---
title: 'Does MSG actually make food taste better?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=RCa43F2NQnY'
video_id: 'RCa43F2NQnY'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 1872
---

# Does MSG actually make food taste better?

> Source: [Does MSG actually make food taste better?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RCa43F2NQnY)

## Summary

MSG is one of the most misunderstood ingredients in cooking. This video explores its chemistry, taste, and proper usage through a series of taste tests. The goal is to provide a fundamental understanding of how MSG works and how to use it effectively.

### Key Points

- **Myths around MSG** [0:00] — MSG is often misunderstood as either a magic flavor enhancer or an artificial chemical, but the science is often ignored.
- **Three core questions** [0:37] — The video aims to answer what MSG is, how much to use, and which foods it improves most.
- **Structure of MSG experiments** [1:11] — Three taste tests: pure taste comparison, salt-to-MSG ratios in scrambled eggs, and a blind test with spicy beef noodles.
- **Natural glutamates in food** [2:49] — Glutamates are naturally present in foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, meat, and Parmesan cheese.
- **Five basic tastes in water** [3:15] — Each taste compound (salt, sugar, citric acid, caffeine, MSG) is dissolved in water to isolate and compare pure tastes.
- **What is MSG?** [3:51] — Monosodium glutamate: a sodium atom attached to a glutamate molecule. Glutamate provides the umami taste; sodium stabilizes the molecule.
- **Natural vs. concentrated glutamate** [4:43] — 100g of MSG contains about 78g of free glutamate, equivalent to over 100 lbs of tomatoes, 14 lbs of Parmesan, or 8 lbs of kombu seaweed.
- **Discovery of MSG** [5:45] — Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda isolated glutamate from kombu broth in 1908 and combined it with sodium to create MSG.
- **MSG in home cooking** [6:30] — MSG is a seasoning tool in a larger flavor system; it can throw a dish out of balance if overused.
- **Taste test results: bitter** [8:56] — Caffeine powder is intensely bitter; this highlights the importance of other ingredients in energy drinks.
- **Taste test results: umami** [10:57] — MSG provides a unique savory broth-like taste, not as overpowering as salt or bitter. It is not a substitute for salt.
- **Five properties of MSG (1)** [13:58] — MSG is odorless: no aroma, only taste. This is opposite to spices like cumin or cinnamon.
- **Five properties of MSG (2)** [14:43] — MSG is water soluble but not fat soluble, similar to salt. It dissolves readily in water-based foods.
- **Five properties of MSG (3)** [15:18] — MSG diffuses through food more slowly than salt because its molecule is larger. It is often a surface-level seasoning.
- **Five properties of MSG (4)** [16:14] — MSG's umami can be amplified by nucleotides (inosinate, guanylate), explaining synergistic pairings like kombu and bonito (dashi).
- **Five properties of MSG (5)** [17:43] — MSG is heat stable up to 437°F (225°C); it does not caramelize or brown and primarily contributes umami.
- **Scrambled egg test: 75% salt, 25% MSG** [19:55] — The 75% salt / 25% MSG ratio was the favorite, adding a hint of savory without being overpowering.
- **Four categories for MSG use** [23:52] — Water-rich savory foods, roasted/sautéed vegetables, synergistic umami pairings, and spicy foods are ideal for MSG.
- **Blind taste test result** [28:59] — MSG in spicy beef noodles was not obvious overall, but the beef with MSG was noticeably more savory and delicious.

### Conclusion

MSG is a valuable seasoning tool that raises the flavor floor of dishes, but its effect is often more subtle than expected. The ideal use is in water-rich foods, roasted vegetables, synergistic pairings, and spicy dishes.

## Transcript

MSG might be one of the most
misunderstood ingredients in cooking.
Because depending on who you ask, it's
either a magical white powder that
instantly makes everything taste better
or an artificial chemical used in junk
food. And the problem is most
conversations around MSG completely skip
over the food science of what it does do
and just as importantly, what it does
not do. Because yes, MSG can absolutely
make food taste better. But as we're
going to see in some of these tests, it
can also make food taste worse if it's
used incorrectly. So, in this video, I
have three big questions I want to
answer. First, what actually is MSG?
What exactly does it taste like and how
is it made? Second, how much should you
use when you're cooking with it? Like,
is there an optimal ratio or can you
fully replace it with salt? And third,
what types of food does MSG improve the
most? Can I add it to my chicken, ground
beef, and roasted vegetables, or stick
to more common use cases like fried
rice? So, throughout this video, we're
going to run through a series of taste
tests. First is tasting MSG alongside
other kitchen ingredients. Second is
testing different salt to MSG ratios and
scrambled eggs. And finally, a blind
taste test with some spicy beef noodles.
And by the end of this video, I promise
you'll have a fundamental understanding
of how MSG actually works when we cook
with it. Now, before we get too deep
into the MSG experiments, today's
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of the best coffee from around the
world. And now that I've got my coffee
secured, let's dive into that first big
question. What is MSG? Because you might
be surprised to learn that whether
you've used MSG before or not, you've
almost certainly tasted glutamates.
They're naturally found in foods like
tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, meat,
and parmesan reo. But most of us,
including myself, have no idea how
strong glutamates really taste because
we've never tasted them in isolation.
And that's exactly what we're going to
do for this first test. So, in front of
me, I poured out five glasses of water.
And into each one, I'm dissolving 2 g of
a single taste compound. Salt for salty,
sugar for sweet, citric acid for sour,
caffeine powder for bitter, and of
course, MSG for umami. There's no
aromomas, no fats, no cooking reactions,
no texture. This is just pure isolated
taste. Okay, so I'm gonna get all of
these mixed up. And while I do that, let
me break down what MSG is and how the
five core tastes work because this might
seem like a weird spot to start the
testing in this video, but it'll make a
lot more sense after I explain a few
things. The easiest way to begin to
understand MSG is to just break down its
name, monosodium glutamate. Because when
you look at the chemical structure, it's
pretty simple. There's one sodium atom
attached to a glutamate molecule. And
the important part here is the
glutamate. That's the compound
responsible for the umami taste in MSG.
The sodium is mainly there to stabilize
the molecule and make it easier to use
as a crystallin seasoning. Though
technically it will provide a little
taste. We'll talk more about that later.
Now, all of these compounds I'm using
here in this first test are isolated
examples of the five taste. The sodium
ions and sodium chloride or table salt
primarily create the salty taste.
Sucrossse molecules bind to our sweet
taste receptors. Hydrogen ions are
released from citric acid creating a
sour taste. Caffeine is an alkoid
compound that binds to bitter taste
receptors. And the glutamate and MSG is
primarily responsible for the umami
taste. Now like I mentioned, glutamate
itself is not unique to MSG. It
naturally exists in lots of foods we've
all tried before. And here's a full
table from umaminfo.com showing just how
much naturally occurring glutamate
exists in a variety of different foods.
Now, there are two key differences here.
First, the foods on this list contain
glutamate along with hundreds of other
kind of taste and aroma compounds that
shape their overall flavor. And
secondly, compared to pure MSG, they
have a really small amount of free
glutamate. And to put this into
perspective, 100 grams of MSG contains
roughly 78 grams or 78,000 mg of free
glutamate. And to naturally consume that
same amount of free glutamate from some
of the items on this list, you'd need
over 100 lb of fresh tomatoes, 10 to 40
lb of soy sauce, 16 lb of dried shiakei
mushrooms, 14 lb of parmesan reano, or
about 8 lb of comoo seaweed. And this is
actually how MSG was originally
discovered because back in 1908,
Japanese chemist Kakun Iicada was
studying kamboo broth, a seaweed broth
naturally high in glutamate. And he
noticed that it had a savory taste that
didn't quite fit into the traditional
categories of sweet, salty, sour, or
bitter. So he eventually isolated the
glutamate compound from the comoo and
combined it with sodium to create a
stabilized crystalline seasoning we now
know as MSG. Now the MSG we can buy in
stores today is typically produced
through bacterial fermentation using
carbohydrate sources like sugar cane,
corn or sugar beets. And today MSG is
used in all kinds of foods, soups,
seasoning blends, snack foods, fast
foods, restaurant cooking. And in the
past decade or two, it has become way
more popular in home cooking as well.
And when it comes to the home cooking
conversation, I think the biggest
problem is that most people don't really
understand what it does and what it does
not do. And I'll tell you right now,
it's not a magic powder that just makes
everything taste better. I think what
most people miss is that MSG is a
seasoning tool that exists in a much
larger flavor system. So, think about
something like fried rice. You've got
salt fats acids sugars aromomas
fermentation compounds, browning
reactions, and different textures. And
all of these things are constantly
interacting with each other to shape the
final flavor of the dish. And MSG is one
variable inside of that system. And just
like too much salt, acid, or sugar can
throw a dish out of balance, too much
MSG can do the same thing. For example,
here are four different chips. Two of
them have MSG and two of them do not.
Now, personally, I like the Doritos with
MSG and the Simply Doritos that do not
have MSG. And my favorite chip of all of
them might be the Stator tortilla chip
that's basically just Niximized corn,
salt, and oil. But there's one chip here
that I don't like as much, and it's
because it has too much MSG. You can
literally see the crystals coating the
chip, and when you taste it, it's
obvious that it's out of balance. Again,
it's not bad, but it's just overdone.
And this is the part that people really
don't talk about, which is why this
first taste test is so important because
if you really want to understand what
MSG is doing when you add it to food,
you first need a reference point for
what it tastes like on its own. Okay, so
I've never done this before obviously,
but there's kind of two things I want to
figure out in this test. So first is
just kind of comparing and contrasting
the differences of the five taste. And
then I'm also curious to see like how
much of each taste in there. like how
bitter does the caffeine powder taste,
how sweet does the sugar taste, how
salty, how sour, and how umami here on
the end. And I use the same amounts, 2 g
in all these. I only did two capsules of
the caffeine powder because uh caffeine
is supposedly very bitter and this is
also 400 mg of caffeine worth, which is
like two energy drinks. Um so yeah,
we're we're going to take small sips of
that guy. Um, so we may as well just
start here on the end and see what
bitter really tastes like.
Get that mixed up one more time. Okay.
All right. They weren't wrong about
caffeine powder. Holy smokes is that
bitter. Wow.
Jeez, that's bitter. Woo. Okay.
Will not be taking another sip of that.
Also goes to show that like everything
else in the energy drinks is very
important when it comes to taste because
if it was mostly caffeine powder, no one
would drink them.
Okay, so let's go to number two. I think
this is the salt. I'll find out shortly.
That's salty. Very salty water there. Um
2% I think is like close to the, you
know, salt level of like ocean water. So
if you imagine that, that's kind of what
I'm tasting here. Um, again, not like
gross compared to the bitterness of
caffeine, but it's very salty. Um, let's
go to the citric acid, I believe.
Ooh, the immediate pucker.
But satisfying because like your mouth
salivates and actually a nice one to
come into after the salty. Like the
salt, the sour kind of balances out that
salty I was getting. Man, that's that's
a pretty cool test. And also, if you are
wondering, you can just buy like pure
citric acid online. It's kind of
interesting. Okay, now let's go to our
sweet
M. That is really interesting because
it's sweet, but doesn't taste very sweet
at all. Which kind of checks out when
you think about how sugar is used in
cooking. You typically need quite a bit
of it. Like if you're making a lemonade
for example, it's very sour unless you
add quite a bit of sugar to it to kind
of balance it out. Or if you're using
sugar in baking, you typically need to
use quite a bit of sugar to make things
sweet compared to with salt. We're
typically adding like one one and a
half% to a lot of foods. So again, just
kind of an interesting takeaway. And
then lastly, we're coming to the star of
this video, the MSG.
Ooh. Okay, so this is a fascinating test
and I think I've got two big takeaways.
So, first, all of these absolutely have
their own unique taste. Like, take a
sip, plug your nose, you're going to get
the the the unique taste that each one
of these has. It's going to go up to
your brain. It's going to let you know.
There's no mistaking these. Like, these
are not substitutes at all. Now,
what's interesting about the umami is
that you do get that kind of savory
broth quality. I mean, you kind of just
need to throw some in a cup so you can
kind of understand what I'm talking
about. Uh, that's probably the best way
to do it. Now, I would say there might
be a little bit of saltiness that I'm
getting that does kind of remind me of
this, but nowhere near the the dramatic
salty effect. And that's kind of my
second takeaway from this test. So, down
here on this end, very bitter. Do not
want to take another sip. Very salty.
Way too much salt. Reminds me of ocean
water. Very sour. Like this would be way
too sour if you're using it for some
lemonade. You'd need to add some sugar
water to it. And then this is where
things get interesting with with kind of
the sugar water because I know there's
sugar in there, but in no way I'm like,
"Oh, this is super sweet." You know,
it's like 2 g of sugar in there. And
then that's similar with how kind of the
MSG works to me because I know there is
MSG in there because I'm getting the
unique taste, but it's not like
overpowering in a way that
that you kind of get with these other
three tastes. And that's going to be
what's kind of interesting and why I'm
going to ask the next question is how
much MSG do we really want to be using
when we're cooking. So that's what we're
going to test with our second scrambled
egg test. So now that we know what MSG
is and what it tastes like in plain
water, we've got some much more
practical questions that need to be
answered. First, how much should you
actually use in real food? And secondly,
how strong does MSG taste when it's
combined with other ingredients like
salt? And this is an area of MSG that
I've never really explored. So to test
this, I made six batches of scrambled
eggs with unsalted butter where the
total seasoning weight is going to stay
exactly the same, but the ratio of salt
to MSG changes each time. So the first
batch is a control with no seasoning
added at all. Then we've got 100% salt,
75% salt, and 25% MSG. 50/50, 2575, and
all the way up to 100% MSG. And
scrambled eggs are going to be a great
starting point because there aren't a
lot of competing flavors that are going
to hide what's going on, which makes it
easier to isolate exactly how MSG is
changing the flavor. Because if you want
to use MSG, well, there are a few core
properties you need to understand before
you start throwing it into everything.
So, I'm going to get our egg samples
cooked up with some unsalted butter, of
course. But while I do that, I want to
explain five properties of MSG that
everybody should know. And then I'll
meet you back here because I'm very
curious to see the results and flavor
differences between these samples. The
first property that everyone should
know, MSG is odorless. And this might be
one of the most misunderstood things
about MSG because just like salt or
sodium chloride, MSG does not have an
aroma on its own. Like if you smell it,
it does not smell meaty, roasty, savory,
or delicious. You have to put it on your
tongue to elicit a response to your
brain. However, if you contrast that
with spices, when you open up the jar,
you'll be hit with a distinct smell of
cumin, chili powder, or cinnamon. And
this is important to remember because
MSG primarily affects taste, not smell.
So if a dish smells incredible, that's
coming from the volatile aroma compounds
from the cooking process and the other
ingredients, not the MSG. The second
property, MSG is water soluble but not
fat soluble. And again, this is exactly
like salt. And we already saw this in
the first test. MSG dissolves very
readily in water. And because food
contains a lot of water, MSG can
distribute very efficiently through
soups sauces eggs noodles marinades
and rice dishes. But if you add MSG
directly into oil, it will not dissolve.
And this helps explain why MSG behaves
much more like a salt compared to
something like a spice or aromatic oil.
The third property, MSG diffuses through
food, but more slowly than salt. So once
MSG dissolves, it's going to naturally
spread throughout food via diffusion,
which is moving from areas of high
concentration to lower concentration.
But MSG is a little different because
it's going to generally diffuse more
slowly than salt. And this makes a lot
of sense if you look at the molecules
themselves. Salt is extremely small.
It's basically just a sodium and
chloride ion, so it moves very
efficiently through water and food.
Glutamate on the other hand is a much
larger molecule. So it tends to move
more slowly through food systems and
tissues. Now in something like a soup
sauce or in our scrambled egg test, this
usually doesn't matter very much because
everything is already dissolved and
mixed together. But if you were
seasoning something like a steak, salt
would generally penetrate faster and
deeper into the meat compared to MSG. So
MSG is often more of a surface level
seasoning effect unless it has enough
time and moisture to properly diffuse.
Now the fourth property gets a little
nerdy, but it's also one of the coolest
parts of how umami actually works in
cooking. And that is the taste of MSG
can be amplified by other compounds.
Specifically, the glutamate in MSG can
be amplified by nucleotides called
inocinate and guanolate. And these
naturally occur in foods like meat,
mushrooms, dried fish, and aged cheeses.
And there was a study looking at the
interaction between glutamate and these
nucleotides. And what they found is that
the glutamate by itself kind of produces
a baseline umami signal. But when
inocinate and guanolate are present,
they amplify that signal dramatically.
And you can see this mapped out in the
horseshoe effect here. And practically
this explains why certain ingredient
combinations across cuisines work so
well together. For example, kamboo
seaweed contains a lot of glutamate and
dried bonito flakes contain inosinate.
So when you combine them into a dashi,
the umami perception becomes much
stronger than either ingredient
individually. And this same principle
shows up in a lot of other classic
combinations. tomatoes and parmesan reo,
beef and mushrooms, chicken stock and
dried shiakeis, or even in Doritos, you
will see MSG on the label, but people
will often miss that also do sodium
inocinate and guanolate are present as
well. All of these foods are essentially
stacking glutamate together with
nucleotide rich ingredients to create a
stronger umami perception. And the last
property that everybody should know is
MSG is heat stable. So, when you're
adding MSG to your foods, it's going to
remain stable through sautéing,
simmering, scrambling, stir frying, or
roasting. At very high temperatures
above 437F or 225 C, MSG can begin to
degrade, but unlike sugar, MSG is not
going to caramelize, brown, or create
roasted flavors. Its primary role is
staying dissolved in the food and
contributing umami taste. So now that we
understand these five core properties,
it becomes a lot easier to understand
what MSG is actually doing in food and
just as importantly what it is not
doing. It's not creating aroma. It's not
browning food. It's not magically making
everything taste good. It's primarily
contributing and amplifying savory taste
in a very specific way. So with all that
in mind, let's see how these different
salt to MSG ratios actually taste in
practice. Okay, so I've got all six
samples ready to go. Um, still hot. Um,
even though these three were cooked
first, they're still warm. So, this is
about as close as we can get them. The
only thing changing here is just kind of
the ratio to salt to MSG. Um, starting
with the unseasoned on the end, 100%
salt here, and then down, increasing the
amount of MSG down here. So, I think
let's start with unseasoned as the
control and then just work our way down
and see how these taste.
Okay unseasoned.
I get a little aroma from the butter,
but clearly these are missing salt. If
you were served these, you'd be like, I
need some salt on these. But now, let's
go to 100% salt and see how it tastes.
Instantly, you get that just I mean,
it's salty, right? Like, we love salt.
We crave it. We need it. Um, that one is
just so much better than the one that
doesn't have salt in it. Um, now let's
go to Should we go here first? No, let's
keep going here. Let me take a little
palette cleanser, though.
Cherry lime Sprite, I think, should
fully clear us of any saltiness. Okay,
now let's go to 7525. I'm curious to see
like how much or like if if it's really
that different here. Um, but let's see.
Yeah, that's interesting. A little bit
more rounded. I think I like this one
better than just the plain salt.
Let's keep going. 50/50, I believe.
H
50/50 is starting to feel weird. Not
bad. I still like these over unseasoned,
but I think I like this one. 7525. 50/50
definitely starts to feel weird. Um, now
let's go to 7525.
Again, it's it's not bad. It just like
you can tell it's missing salt. like
it's I mean now it is really just
starting to taste like kind of straight
MSG. Um it's kind of washing out the
saltiness. Let's go all the way to the
end with our um 100% just all MSG. No
salt at all.
Again, at 100% it's it's not bad, but
it's just it's weird. like I'm I'm
working against the bias that I'm kind
of expecting salt um and not getting any
feels kind of weird and out of place.
Though technically there's a little
sodium in there, but the glutamate is
predominantly kind of what I'm getting
out of 100% MSG. So, let me kind of
quickly go back through one more time
and then I'll give you my final thoughts
here. But I think one of these I do like
more than all the others.
Man, it is crazy when you jump to just
MSG to just salt. the I mean 100% they
are not substitutes. Very very
interesting.
Okay, so this has been a very
interesting test and quite illuminating
in a couple of ways and I do have a
couple of takeaways. So first things
first, MSG and salt are not like a
onetoone replacement for each other. If
you try this test at home or like if you
were served these eggs you'd be like
what's going on? These taste completely
different. There's I mean they're just
fundamentally different tastes. Even
though yes, this does have one kind of
sodium ion in it, but not as much as
sodium chloride. Then when we talk about
mixing them, I think my favorite of
these actually is the 7525.
It's got enough saltiness, but it does
have that hint of kind of the savory
quality in there that you kind of get
from the MSG and the umami, which I
like, but there's kind of a diminishing
return there when we get to the 50/50
and the 2575. To me, these start to feel
kind of out of place, and I don't really
like them. Um, so if I was kind of
ranking all of these, I would go 7525
and then the salt after it in second
place, and then kind of down the row.
That being said, these aren't like, oh
my gosh, the best eggs I've ever had.
Like, just salt, eggs, and butter is
still really good. Like, they're not
dramatically out of this world better.
Um, but I would say, yeah, definitely a
little bit better. And this is got me
interested for the last part of the
video because I really want to try to
answer like what types of food does MSG
really work well in and then what are
some foods that maybe it doesn't work as
well in. So, that's what we're going to
test in the final section of this video.
But, I would highly recommend trying
this for yourself, at least just doing
one to one or mixing it up because it's
a pretty interesting thing to kind of
experience. You can start to understand
what MSG really does. So, this scrambled
egg test definitely helped me understand
how MSG can change the flavor of a dish.
And I did prefer the 3:1 salt to MSG
ratio. However, this didn't blow me
away, and I'm probably not going to add
MSG every single time I need to make
scrambled eggs. And this leads me to the
final question of the video. What types
of food really benefit the most from
MSG? And after a few weeks of testing, I
found four broad categories where I
think MSG is worth trying at home. So,
I'm going to break down each category
and give you a simple experiment that
you can recreate at home. And then, of
course, I'll meet you back here for our
final blind taste test. Because in front
of me, I have two bowls of high protein
spicy beef noodles. One of these bowls
has MSG in them, one of them does not.
So, I want to see if I'm able to pick
these out in a triangle test at the end.
So, while I get this set up, let me
explain the four categories. Category
one is what I'd call water rich savory
foods. And this is probably the most
obvious and common use case for MSG,
which is why it often shows up in things
like ramen, soup bases, bullion powder,
seasoning blends, and canned soups.
Because in these kinds of dishes, MSG
can add a savory backbone across the
entire bowl. So, if you're cooking any
kind of soup, stew, braze, gravy, or pan
sauce at home, MSG is a very good
ingredient to try adding. And a very
simple experiment you can do at home is
just buying some unsalted broth, beef,
chicken, vegetable, whatever you want.
Then pour out three small cups, leave
one plain, add salt to one and MSG to
the last one, then give them a taste
side by side and compare the
differences. And after that, try
combining the salt and MSG together and
taste that version as well. The second
category is roasted and sauteed
vegetables. Because once vegetables
begin browning, they naturally start
developing deeper savory aromas for
reactions like caramelization and the
mayar reaction. But the actual taste
structure underneath can sometimes feel
a little flat or one-dimensional. And
this is where MSG can work surprisingly
well in vegetables like mushrooms,
roasted cabbage, Brussels sprouts,
onions, broccoli, or roasted potatoes.
Now, importantly, this doesn't mean you
should dump MSG on every single
vegetable. In lighter, brighter
vegetable dishes, especially in things
that are fresh, acidic, herbal, or
delicate, it's probably going to feel
out of place or too heavy. And a very
simple experiment you can do for this
category is just making that same 3:1
mix of salt to MSG. Set out two trays of
vegetables, whatever you want to use.
Add a little oil to both of them. Season
one with regular salt and season the
other with the salt MSG blend. Then,
roast them side by side and taste the
difference.
So the third category is synergistic
umami pairings. And this goes back to
one of the cooler parts of how umami
actually works where glutamate becomes
significantly stronger when it's paired
with compounds like inocinate and
guanolate. So if you're cooking at home
instead of just asking will MSG taste
good in this dish you can start asking
are there already ingredients in this
dish that contain inocinate or
guanolate? And umamifo.com has a chart
showing which foods contain high amounts
of glutamate, but also inoscinate and
guanolate. So you can start
experimenting with these combinations
yourself. You could pair MSG with steak
and dried titakei mushrooms, parmesan
with a tomato sauce, or just some
chicken in your fried rice. Now, the
fourth category where MSG often works
really well is spicy food. Because one
thing that can happen with spicy dishes
is that if they're mostly built around
heat, salt, and acid, the flavor can
sometimes feel harsh or one-dimensional.
And this is where MSG can help. Because
when you add MSG to a spicy dish, it's
going to make it feel more savory
instead of just aggressively hot. And
this is part of the reason why MSG will
commonly show up in things like spicy
instant noodles, hot sauces, spicy stir
fries, snack foods, taco seasonings, and
a variety of other savory and spicy
dishes. So, for my final taste test, I
wanted to make my own version of a spicy
noodle dish. And I made two bowls of a
high protein spicy beef noodle. For the
beef, I used 937 ground beef and added
the 3 to1 mix of MSG to one batch and
just regular salt to the other. Then, in
the sauce itself, I added MSG to one
bowl and left it out of the other. Then,
everything got tossed together until
glossy and finished with the same
garnishes. And let's see if MSG actually
improves spicy food. Okay, so I've got
milk and some seltzer water ready just
to make sure I cleanse my palette in
between. But let's blindfold up and give
these a taste.
All right, spin
three. Let's start with sample one.
Noodles first. Sweet, spicy, tasty.
Man, this is a really good quick high
protein dish. Good for the summer.
See if we can see if there's any
difference between these.
Also very good. See if I can get some
beef in there, too. Two. Also very good.
Not sure if there's a difference yet.
Let's go to three.
This third one definitely feels the most
balanced of them. Let me go back to one
and two. All right. Try to get a clean
palette.
Ah, I don't know. I don't know.
Okay, so this definitely wasn't as
obvious as I thought, but I think I have
an answer. So, I had a couple bites of
like the beef specifically on two that
felt kind of flat to me, whereas three
felt like it had that extra kind of
savory deliciousness deliciousness. And
then one, man, it starts to run
together. I think one and three are
going to be the same and two is
different, but let's see.
Okay. Green MSG.
Nothing. Nothing green. Okay. So, one
and three were the same, man. Okay.
So, when I taste these again, it's
really the beef where I'm getting the
biggest difference. The one with MSG is
just way more delicious, for sure. It's
got that kind of savoryness, that
underlying, you know, umami that you
really like. Whereas the the beef where
I didn't add any MSG to at the end does
just feel a little bit flat. However,
overall, this wasn't as obvious as I
would have thought. Both of them are
definitely delicious, but adding some
MSG to your beef makes it really, really
quite good. So, after doing all the
testing in this video, I think the
simplest way that I can sum up MSG is
that it raises the flavor floor of the
dishes you add it to. Meaning, the
effect is probably more subtle than you
realize. However, in the right dishes,
it can absolutely enhance existing
savory flavors to make your dishes feel
more complete. And I think the answers
to my three big questions are now pretty
clear. First, what is MSG? And at its
core, MSG is simply a highly
concentrated source of glutamate, the
compound responsible for the savory
taste we call umami. It's odorless,
water- soluble, can be amplified by
nucleotides, and is heat stable during
cooking. Second, how much should you
actually use? And I've got three options
here for you. First, try adding 1% by
weight of the food, like ground beef,
for example. Second, make a 3:1 mix of
salt to MSG and just sprinkle it over
whatever you want. Or third, try
gradually adding it to your water-based
foods until you can taste the
difference. And my last question, what
types of food benefit the most from MSG,
which those four categories I just
outlined are a great place to start. So,
now that I understand MSG a lot better
in this video, I kind of have a lot more
experiments and other tests I want to
try. And this is where I would love to
hear from you. So, if you use MSG in
your cooking, have you found any
interesting use cases, combinations, or
maybe lessons I didn't cover in this
video. But anyway, that's going to wrap
it up for me in this one. I hope you all
have enjoyed. I hope you now understand
MSG on a much deeper level. And thank
you again to Commenter for sponsoring
this video. Kept the uh throat nice and
clear during this uh voiceover. So,
that's going to wrap it up for me. I
will catch you all in the next one.
Peace out.