Back many moons ago I used MSG all the time. When a lot of controversy cropped up I gradually went away from using it as I was concerned about the high sodium content it was purported to have.
Now, after doing more reading, I found that MSG has only approximately 1/3 of the sodium content found in table salt. So, my trusty Accent is back in my spice cabinet.
My question is how does it enhance the flavor of foods?
As you are no doubt aware, there are 5 basic tastes - salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Umami is the savoury flavour of mushrooms, cheese, cured meats, and so on. MSG is essentially 'pure' umami. In other words, MSG is to umami what salt is to salty and sugar is to sweet. So if you add it to savoury dishes (throw a parmesan rind in to vegetable soup while it's simmering) it enhances their savouriness.
No umami is not a taste, umami means flavor. I've read a couple of sites from non-Japanese that had this misconception.
Most commonly the flavor extract of glutamates + sodium from kelp but it doesn't have to be. It can be practically any food stock but people started misappropriating it to MSG specifically and a "glutamate taste" category.
When used in its original form in Japanese, you can use it to describe any tasty stock's "richness" as umami.
