[[Category:Course:Condiment]]
[[Category:Cuisine:Japanese]]
[[Category:Base:Spices]]
[[Category:Prep:Mixing]]
[[Category:Dietary:Gluten_free]]
[[Category:Dietary:Vegan]]
Many cuisines have an entire area of cooking that's about concentrating free glutamate in a finished dish, providing an umami sense that probably evolved to help tell us when we're eating foods that are good sources of protein and minerals. That's the story of pretty much every meat or mushroom stock, demi-glace, tomato sauce, fermented foods like fish sauce, miso, gochujang, Marmite and aged cheese, and broccoli and black beans.

MSG is a pure form of free glutamate--glutamic acid bound to a sodium ion that dissociates from it in solution--and allows for adding that sense at will without drastically changing the flavor profile of a dish. The 5'-ribonucleotides, commonly available as disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate, amplify the effect of MSG significantly when added to it at a 3% ratio. Though they're expensive in absolute terms, a small jar of "I+G", a 50/50 mix of the two, can be had for the cost of a single fast food meal and will last practically forever. The mixture of glutamic acid and inosinic acid is exploited to great effect in Japanese dashi, combining glutamic acid from kelp and inosinic acid from dried and fermented skipjack (鰹節, ''katsuobushi'').

Glutamic acid is an amino acid that occurs in great quantity in nature, and though glutamate is neurotoxic in the brain, there's no obvious relationship to dietary glutamate, nor is there any compelling evidence that glutamate sensitivity is a common problem. The hysteria over MSG is the result of a dubious letter published in a scientific journal in 1968 that may itself have been a racist hoax, and even studies of people identified as sensitive to MSG have consistently failed to reproduce symptoms. Many of the purported symptoms of MSG sensitivity can just as easily be caused by eating a meal high in sodium. The levels of free glutamate in foods cooked with MSG are also comparable to those in many traditional foods--in other words, if MSG really made people sick, so would pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.

Note the plural "people" there. I'm in no way excluding the possibility that there exist individuals who are genuinely harmed by a high-glutamate diet, and in my life I've met one person who actually had to avoid free glutamate from common foods. He could not eat mushrooms, tomatoes, black beans, hard cheeses, etc., etc. He also suffered from a dangerous hypertensive syndrome when he took over-the-counter cough syrup. My point is, some people are actually sick. Don't deliberately feed glutamate-rich foods to people who claim a glutamate sensitivity, no matter how spurious you think it might be. That's shitty behavior and not what we're here to do. ''That being said:''

My pet conspiracy theory is that adding MSG to foods where it's appropriate may actually be ''good'' for us: though free glutamate increases the palatability of foods and generally leads us to eat more, we are bombarded on all sides in the modern world by ultra-processed foods that contain free glutamate (as monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed proteins, or yeast extract) and/or the ribonucleotides. These foods often contain these additives to provide the gustatory qualities of meat, beans and high-protein vegetables while consisting almost entirely of low-quality carbohydrates and fats (see, for example, Cool Ranch Doritos), and I think our ongoing exposure to these foods has helped to decouple the immediate reward of an umami-rich meal from the longer-lasting sensation of satiety from having eaten nourishing food.

So: use MSG for good. Use it to make your chicken taste more delightfully chicken-y, to make your black beans irresistible, to punch up your stir-fry. Every fast food outlet and snack peddler out there is already using it against you.

==Ingredients==
* 97g monosodium glutamate (MSG)
* 1.5g disodium inosinate plus 1.5g disodium guanylate, commonly available as 3g of powdered "I+G" mixture

==Directions==
Mix ingredients and store in an airtight container or salt cellar.

==Notes==
Wherever an intensely savory/umami flavor is desired, add about 1/2 tsp. to each pound of meat, or 1/2 tsp. to every 4-6 servings of beans, soups, stews, curries or casseroles.

2026-06-12T08:45:19Z

Sarah: /* Ingredients */

[[Category:Course:Side]]
[[Category:Cuisine:Mexican]]
[[Category:Base:Grains]]
[[Category:Prep:Stove]]
[[Category:Dietary:Gluten_free]]
[[Category:Dietary:Vegan]]
Tomato-tinged toasted rice with vegetables, just like what you'd get on the side of a plate at a restaurant in most of the U.S.

==Ingredients==

Makes 7 to 8 cups cooked rice.

* 2 cups white rice, preferably long grain
* 3 cups water
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 small onion, or 1/2 medium onion, finely diced
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 large carrot, diced
* 1/2 cup fresh or frozen sweet corn
* 1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
* 3 tbsp tomato paste
* 2 tsp tomato bouillon powder (Caldo de Tomate), like Knorr Caldo de Tomate, or see recipe below
* 1 tsp ancho chile powder or paprika (optional, do not use premixed "chili powder")
* 1/2 to 1 tsp salt

==Recipe: Caldo de Tomate==
I prefer this mixture to the Knorr product, which has apparently recently (2022-2023) gotten worse in quality.

* 1 tbsp high-quality powdered chicken stock, like [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0199B27SS Ajinomoto chicken bone soup] (味の素丸鶏がらスープ)
* 1 tbsp tomato powder
* 1 tbsp salt
* 1 tbsp MSG, or for better flavor, 1 tbsp of a mixture of 97% MSG + 1.5% each [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZQSMPDF disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate]
* 1/4 tsp dried parsley flakes, crushed
* 1/4 tsp garlic powder
* 1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper

Mix all the above ingredients together and use in place of Knorr Caldo de Tomate in the main recipe. To make the main recipe vegan, substitute 1 tbsp powdered vegetable bouillon or crushed vegetable bouillon cube for the powdered chicken stock.

==Directions==
Add oil, onion, garlic and rice to a large pot or dutch oven. Saute on medium-high, stirring occasionally, until rice is well-toasted and light golden brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups water, vegetables, tomato paste, Caldo de Tomate, chile powder if using, and 1/2 tsp salt; stir. Loosely cover pot with lid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook at a very low simmer, stirring occasionally, until water is absorbed and rice is fluffy, about 25-30 minutes. Salt to taste.

Do not attempt to make this, or any other rice, in an Instant Pot. They burn short grain rice, and often produce underdone long grain rice. I've had so many unpredictable failures that I'm not sure why people insist on cooking rice in them.

Salsa chicken

2026-06-12T08:44:22Z

Sarah:

[[Category:Course:Entree]]
[[Category:Cuisine:Mexican]]
[[Category:Base:Meat]]
[[Category:Prep:Instant_Pot]]
[[Category:Dietary:Gluten_free]]
West coast Mexican restaurant style shredded chicken. This is dead simple to prepare in a big batch in an Instant Pot, and is a great protein to make once and stretch into a few different meals over the week.

==Ingredients==
* 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
* 1 large yellow onion, diced
* 1 poblano chile, diced
* 4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tsp vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup jarred tomato salsa (Herdez is nice and can be used ''con toda confianza'')
* 1/2 cup chicken stock, prepared caldo de pollo, or [[Mexican rice|caldo de tomate]]
* 1 1/2 tbsp [[taco seasoning]]
* kosher salt to taste, about 1 1/2 tsp

==Directions==
Set Instant Pot to normal-heat saute and saute onion, garlic and poblano in the vegetable oil until onions are translucent. Cancel heat. Add salsa, stock and taco seasoning, deglazing bottom of pot if needed. Add whole chicken thighs and mix thoroughly. Close and seal lid and set to Poultry for 15 minutes. Allow 20 minutes for natural release when finished cooking, then shred chicken with two large forks. Salt to taste. Store leftovers, drained of most of the cooking liquid, in the refrigerator.

==Notes==
Serves 6 to 8. Serve with [[mexican rice]], [[black beans]] and warm corn torillas, wrapped in flour tortillas with [[roasted veggie fajitas|fajita vegetables]], or as a filling for enchiladas or tamales.