From the University of Copenhagen, December 21:
How do you combine plant-based foods to bring out the flavours of Christmas? A food engineer and ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen has experimented in Gastro Science Lab. Boosting of umami taste is key.
Meat will be the focal point of most families’ Christmas feasts this year. In Danish homes, duck, goose or roast pork typically share the plate with caramelized potatoes, red cabbage, pickled veg and brown sauce.
But what if you want to swap the duck or pork out with something plant-based this year? Or, perhaps there will be a vegetarian guest or two at the Christmas table? There can be many reasons to find alternatives to the Christmas classics. Can you do so without abandoning the flavours of Christmas?
Food scientist and ph.d. Charlotte Vinther Schmidt, postdoc at the University of Copenhagen at Department of Food Science serves up a suggestion. Her research focuses on exploiting the umami taste potential of sustainable foods.
Several things are crucial in developing the "flavours of Christmas” in plant-based fare. One of the most important, according to Charlotte Vinther Schmidt, is for dishes to have enough of the fifth basic taste – umami.
Umami and the creation of Christmas flavour
"Meat is known for its powerful umami taste. If you plan on doing away with meat in your Christmas dinner, you can boost the umami taste of the plant-based ingredients by umami synergy, and in doing so, bring umami taste to food items that don’t normally taste of umami," says Charlotte Vinther Schmidt, who does just that in her alternative Christmas menu suggestion.
Scientifically, the taste of umami occurs when the free amino acid glutamate is present in food. Charlotte Vinther Schmidt explains that the umami synergy principle makes it possible to enhance the umami taste of glutamate significantly, important for the overall deliciousness when you look out to decrease or leave out meat entirely....
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