All the Ways I Cook With MSG Regularly
You’ve seen it at the end of hundreds of recipes: “Add salt to taste.” Whether it’s beef stew or chocolate chip cookies, salt is a seasoning we often use as an innocuous way to wake up the palate. But like it or not, sometimes salt needs help. (Coming from a longtime salt aficionado, that’s saying a lot.) To give your taste buds a jolt, discover MSG. I do this regularly.
What is MSG?
Although there is less misinformation about MSG, there are still many people who have heard (and believe) that it is poisonous, causes health problems, or is harmful to humans simply because … This is not true. Our senior health editor Beth Skwarecki talks about how the MSG scare began and the racism that kept it alive long after it was debunked.
MSG is exactly what its longer chemical name, MSG, indicates: a harmless combination of sodium and the amino acid glutamate. Amino acids combine to form proteins, and they are naturally found in our bodies, plants and other animals. In fact, MSG and MSG are already present naturally in many foods, such as Parmesan cheese, kombu seaweed, tomatoes, mushrooms and grapes – to name a few. You may already like MSG more than you think.
What does MSG taste like?
Monosodium glutamate is a tiny, clear, crystalline substance. At first glance, it looks very similar to salt, but if you look closely, you can see that the granules are longer and have a regular shape. It dissolves quickly so it has no texture when you eat it.
We define the taste of MSG as umami, or savory. It is one of the five basic tastes we can detect: umami, salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Like sweet or salty or any other building block, it is not quite like anything else. However, umami is a word we can use to describe other things, and it can help you identify it when you taste it.
I often taste umami in very savory dishes – dishes with mushrooms, meats, olives, aged cheeses or yeast extracts. When you eat pizza, especially pepperoni pizza, there is umami there. Umami adds complexity to the flavor, almost like a bass line to the music of the entire dish. If you bite into risotto and feel like your mouth is watering, it’s actually due to MSG. When you eat glutamate, the glutamate receptors in your taste buds (yes, your body is designed to detect glutamates) are activated and actually cause salivation.
Use MSG in cooking and baking.
I want all my food to make people salivate and want to take another bite. Because MSG tastes like nothing else, it can be added to sweet and savory dishes without affecting the flavor profile. Adding a pinch here or there will give your casserole, spaghetti sauce, chocolate cake or blondies recipe an irresistible je ne sais quoi. I highly recommend adding MSG to brownies—here’s my Dark Chocolate Soy Brownies recipe , but you can use a packaged mix and just add a quarter teaspoon of MSG to get the same effect without the soy sauce.
The same goes for savory dishes. I like to add a pinch to soups and stews at the end, taste and go from there. Essentially, you use MSG the same way you use any seasoning in your cupboard: add, taste, adjust. Even though sodium comes into the MSG equation, it’s not exactly salty, so you’ll likely use it along with a pinch of regular table salt.
If I’m making homemade stocks or broths, I add about a quarter teaspoon of MSG per four cups of liquid before adding the salt, just because I may not need as much as I think. If you can, taste the food and then add salt to taste. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes we add more salt when what we really need is more umami. Using small amounts of MSG can really help you reduce your salt intake. As Beth mentions in her article linked above, “sodium makes up only 12% of the weight of MSG (as opposed to 40% of table salt).”
Get the MSG Cellar
One of the best gifts I ever received was my MSG cellar. But you don’t need a salt shaker made specifically for MSG—you can use any salt shaker. You can also buy these cute Ajinomoto panda MSG shakers instead of cellar so you can easily sprinkle them on your food, just like you would salt and pepper.
At the store, MSG may be packaged in medium-sized clear bags or small condiment bottles. Check the condiments section of your grocery store. The Uzbek market near me sells clear bags of ajinomoto, and at home I decant it into my MSG cellar and into smaller spare jars for easier storage. In my Shoprite, I find MSG in seasoning shakers like Acc’cent and Spice Supreme . A little goes a long way, which is why a shaker this size can last you eight months or longer.
Here are some things I always season with MSG:
All my dishes are made from eggs. Monosodium glutamate will give your breakfast maximum benefits. One pinch per two eggs is enough. Add it to your omelettes, casseroles and casseroles.
Soups and broths. Monosodium glutamate gives broths complexity and a more rounded flavor. It’s subtle, but if you have MSG broth, you can’t do without it. A quarter teaspoon per quart of broth will add a richness that pairs well with any soup, from sweet, tart borscht to savory beef stew.
Fresh chopped tomatoes. Enjoy the best tomato sandwich or BLT of your life. There’s no better way to quickly improve bad tomatoes than by adding a mixture of MSG, salt and sugar. And even if they don’t suck, I still add them – no sugar.
Burgers and meatballs. Any mixed ground meat situation is better with MSG. Beef and veal meatballs, pork dumplings, and turkey burgers—especially turkey burgers—will taste richer and meatier with a dose of MSG (about a half teaspoon per pound of meat). This is actually a prime example of how more salt simply didn’t give me the flavor I wanted. MSG and less salt fixed my burgers and meatballs.
Salad dressings. If you’re looking for a way to avoid anchovies in a homemade Caesar or Dijon dressing needs a softened edge, MSG is a great way to improve the whole salad.
Gravy and sauces. MSG adds a welcome depth of flavor to tomato sauces, meatiness to brown gravies, and although the French may never admit it, all original sauces with MSG are better.
Fried vegetables. One of the reasons roasted vegetables are so good is that the flavor is concentrated and the natural sugars caramelize. Adding MSG will take their flavor to a whole new level. Just sprinkle it with butter and salt before baking. If you’re new to roasting, here’s an easy way to do it .