A good Umami sauce blends with many savory foods for enhanced flavors and synergies with other ingredients. What I like about the San-J Umami Tamari Splash is that it is suitable for many cuisines. Although Asian in origin, it is incredibly universal; it will meld into the background of many cuisine recipes.

What is Umami Sauce?

A good umami sauce balances three components to create a savory umami flavor. When the three critical components of umami, glutamate, inosinate, and guanylate, are balanced, you can achieve incredible flavor enhancements. The flavor enhancement from umami brings savory foods to a new level.

The Three Components of Umami

A robust umami flavor can be made by utilizing synergies of three key components, enhancing the overall umami flavor. Glutamate is the crucial component and most prevalent in various food types. The umami flavor strength of glutamate is increased by inosinate or guanylate. In other words, inosinate and guanylate "amplify" the umami of glutamate, creating a synergy. There are a vast number of foods with glutamate, but the inosinate and guanylate components are a little hard to come by in foods versus glutamate. It is well established which foods contain these three components and work together to create the best savory umami taste. The three umami components and a few examples of corresponding foods are listed below from a food science perspective.

Glutamate

• Parmesan cheese

• Dried fish

• Yeast fermentation

• Tomatoes

• Garlic

• Truffles

• Dried Shiitake mushroom

 Inosinate

• Fish

• Meats: pork with the highest levels of inosinate, followed by chicken, then beef

• Bacterial fermentation of sugars

Guanylate

• Mushrooms

• Shiitake mushrooms, those that are dried, have a high concentration of guanylates.

Basic Ingredients of San-J Tamari Splash Umami Sauce

• Brown rice syrup is a malt syrup that is thick and not overly sweet.

• Red Miso is a long-fermented soybean paste that is high in glutamine.

• Tamari Soy Sauce is a byproduct of Miso fermentation. It is thicker, richer, and milder than regular soy sauce.

• Salted Sake is a fermented rice wine high in glutamate.

• Salted Mirin is a sweet alcohol used in Japanese cooking. It is sweeter than Sake and contains glutamate from fermented rice.

• Black garlic is an aged garlic that contains many bioactive components.

• Tomato paste is made from cooked and reduced tomatoes and is high in glutamate.

• Rice Vinegar is a mild vinegar that is acidic and improves the flavor profile of foods.

• Kumbu Extract Powder is a seaweed powder with high umami.

• Yeast Extract, a yeast with the cell walls removed, provides a robust umami flavor. It is different from nutritional yeast, which is simply dead or deactivated yeast.

You Can Boost Savory Foods with Umami for The Ultimate Flavors

Umami is associated with the more familiar term savory. One of the best-known and most appreciated savory and umami foods is pizza. Combining fermented dough crust, tomato-based sauce, cheese, and toppings such as pepperoni provides delicious flavor to this well-liked food. The ingredients in pizza create a savory and umami-flavored profile.

The French Pissaladière is often made with tomatoes, onions, and anchovy fillets. These ingredients contribute to a very umami combination. However, this pizza variant, heavy on anchovies and onions, may not appeal to all.

Applying a "neutral" umami sauce on the pizza dough before adding a tomato-based sauce and then cheese and meat toppings can significantly enhance its savory umami flavor. The tomato-based pizza sauce and San-J Tamari Splash Umami Sauce complement each other well. A thin layer of umami sauce on the pizza before adding the tomato sauce and toppings can make it tasty and flavorful with a very robust savory umami.

Other Umami Foods to Consider

From a culinary perspective, I find the following umami foods and ingredients appealing for making, sauces, marinades, seasonings, and gourmet recipe uses. Many of these umami sources can be used alone in a recipe or with others listed. When you study umami, it becomes apparent that umami foods are often fermented, aged, or dried.

• Worcestershire sauce

• Anchovy paste

• Asian types of fish sauce may be fermented fish or krill.

• Anchovy fish sauce, Colatura Di Alici, is a classical Italian sauce derived from fermented anchovies.

• Soy sauce

• Miso

• Tomato paste

• Dried tomatoes (sun-dried tomatoes) have prominent levels of glutamate. You can use them in puree, combined with olive oil and other ingredients.

• Walnuts

• Comte' cheese, a semi-hard cheese.