Puffer, identical to natural
The Chinese have reproduced the taste of puffer fish
Ekaterina Rusakova, N+1
Researchers have identified substances that determine the taste of puffer fish. As described in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (Zhang et al., Sensory-Guided Analysis of Key Taste-Active Compounds in Pufferfish (Takifugu obscurus)), among the components without which the taste varies greatly are four amino acids, including glutamic, potassium and phosphoric acid ions, inosine monophosphate nucleotide.
Because of its delicate taste, puffer fish is highly valued in East Asian countries, especially in China and Japan. In China, Takifugu obscurus fish is most often used, which, among other things, gives umami and kokumi flavors to dishes (described as a feeling of "saturation", "density" variable in strength and duration).
Researchers have repeatedly tried to find substances that give puffer fish a pleasant taste. Thus, compounds of potassium and sodium, some amino acids, monophosphates of nucleotides (molecules that make up DNA and RNA) were called the main components that are responsible for the taste of umami in puffer meat. Earlier, Chinese researchers led by Yuan Liu from Shanghai Ocean University identified several peptides that give flavor to the most popular puffer fish, Takifugu obscurus. But what contribution they make to the overall composition of taste and how much other substances affect it remained unclear.
In a new paper, Chinese researchers analyzed the composition and taste of cooked Takifugu obscurus meat. As a result of the study, they planned to calculate the concentrations of substances in the meat extract, presumably giving it a taste; to determine the main substances responsible for the taste, and to understand how it is affected by peptides that they found in previous work.
Quantitative studies were carried out by scientists using spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography. Organoleptic tests were performed by 14 people. To determine how a single component affects the composition as a whole, participants underwent "exclusion tests" in which they were given to taste complex flavors from which a single substance was excluded. Thus, the participants identified the key components of the taste of meat. When the key substances were known, the taste testers passed "addition tests" in which the remaining substances were added to the key substances one by one.
As a result of quantitative studies, the researchers revealed in the extract that the extract contains in large quantities the nucleotide inosine monophosphate, lactic and succinic acids, potassium, sodium, chlorine and phosphoric acid ions. There were also quite large concentrations of 17 free amino acids and two nucleotides in the extract. In total, the researchers identified 28 components that could affect the taste of puffer fish. The researchers used these substances or compounds in organoleptic tests.
Organoleptic experiments have shown that the main contribution to the taste of meat is made by four amino acids, including glutamic acid, nucleotides adenosine and inosine monophosphates, succinic acid and inorganic ions — potassium, sodium, chlorine and phosphoric acid. If they were individually excluded from the mixture, its taste changed significantly.
In conclusion, the authors found out how the four peptides they received in the previous work affect the taste of fish. It turned out that two of them enhanced the tastes of umami and kokumi mixed with the other 28 components.
It is worth noting that puffer fish not only has a pleasant taste, but is also deadly — its meat contains the poison tetrodotoxin. Therefore, only certified chefs have the right to carve these fish, the most poisonous organs, including the liver, are not cooked at all, but thrown away, but still every year several lovers of this delicacy die. It is possible that the artificial taste of puffer fish, which can be added to other products, will save gourmets from having to risk their health.
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