How would you describe the taste of amushroom？ Is it sweet？ Sour？ Salty？ Maybebitter？ Or maybe it’s something else—umami.

Umami has been called the “fifthtaste”， a savory2 or meaty3 flavor that is notsweet， sour， salty or bitter.

It was first identified by Kikunae Ikeda，a chemistry professor in Japan. He noticedthat seaweed broth4—a common part ofJapanese cuisine—didn’t really have aflavor that could be described using the fourknown types of taste.

He began studying the composition ofthis broth， and in 1908 identified the aminoacid glutamate5 as the compound6responsible for its flavor.

At first he produced glutamate crystals，and then， by combining glutamate withsodium7， he developed a way to massproduce the flavor as monosodiumglutamate8， or MSG.

In 1909， a company called Ajinomotowas created to produce and sell MSG.

Ikeda called his newly identifiedflavor“umami”until he could think of abetter name. But it seems he never did.

The existence of a fifth taste wasnot really accepted at first—in partbecause umami is a mild taste， andoften accompanied by salty or sourflavors， such as in steak or tomatoes.

In fact， it took almost a century forIkeda’s discovery to be validated9. In2000， umami receptors10 were found inthe brain， and in 2002， they were foundon the tongue.

There’s a synergy11 between thedifferent sources of umami， which iswhy the combination of seaweed anddried fish helps make the broth taste sogood， or why carrots and onions helpbring out the flavor of beef.

你會(huì)如何描述蘑菇的味道？甜的？酸的？咸的？也許苦的？或者也許是別的———鮮的。

鮮味被稱為“第五味”，是一種不甜、不酸、不咸、不苦的可口味道或像肉的味道。

它最初是由日本的化學(xué)教授池田菊苗發(fā)現(xiàn)的。他注意到，日本料理中常見(jiàn)的海帶湯的味道并不能用已知的四種味道來(lái)描述。

他開(kāi)始研究這種海帶湯的成分，并于1908 年確定谷氨酸是該味道對(duì)應(yīng)的化合物。

起初，他生產(chǎn)谷氨酸晶體，然后，通過(guò)將谷氨酸與鈉結(jié)合，他開(kāi)發(fā)了一種大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)谷氨酸鈉（味精）的方法。

1909 年，一家名為味之素的公司成立，生產(chǎn)和銷售味精。

池田把他新發(fā)現(xiàn)的味道稱為“鮮味”，直到他能想出一個(gè)更好的名字。但他似乎沒(méi)能想出來(lái)。

第五種味道的存在起初并沒(méi)有被真正接受，其部分原因是鮮味是一種溫和的味道，通常伴隨著咸味或酸味，比如牛排或西紅柿中的味道。

事實(shí)上，池田的發(fā)現(xiàn)花了將近一個(gè)世紀(jì)才得到證實(shí)。2000年，人們發(fā)現(xiàn)了大腦中的鮮味受體，2002 年，人們發(fā)現(xiàn)了舌頭上的鮮味受體。

不同的鮮味來(lái)源之間存在協(xié)同作用，這就是為什么海帶和魚(yú)干的結(jié)合有助于讓湯變得那樣鮮美，或者為什么胡蘿卜和洋蔥有助于展現(xiàn)牛肉的味道的原因。