Pretty sure Uncle Roger has done more for MSG than the MSG marketing board ever has.

That’s rather curious to read, when you’re from a chunk of Latin America where MSG was never seen as a big deal - it’s that stuff that you’d sprinkle over rice croquettes, or use in some Asian dishes, and… that it? The only times where I’ve found people claiming headaches were on the internet. (Usually known by the name of a Japanese brand.)

I tend to avoid it though - at least pure MSG is boring. Soy sauce, beef broth, tomato paste, Parmesan, those are usually better - because they’ll give you that savouriness plus other flavours. And it’s outright pointless to sprinkle it over meats, it’s like dropping a bucket of water in the ocean.

I like to cook pasta in MSG-water sometimes. I also tend to use wholemeal pasta, which I think is important (the wholemeal aspect) ^.. MSG works best for me when I use it with things that already have a decent depth of flavour and/or variety of ingredients ;3. It doesnt work so well if your food doesnt have enough flavour.

Other cool ingredients:

• liquid smoke (works really well in a lot of things including vegetarian chilis, but especially i’ve found its good in lentil soups when you also have mint e.g lentil and pea soup, lentil, potato, onion soup, etc. ^.) - look for the industrial stuff, its like £5 per bottle but you only need 1 or 2 drops for litres of sauce and it will last you months, kinda like MSG. Add it near the end so you don’t evaporate away lots of the flavour, too.
• yeast extract - this shit is delicious in tomato sauces and stews and chili, even if in the uk we typically have it on toast ;p, adds a meaty, mushroomy flavour
• cinnamon - works amazing in tomato sauces, it sounds weird as fuck but tomato sauce without it tastes like its missing something to me now, its so fundamental to any tomato sauce i make ;3
• bonus: yeast extract + mustard makes a really really cheesy flavour in various sauces, and its completely dairy free. I