Impact of smoked water on umami and salt taste

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of smoked ingredients could enhance either salty or umami taste, whether any enhancement was due to taste-active or taste-enhancing compounds, and whether smoky aroma induced taste enhancement. A trained sensory panel (n=12) performed three-Alternative Forced Choice (3-AFC) discrimination tests with nose clips on to assess taste-active and taste-enhancing compounds in smoked water. The first set of 3-AFC discrimination tests investigated whether there were any tastes, particularly salty or umami, in water with addition of 1% of a commercial smoked water. The second set of 3-AFC tests investigated whether the smoked water contained umami-enhancing compounds when mixed with various concentrations of MSG and /or ribonucleotides in water. Set 3 was similar but was carried out in a model chicken soup containing MSG with or without ribonucleotides. Our data show that the addition of smoked water can increase the umami taste in aqueous solutions, but this is masked in more complex matrices. This means we can investigate odour-induced taste enhancement of smoked water, in the knowledge that there will be minimal contribution to the umami and salty taste from the smoked water.