Msg

[jabbur]

My son works as a japanese chef at one of those restaurants where they cook the food at your table and crack all those terrible jokes. He loves it! However, the restaurant recently changed hands and the new owner doesn't want to use MSG in the soup any more. I now have a 5 gal bucket about 1/4 full of MSG. Haven't a clue what to do with it. No one in my family seems to have reactions to it from eating at places where it used. So how do you cook with it and how long does it keep?

 

[GB]

It keeps forever. Store it just like you would store salt. Use it (almost) as you would salt. Sprinkle some into soups and stews or on just about anything that you like. After a little experimenting you will see what you should and should not use it on.

 

[Candocook]

A sprinkle at a time, it should last you into the next decade. I'd toss it.

 

[GB]

I'd toss it.

I will take your then.

 

[jennyema]

Start with small spinkles ....

 

[jabbur]

Thanks! I guess I'll try some soon. I need to find another container for it to get the big bucket out of my pantry first!

 

[Barb L.]

What does it actully do for a recipe ? Have never used it.

 

[GB]

It is a type of salt. Just as the salt you are used to is used as a flavor enhancer, so is MSG. It give food that lip smacking sort of taste. That is the best way I can describe it.

 

[Barb L.]

It is a type of salt. Just as the salt you are used to is used as a flavor enhancer, so is MSG. It give food that lip smacking sort of taste. That is the best way I can describe it.

Thanks GB, never knew too much about it !

 

[GB]

Make a baked potato and sprinkle a little on it. That will give you a good idea of what it will do for food.

It is great stuff. It's really too bad that so much of the population is scared of it.

 

[Loprraine]

GB, hate to disagree. I'm not afraid of it. My innards just don't like it.

 

[GB]

Loprraine, there are people who are allergic to it. You are one of those I am sure. The people I am referring to are the ones who only think they have a reaction to it. A while ago the media put out stories about MSG and how bad it is for you and how people get headaches and other symptoms. All of a sudden all these people (who had been eating MSG for years) all of a sudden started getting symptoms and Chinese restaurants had to stop using it because of public demand.

I was actually one of those people. I convinced myself that MSG would without a doubt cause symptoms. I would get a headache when I ate Chinese food. When I later found out the truth about MSG my headaches magically went away.

There is a small percentage of people who really do have a problem with MSG. I am sure you are one of those people. For the rest though, it is not a problem unless it is in their head. As a matter of fact there are probably a lot of products that they eat all the time that has MSG in them.

 

[elcameron]

My son works as a japanese chef at one of those restaurants where they cook the food at your table and crack all those terrible jokes. He loves it! However, the restaurant recently changed hands and the new owner doesn't want to use MSG in the soup any more. I now have a 5 gal bucket about 1/4 full of MSG. Haven't a clue what to do with it. No one in my family seems to have reactions to it from eating at places where it used. So how do you cook with it and how long does it keep?

a 5 gal bucket about 1/4 full of MSG.

wow. you should do a google search or ask your doctor.

 

[middie]

I love msg, but the bf doesn't so needless to say, I don't use it.

 

[Candocook]

I will take your then.

Not really, since I have none. I have never seen the use for it, even 30 years ago when it was all the rage.

 

[Candocook]

There is a small percentage of people who really do have a problem with MSG. I am sure you are one of those people. For the rest though, it is not a problem unless it is in their head. As a matter of fact there are probably a lot of products that they eat all the time that has MSG in them.

My husband trained with the doctor who identified the "chinese restaurant syndrome" . And many of those products are lunch meats that also trigger the headaches. You may poo poo it--until it gives you a massive migraine headache.

 

[GB]

Not really, since I have none.

LOL I knew that candocook. It was pretty obvious from your first post.

Actually it was all the rage a lot before the 70's. Just ask the billions of Asians who have been using it for a long long long long time

 

[GB]

My husband trained with the doctor who identified the "chinese restaurant syndrome" . And many of those products are lunch meats that also trigger the headaches. You may poo poo it--until it gives you a massive migraine headache.

Chinese restaurant syndrome never proved the link to MSG. It was highly suspected, but the link was never shown conclusively.

Lunch meats are just one small portion of items that many Americans eat that contain MSG. Here are a few more...

Doritos
Pringles
KFC Fried Chicken (yep one of their 11 secret spices)
Progresso soups
Many Lipton products
Planters Salted Nuts
Many supermarket sold sausages
supermarket poultry or turkeys that are injected or "self-basting"
flavored ramen noodles
any kind of boullion
many salad dressings

and the list goes on and on.

 

[D_Blackwell]

MSG is an instant migraine trigger for me - and a very big deal. This was not always true. Over the years, I have developed a keen sensitivity to several additives/ingredients. Caffeine used to mean nothing to me, and I consumed far too much by even the loosest standard. I quit it entirely for a time as part of an 'improve what I'm eating campaign'. When I eased up and allowed mysef some caffeine here and there, I found that my body had, in the interim, erected what seem to be permanent defenses. Even a small amount will drop me on the floor within a few minutes. People tend to bandy about the word 'migraine' a little loosely. Those that are prone to the real thing understand the truly excrutiating agony.

In some respects, MSG, caffeine, and such, are probably akin to to people who have, in recent years, developed extraordinary and even dangerous reactions to peanuts; of all things.

 

[StirBlue]

Wow all those food products have msg in them? And here, I did not think that I could afford it. Why is that small bottle on the spice rack so expensive? I have used it so sparingly over the years because of the price. And just to think, I could have just scraped off a couple of doritos!