Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
monosodium glutamate \monosodium glutamate\ n. The monosodium salt of the natural amino acid L-glutamine ( C5H8NNaO4), used as a food additive to enhance flavor; abbreviated MSG. It is usually marketed as the monhydrate ( C5H8NNaO4.H2O). It is commmonly used in Chinese-American restaurants, and has been identified as a main cause of Chinese restaurant syndrome.
Wiktionary
n. (context chemistry English) The mono sodium salt of the amino acid, glutamic acid; present in soy sauce; used as a condiment in Chinese and Japanese cooking, and as a food additive to enhance flavor and add the umami taste. Abbreviations: MSG, E621.
WordNet
n. white crystalline compound used as a food additive to enhance flavor; often used in Chinese cooking [syn: MSG]
Wikipedia
Monosodium glutamate (MSG, also known as sodium glutamate) is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids. Monosodium glutamate is found naturally in tomatoes, cheese and other foods.
MSG is used in the food industry as a flavor enhancer with an umami taste that intensifies the meaty, savory flavor of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and meat soups. It was first prepared by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who was trying to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of kombu, an edible seaweed used as a base for many Japanese soups. MSG as a flavor enhancer balances, blends, and rounds the perception of other tastes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given MSG its generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation. A popular belief is that large doses of MSG can cause headaches and other feelings of discomfort, known as " Chinese restaurant syndrome," but evidence of such a reaction with typical use is unclear. The European Union classifies it as a food additive permitted in certain foods and subject to quantitative limits. MSG has the HS code 29224220 and the E number E621.
Usage examples of "monosodium glutamate".
What with our stopping for barely edible fast-food chicken-absolutely rife with monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrate, and God knows what other poisons-we arrived at the Sea and Sand Motel on the southern outskirts of Oceanside.
If the manifest of ingredients on the bottle had been legible, it would have read something like this: Water, blackstrap molasses, imported habanero peppers, salt, garlic, ginger, tomato puree, axle grease, real hickory smoke, snuff, butts of clove cigarettes, Guinness Stout fermentation dregs, uranium mill tailings, muffler cores, monosodium glutamate, nitrates, nitrites, nitrotes and nitrutes, nutrites, natrotes, powdered pork nose hairs, dynamite, activated charcoal, match-heads, used pipe cleaners, tar, nicotine, singlemalt whiskey, smoked beef lymph nodes, autumn leaves, red fuming nitric acid, bituminous coal, fallout, printer's ink, laundry starch, drain deaner, blue chrysotile asbestos, carrageenan, BHA, BHT, and natural flavorings.
If theof ingredients on the bottle had been legible, it would havesomething like this:blackstrap molasses, imported habanero peppers, salt,ginger, tomato puree, axle grease, real hickory smoke, snuff,of clove cigarettes, Guinness Stout fermentation dregs,mill tailings, muffler cores, monosodium glutamate,nitrites, nitrotes and nitrutes, nutrites, natrotes, powderednose hairs, dynamite, activated charcoal, match-heads, usedcleaners, tar, nicotine, singlemalt whiskey, smoked beef lymphautumn leaves, red fuming nitric acid, bituminous coal,printer's ink, laundry starch, drain deaner, blue chrysotilecarrageenan, BHA, BHT, and natural flavorings.
He never ordered beef because sometimes the juices spilled into the rice and in beef, as in much other food, the flavor was often enhanced with monosodium glutamate.
With so much sensory apparatus tied up with vision, he would never again be able to savour a meal properly, unless he drenched it in chilli sauce and monosodium glutamate.
What police technicians could pick up only with a paraffin test, his body could sense through its nervous system, now so acute that even food seasoned with monosodium glutamate would have the effect of knockout drops.
He had long ago purged himself of his appetite for pizza, fatty corned beef, fried shrimp, and Chinese food loaded with monosodium glutamate.
The contestants are Pilverman, who's been shot, Ruby Bee, who shot him, and a sulky kid, who can't tolerate monosodium glutamate.
We use molds in industry to synthesize the acids employed in the manufacture of plastics, new paints, photographic developer, bleach, ceramics, monosodium glutamate .
Either they cooked the rice with artificially preserved meat or they topped it with a sauce packed with monosodium glutamate or any number of other things that were poison to his system.