this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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The Tale Of MSG’s Fall From Grace And The Case For A Major Comeback (uproxx.com)
submitted 1 year ago by seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org to c/food@beehaw.org
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[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I like to cook pasta in MSG-water sometimes. I also tend to use wholemeal pasta, which I think is important (the wholemeal aspect) ^.^. MSG works best for me when I use it with things that already have a decent depth of flavour and/or variety of ingredients ;3. It doesnt work so well if your food doesnt have enough flavour.

Other cool ingredients:

  • liquid smoke (works really well in a lot of things including vegetarian chilis, but especially i've found its good in lentil soups when you also have mint e.g lentil and pea soup, lentil, potato, onion soup, etc. ^.^) - look for the industrial stuff, its like £5 per bottle but you only need 1 or 2 drops for litres of sauce and it will last you months, kinda like MSG. Add it near the end so you don't evaporate away lots of the flavour, too.
  • yeast extract - this shit is delicious in tomato sauces and stews and chili, even if in the uk we typically have it on toast ;p, adds a meaty, mushroomy flavour
  • cinnamon - works amazing in tomato sauces, it sounds weird as fuck but tomato sauce without it tastes like its missing something to me now, its so fundamental to any tomato sauce i make ;3
  • bonus: yeast extract + mustard makes a really really cheesy flavour in various sauces, and its completely dairy free. I
[–] psivchaz@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Have you ever had Cincinnati chili? It's basically tomato based chili with cinnamon and chocolate.

[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 1 points 1 year ago

I haven't. Once I get more kidney beans, i'll experiment with it ;p

[–] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Sounds really great!

[–] insurgenRat@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

agree with all of these, although sadly liquid smoke is probably not a healthy thing to have a lot of.

That said I eat onions all the time and they make me ill. Everyone makes their own judgement on the blandness for longevity trade

[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 4 points 1 year ago

Ehh, liquid smoke is def a lot better for you that actually smoking things, because there is a filtration step that removes a lot of the worse Volatile Organic Compounds that make smoke carcinogenic.

You're probably right it's not fantastic though ;p

And damn, idk what i'd do if onions made me ill... I use them in so much. Though i've found some ways of making them do make me feel ill , just i rarely make them that way so.

[–] knotthatone@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

If you'd rather avoid liquid smoke try using smoked paprika instead. Store bought does the job but if you can find the good stuff at a local farmer's market, it's worth it.

[–] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Cooking rice in msg water is really good too. Same concept.

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

cinnamon in tomato sauce

I've tried this once, and I can't say that I liked the result. I guess that my spice profiles simply doesn't combo well with cinnamon, since when I use baharat instead (that contains cinnamon) it gets great.

[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 1 points 1 year ago

Some of it is probably personal preference too. I really like cinnamon, which might influence why i like it particularly much in tomato sauce ^.^

Typically for tomato sauce I like it quite umami, so I add things like peppers (the fruit/veg and black pepper), soya sauce, salt, MSG, etc., as well as mixed "italian" (i doubt it actually is, but it's sold as that, and I have limited spice cupboard space) herb and spice mixes (usually with stuff like parsley, basil, etc. in it), as well as sage, thyme, garlic powder, with amounts depending on what I want ^.^

Probably the only time I wouldn't add cinnamon is if I was using the tonato sauce as a component of a curry, but a lot of that is because it would get diluted out and I don't think cinnamon goes so well with some curry flavours.