A Japanese chemist identified umami in the early 1900s, but it took a century for his work to be translated into English. Short Wave host Emily Kwong talks with producer Chloee Weiner about why it took so long for umami to be recognized as the fifth taste.
Sarah Tracy's book Delicious: A History of Monosodium Glutamate, Umami, and the Dysphoric Sublime comes out next year. Victoria Lee's book The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan is out now.
Follow Emily on Twitter @emilykwong1234. Reach the show by sending an email to ShortWave@NPR.org.
Today’s episode was produced by Chloee Weiner, edited by Gisele Grayson and fact-checked by Katherine Sypher. The audio engineer for this episode was Natasha Branch. Special thanks to Michael D. Gordin at Princeton University, Scott Montgomery at the University of Washington, Kumiko Ninomiya at the Umami Information Center and Masaki Uchida for their help with this episode.
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