Cooking Without MSG: Is it possible?

Most chinese & fastfood restaurants use MSG. But there are still many restaurants today that do not use MSG especially the fine dining ones. MSG is not a flavoring but it actually enhances the flavor of your food. It brings out the fifth food taste which is "umami", which means something tasty or savory. most asians know what i'm talking about. Going back to your question, yes it is possible to make your food taste delicious without using MSG. I for one, seldom use MSG. Using fresh ingredients, and cooking it properly will help in bringing out the full flavor of your dishes. Properly seasoning it with salt, pepper, and using the right herbs will help your dish delicious. just remember not to over use or put plenty of seasonings because what you are doing is just enhancing the flavor of the meat/dish that you are doing. Sometimes, the lesser the better. For example, did you know that most sauces that five star hotels or fine dining restaurants use come from beef broth simmered for more than 10 hrs? There are also ingredients that are high in glutamate, which brings out the umami flavor in food. Tomatoes, beef, fish, seafoods, cheese, fermented soy sauce, pork, chicken have glutamate. Proper cooking technique & method will help enhance the flavor of your food. Hope this helps!:)

hi Kev.. I do all my cooking without the MSG.. and what you can do is adding sugar in the dishes and it will taste closely like those you have in restaurant. In addition, you can also boil some chicken stock and keep in the fridge, and use as and when you need to cook dishes like veg, chicken or pork. It is very useful to have ready stock in the fridge, and it taste better than using the plain water. Having MSG in our dishes will make us very thirsty if it's too much, and this is also not good for our health. I am very sensitive in MSG food, and once I eat, I will need lots and lots of water too. It's better to avoid using MSG, and replace with other seasonings.

kevchua if you use MSG do tell all your guests as some are deadly allergic to the stuff and could die from eating it. I am myself so 'I always ask. so use herbs and spices and make your food tasty with those,and if you dont know what herbs to use with which foods goggle it and you will get plenty of info also on cooking and on recipes too.dont use MSG as it might just kill someone. that stuffs not worth the risk.

I don't use Monosodium Glutamate while cooking or any cubes or powdered seasoning or any additives for that matter. We have gotten used to eating and cooking without these. I use fresh herbs and spices and I have started to grow some herbs on my own. If you use enough onions and garlics and tomatoes and pepper, etc that the recipe calls for, the food will be tasty. And most fresh herbs and spices have glutamate in them so why need the artificial one? And there are people who will have upset stomach if they eat foods with MSG.

When I cook, I also dont do msg on my food. It makes us very thirsty and it is not good for health. Normally I add a dash of sugar to make it taste a bit different. Anyway, i m not good in cooking, this is just my opinion. :)

Cooking can be done without MSG. Food can have its distinctive taste by using different herbs and the most dependable ingredient of all - salt. My grandmother uses different herbs and spices to add some flavor to our food. You will be able to tell that there is no MSG if you will taste her cooking. We are accustomed to the taste of MSG in our food. Country cooking is one of the best since every cooking ingredients come from the farm. You can use lemon grass, eucalyptus leaves, chilis, tamarind leaves and fruit, anise, bay leaf, basil leaf, ginger, and many other spices/herbs for your cooking. Different combinations of these will make an exotic cooking better than MSG-flavored food. Happy cooking!!!

[i]Hello kevchua, let me try to explain you that if you are eating that MSG every single food of yours, then it is really really harmfull.I have read they really weaken your bone and causes fatal later on Yes ofcourse we can cook our food without any MSG at all, i cook my food and never add any msg to it,you just dont need it try using rock salt which is healthier than normal salt as well as far more better than msg.[/i]

I use a few techniques, and a handy little spice called salt. Firstly, I will be starting by frying any vegetables in authentic cow butter. Yum Yum. Then once the vegetables are about half cooked I will add any fresh herbs I have, and when they start to wilt, I will be adding my meat. If it is a stir fry or a soup then I will add the liquid after that, maybe water, or milk, or cream, or stock of some animal. Then at the very end, I will add salt and pepper till it tastes just right.

I usually use chicken stocks to make most of food I cook really tasty... I don't use MSG because my wife believes it's not healthy... She says we can make that "Umami" taste naturally that's why we don't need that MSG.

Hi Kevchua, I do cooking and I never add MSG (ajinomoto) into all my dishes. I only add bit of Maggi Seasoning into the food & it tastes good and delicious. It is not good to eat too much MSG for our health.That's why I hardly dine out. Somemore,my husband also prefer home-cooked dishes.With my son around, it is best to cook myself. We always have a simple dishes ,but yet delicious and the most important is "they are healthy food". Happy MyLotting !

at home we are used to cooking with MSG, and before i often wonder how food tastes like without MSG, until almost a year ago i got fond of watching cooking shows on TV and no one cooked food using MSG so everytime I cook, I try not to use it, at first, you can really notice the difference but you get used to it (cooking without MSG) and you will also learn to develop new ways of making your food taste better without it.

MSG just good in the tongue. But without MSG the food is not delicious. Without salt food also is not tasted good :) So we must choose, healthy life / life for tastes good food.

i think cooking without MSG is possible and better for us. the solution to get delicious taste in our food are use the natural option.it is better than MSG and the best for our body and our life

You should check out the Cookbook, "No MSG For Me", by Lisa Kramer. She has some great recipes for dishes like Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Peanut Stir Fry, French Dip and Cheesy Potatoes. All the recipes I have tried have been very tasty and I hightly recommend it.

Hi, kevchua We never use msg in our house. It has been said that it is really not good for the health. However, the famous brand of msg is enlightening the public that it is not really harmful and in fact is a big help in cooking in bringing out that umami taste (is that right?) Anyway, it does not matter to us. My mother and I cook a lot and we never use msg. I think our food tastes alright, we have no complaints. To be honest, I do not know how to distinguish food with msg and those without. Have a great day!

I never use MSG, to taste the food tasty, I use white sugar. granulated sugar and salt make food tasty and delicious.

Hi Kev, I find that restaurants do not use MSG. My friend is very sensitive to MSG. Just a little bit of MSG and his reaction is very violent. Those restaurants can afford to boil the bones for hours and hours to get the stock for the soup. Most of us dont put in as much effort at home. Once another friend prepared a soup base by making use of fish bones and chicken bones, with some other herbs, the soup was so tasty, even better than those from the restaurant. She used some soup to stir fried the green leafy vegetables as well. It's too bad that it's a once and only dinner. She practically spent the whole day cooking that meal for twenty of us.

I use MSG always when I cook because it makes my food really tasty. I believe that only gifted cook makes there food tasty without msg. They said that msg is harmful to our body, but I havent heard of anyone who was hospitalized by that.

I'm always in conflict with my mom when it comes to cooking. She is used to cooking using Mono-sodium Glutamate in every dish. It taste better compared to my cooking but my cooking is much more healthier than hers. I try to compensate with pepper, salt and other herbs. For your query my answer is yes! you can cook without MSG.:)

I personally don't use MSG in home-cooking as I think too much of it brings hazard to our health. But I push a dash of organic seasonings into the dishes to make them taste better. At first, I was really reluctant but after a relative who is super sensitive to MSG tried the organic seasonings and confirmed it does no harm, I start to put some in to my cooking to make the dishes taste better. The main ingredients are seaweed and soy, so I guess it's really not too bad.