Are there natural spices that taste umami? I don't want to use MSG in my food, but I'd like to add some umami flavour.
Spice – What spices taste umami
spices
Related Solutions
My solution to this is to use the containers I already have and put them on this:
It's called a double decker lazy susan. I've had mine about 30 years but I'm sure they are still sold. It spins to make it easy to access anything. You put some spices on the top shelf and some on the bottom.
If you're boiling them it isn't necessary to break them down at all unless time is a factor for you.
Nutmeg also works well boiled whole as you can see in many traditional hot beverage recipes. However, if you want to be able to add all of the spices at once, grinding some of them is advisable. Otherwise you'll have to add the spices to your mixture at different times to avoid flavor imbalances.
The finer that you grind the spices the quicker the volatile organic compounds will be released. In this way you can control the strength of flavor in the final product if all of the spices are added at once.
I've not been able to find any reference to boiling a spice for an extended period changing the character of the flavor(just the potency) which makes sense for a spice since we usually eat the whole thing in ground form anyway.
The same does not apply to herbs.
Best Answer
As others have said, there are few spices with umami. However, if you're looking for something that you can use in the same way as a spice, then I suggest simply blitzing dried porcini (cep) mushrooms in a blender or grinder into a fine powder and using that. It has a deep umami flavour - try rubbing it on a steak before cooking and you'll be blown away.