

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DO - 10.1016/j.ijgfs.2018.03.002

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JO - International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science

JF - International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science

ER -

The quest for umami: can sous vide contribute?

Abstract

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