A Cook's Glossary

A Cook's Glossary

A handful of terms met in this volume, set down for the collector's convenience.

Umami — the fifth basic taste, the savoury signal of glutamate and certain amino acids; named by Kikunae Ikeda in 1908.

Maillard reaction — the browning of amino acids and reducing sugars under heat, yielding hundreds of aroma compounds and brown melanoidin pigment; the source of the seared, the roasted, the toasted.

Caramelisation — the browning of sugars alone under heat, without protein; distinct from the Maillard reaction.

Retronasal olfaction — smell perceived by aromas rising from the mouth to the nose during chewing; the secret engine of flavour.

Orthonasal olfaction — smell perceived the ordinary way, by sniffing through the nostrils.

Chemesthesis — the "third chemical sense": the perception of irritants and temperature by the trigeminal nerve, as in the burn of chilli or the cool of mint. Neither taste nor smell.

Papillae — the small projections of the tongue; three of the four kinds (fungiform, foliate, circumvallate) carry taste buds, while the numerous filiform carry none.

Trigeminal nerve — the fifth cranial nerve, which reports chemesthetic sensation from the mouth and face.

Capsaicin — the pungent compound of chilli peppers, which excites the heat-and-pain receptor TRPV1.

Glutamate — the amino acid responsible for umami; identical whether from a tomato, a cheese, or a shaker of MSG.

Inosinate & guanylate — ribonucleotides (from meat/fish and from dried mushrooms respectively) that multiply umami when met with glutamate: the phenomenon of synergy.

Oleogustus — the proposed taste of fat; a candidate sixth taste, not yet settled.

Kokumi — a Japanese term for depth, roundness and lingering fullness; a taste modulator rather than a taste in its own right.

Supertaster — a person with an unusually high density of fungiform papillae, who experiences bitterness and other tastes with heightened intensity.

Melanoidin — the brown pigment produced by the Maillard reaction.

Fond — the browned residue left in a pan after searing; the foundation of many sauces, released by deglazing.

Astringency — the drying, puckering tactile sensation of tannins, as in strong tea or unripe fruit; a feeling, not a taste.

Sensory-specific satiety — the fading of pleasure in a food as one eats it, while appetite for other flavours persists; why there is always room for pudding.