/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.6407431]

There is nothing wrong with MSG. In fact, it should be in every kitchen alongside sugar and salt. Sugar is concentrated sweetness, table salt is concentrated saltiness, MSG is concentrated savoryness.

[Anonymous No.6407462]

Mah nigga
msg a best

[Anonymous No.6407468]

>>>/lit/

[Anonymous No.6407487]

>>6407431
I just always used dark soy sauce and little oyster sauce if I'm going for savory. They contain MGS anyways. I don't see why I'd need another ingredient unless I was trying to have something savory that does not have soy flavor. Which is not a whole lot. Weirdly enough I think MGS might be more applicable in a western setting with something like London broil or the various meat centric dishes.

[Anonymous No.6407776]

>>6407487

>They contain Metal Gear Solid anyways

[Anonymous No.6407860]

>>6407431
>Sugar is concentrated sweetness, table salt is concentrated saltiness, MSG is concentrated savoryness.

This is practically true, but even for table salt it's arguable that there isn't one sort of "mother" chemical that certain tastes derive from. More so for sugar (which we already commonly use several forms of), and more so again for MSG. It's definitely "very savoury", and should probably be in most kitchens, but I don't think you can call it "concentrated savouryness".

[Anonymous No.6408114]

>>6407776
jesus I'm spending too much time on /v/ and it's showing.

[Anonymous No.6408120]

>in b4 umami

[Anonymous No.6408214]

Looks like a rice bag. And I don't trust those weird alien symbols. No thank you

[Anonymous No.6408342]

I look at it like sugar. I prefer not to add it to my food, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it in particular. I'd just rather get MSG (or sugar for that matter) from more whole sources.

[Anonymous No.6409231]

>>6407431
I prefer naturally occurring msg like parmesan cheese rather than something that has been synthetized out of poo in a lab in the sewers in some 10 million inhabited chinese backwater city.

[Anonymous No.6409242]

The difference from salt and sugar is that most of traditional cooking that we've inherited have developed to make savory dishes even without additional MSG. Thus for most recipes I don't see the need of it.

[Anonymous No.6409279]

>>6407431
>There is nothing wrong with MSG. In fact, it should be in every kitchen alongside sugar and salt.
literally true

[Anonymous No.6409283]

>>6407431
sugar comes from a plant
salt comes from a rock
the fuck does msg come from
also you need some salt and sugar in your diet, pretty sure msg has no health benefits
this comparison is weak, i like my msg but you shouldn't try to justify it by comparing it's nessecity to sugar and salt

[Anonymous No.6409297]

>>6409283
>salt comes from a rock
MFW swimming in a rock.

Dude, it comes from the fucking sea. Rock salt is given to animals.

[Anonymous No.6409302]

>>6409297

sea salt comes from the sea

other salts can come from other places

like rock

[Anonymous No.6409315]

>>6409297
Google "salt mine"

[Anonymous No.6409322]

>>6409283
MSG is a salt made with a naturally occurring amino acid that makes things taste savory. IIRC, some Asian scientists isolated this from kombu/kelp which, like soy sauce and a bunch of other seasonings, have been used to make food tasty for centuries.

The problem with MSG is the fact that concentrated glutimate ions (The G in MSG) mess with your neurochemistry. Just like too much salt contributes to your hypertension.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_receptor#Excitotoxicity

That being said, there IS a place for seasonings that enhance umami within food. The problem starts when you cheat, use crap ingredients smothered in MSG to trick people's brains into eating something that they might normaly retch at. Which, like adding tons of salt, fat, and sugar, is a common marketing strategy to get people addicted to what most people consider "junk" food.

>>6409297
It is also sold at premium prices for people to get their gourmet on.

[Anonymous No.6409323]

i have a box sitting in my kitchen, i havent had alot of success integrating it into recipes yet. most recent use was i put some in the breading on my fried pork chops and that worked out pretty well. that and sometimes ill throw it in stirfries depending on whats already in it

OP or whoever else, when do you actually use this stuff

[Anonymous No.6409329]

>>6409323

put it on scrambled eggs

[Anonymous No.6409331]

>>6409322
ok, i'm convinced. where can i buy this stuff? should i just hit up my local asian market? also is there a variety in quality?

[Anonymous No.6409337]

>>6409323
My grandmother had a bunch of old japanese cookbooks. Quite a few of the recipes called for MSG. Just like someone would add a dash of salt, you could also add a dash of MSG.

I think most of the recipes that called for this already had some other, natural source of umami, ie kombu, soy sauce. I'm not sure if that means MSG doesn't work so well without certain synergies from ingredients already in the food. Recently, whenever we do cook with these recipes, we just leave out the MSG (not just because of the health things, but also because we're lazy) and the dishes turn out just fine.

tl;dr
MSG can be used to "touch-up" dishes like a cube of bouillon or an extra dash of salt/pepper. Just keep in mind that it is a flavor-ENHANCER, and does not automatically make shit taste great.

captcha - "odelv" in a font that made it look like "oden." luv me some good japanese stew.

[Anonymous No.6409354]

>>6409331
I should clarify, the rock salt is what I was talking about in regards to "getting their gourmet on."

IF you really want to try cook with MSG, I don't think there is anything too much to concern yourself with besides price. It is technically a "salt" so I don;t think those factories in china that make this stuff out of god-knows-what can make it more toxic.

All I would suggest to you is to be careful with how much you use. Just like any other seasoning, it can wreck havoc on a dish if not properly balanced with the other ingredients. However, you need to also remember that this stuff is/can, basically, short-circuit your brain. Some people just get really thirsty, like they ate too much regular salt, but some people can react much more and get terrible headaches and junk.

People used to talk about "Chinese-restaurant syndrome" where you feel like shit because you ate some discount scary-yaki special from a dingy asian-themed dive. This is from all that MSG they'd use to cover the crap taste from the low quality crap they'd serve to all you dumb gwailo.

Sorry if this sounds biased, I'm one of those people that start tripping balls when I eat too much of this stuff. Just saying, be careful with this.

[Anonymous No.6409361]

I season some dishes with Armoat which is basically MSG, salt and a few spices.

[Anonymous No.6409365]

>>6409354
>chinese restaurant syndrome
>hurr I'm a special snowflake

CRS isn't real, MSG cannot 'short-circuit' your brain, you're clearly not scientifically literate so please stop trying to state your wishy washy feelings as fact

[Anonymous No.6409375]

>>6409365
>>6409322

[Anonymous No.6409396]

Putting it (or any other high affinity amino acid taste receptor agonists/PAMs for that matter) in junk food is wrong. Its addictive properties promote the development of bad eating habits.