What about MSG in Chinese food?

Question

I know that Monosodium glutamate is out of fashion for trendy cooks, but does it still have a role in Chinese cooking? For instance, I recently saw a recipe on the BBC food website for char siu which included it. I find my Chinese recipes VERY salty anyway, so is it always OK to omit it?

Answer 1

MSG is an additive that gives a flavor that is paramount in Asian cuisine, umami. Recently indentified as one of the basic tastes, umami, roughly translated from Japanese as "savory" or "deliciousness", it is detected by the tongue when compounds disassociate in the mouth into glutamates, an amino chain commonly found in meats, soy products, and tomatoes. Sodium heightens this flavor sensation, as evidenced by salting tomatoes or putting soy sauce on meats.
Anyway, biochemistry hoo-ha aside, many East Asian cooks discount Westerners' troubles with MSG as "intolerance to Asian cuisine."
An easy and more delicious substitute for MSG is to add shoyu soy sauce while cooking, as it will render the same taste in the mouth.

Answer 2

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RE:
What about MSG in Chinese food?
I know that Monosodium glutamate is out of fashion for trendy cooks, but does it still have a role in Chinese cooking? For instance, I recently saw a recipe on the BBC food website for char siu which included it. I find my Chinese recipes VERY salty anyway, so is it always OK to omit it?

Answer 3

There are plenty of Chinese holdholds that do not have msg in their kitchens. Of course it is alright to omit but a pinch or two is harmless (unless of course suffer adverse reaction). MSG is not salt salty, "sweetish" and very distinctive in taste; and is widely used by McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, et al including in a wide variety of processed food.

Answer 4

I have lots of allergies, so doctors says no msg, so I don't use it, and nobody complains about the taste being any different, we also dint like salty foods so limit that too. I think if you have always eaten it in your diet, then I guess if you omitted it, it would taste strange, but for someone just trying a recipe, I don't imagine it would make any significant difference to the finished creation.

Answer 5

There seems to be a connection between something called excitotoxins and cell damage. But MSG is in many processed foods like salad dressing, BBQ sauce, potato chips, and many seasonings.

Answer 6

Actually, MSG is substitution for sugar and dried prawn that used to make the food tasty. MSG is cheap and easy. If you can afford dried prawn and sugar for your food taste, just forget about MSG. It's notheing.

Answer 7

My wife buys pure MSG in one kilo bags. It is as necessary for her as fish sauce, sugar and chilis for Thai cooking.

MSG is a naturally occurring amino acid. It is part of every protein in the human body. It is also in every plant and animal that we eat.

Salt poses a greater health risk than MSG. It might be better to back off on the salt and not worry about so much about current trends.

Answer 8

MSG isn't salty, it's called a 'flavour enhancer' Marketed under the Japanese name 'Aji no moto'. In Chinese cuisine you can substitute a pinch of sugar.

Answer 9

MSG occurs naturally in human breast milk! Do you really think it can be all that bad for you?

If you think about it, cooks in China and elsewhere used "Seasoning salt" for thousands of years before the active component ("msg") was isolated from seaweed, and the law about labels changed so you had to call it "msg" instead of "seasoning salt"...

If you don't like it, don't use it, but if your Chinese recipes are "too salty" you may be putting too much salt in them! MSG makes thing taste umami, or "amino-acidy", not salty.

Answer 10

MSG is deservedly known the greatest arena in the world but I would never want it in my Chinese food.