Umami

Umami is the fifth basic taste, alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Savory, meaty, slightly sweet, and deeply satisfying, umami comes primarily from glutamates and nucleotides—compounds that occur naturally in foods like meat, seafood, mushrooms, tomatoes, soy sauce, and aged cheeses. Spices and herbs can amplify umami, coaxing it out of the ingredients around them.