I think I'm more disturbed by the all natural imitation bacon bits

MSG is good stuff, use it in my kitchen


Imatation bacon on the other hand... Yuck

Fakin' Bacon.

Major hatin' on the fakin' bacon!

As for MSG, I really don't understand all the hate on that. It's a seaweed product, for Heaven's Sake! They make it from bacterial fermentation nowadays, but it's perfectly safe and does wonderful things for your food! The name on the large bags of the stuff, "Aji-no-moto" literally means, "essence of taste".

Oh, btw? Marmite, vegemite, fish sauce and anchovy paste? All forms of MSG, in the raw, as it were.

People in Asia and all over the rest of the world use MSG like we use ketchup, yet they aren't having allergic reactions. There's very little sound scientific research to show a definitive link between MSG and allergic reactions in humans. Sure, it can happen, but it's not the monster many of made it out to be. I mean, this stuff is just like dihydrogen monoxide!

I think what happens is el-cheapo fast food joints buy nasty ingredients, then abuse MSG to cover up the crappy flavor of ultra-cheap meat, fish and poultry.

As for the Amish selling it? Well, Pennsylvania-Dutch cooking is NOT known for using fermented fish, fermented soybeans or scraping out the bottoms of yeast casks and spreading it on toast. So using MSG in pure form is totally legit in my recipe book.

I dunno. After a steady diet of cheap ramen a few years back, I was getting some pretty awful sodium poisoning. There's a single pinch in a pot to open up the taste buds (which is all that MSG does for flavor), and then there's using it to substitute for lack of flavor.

I think you pretty much proved my entire point.

Actually, I don't use MSG when I cook. Aside from the excess sodium and the glutamic acid, I figure I can't substitute volume for quality or I'll just be (metaphorically) playing shitty rap music from an expensive stereo in a crap car.

You know, like those bar-fashionable "hot wings" which are all spice and nothing else because drunks have numb taste buds.

Ajinomoto is also the name of the company that makes it :P, They also make one of my other kitchen favorites, Activa RM 'meat glue'

I bought a bag of the "marshmallow" bits from Lucky Charms at an Amish bulk food place. I told people it was Lucky Charms, without the Luck.

Is MSG Flavor Enhancer really just salt? That's what it looks like anyway...