(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Hair Show. Just kidding, welcome to the Spice Show. My name is June and I like to use MSG. Instead of going on a week
long budget adventure, today we're gonna be going
on a spice adventure. A lot of you have been asking me to tell you about my
favorite spices to use, why I use them, when I use them, what they're good for. And you may or may not have noticed, I really like to use
some MSG in my cooking. And we're going to add some MSG. A pinch of MSG. A little MSG. Some MSG A little bit of MSG. Maybe some MSG. A dash of MSG. I also added a little MSG in there, you know, for flavor. MSG is a touchy subject for some of us. It seems like despite numerous studies saying there's no ill health effects, the stigma still stays
that MSG is bad for you. Which, obviously, I
don't think is the case because I use it in my home cooking. But then again, I also do eat two bags
of chips every night and that's for sure not good for me. I'm not a scientist, and I'm not here to tell you if MSG is either good or bad for you. I'm just here to say it's delicious and I like to use it sometimes, that's all. It seems to have developed
a relatively bad rap for maybe no reason at all. Today is the day we maybe give back a little bit of MSGs innocence. There's already been a lot of articles written on this subject. There's also a This American Life segment that's devoted purely to diving
into this curious history of how this Chinese Restaurant
Syndrome came about. - [Announcer] Everybody in
the world is talking about The Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. And it's a lie, it's a big fib. - There's been articles
tracing the history of this quote unquote medical hoax theory. And there's also an
entire FDA page devoted to discussing commonly
asked questions about MSG. We have the internet, these are all available to you. If you're interested in learning more, we'll have the links in
the description box below. Long story short in 1908 MSG and its granulated form was developed by a Japanese biochemist who extracted it from kelp. And it was delicious. It basically sucked the essence of delicious umami flavor and made it available to be an additive on all sorts of foods. Which all seemed to go fine up until 1968. On April 4th, 1968, a certain Dr.Robert Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine speaking to the sickly
side effects he experienced after eating at a Chinese restaurant. He blamed feelings of numbness
in the back of the neck gradually radiating to
both arms and the back, general weakness and palpitation on the MSG consumption. And so was born The Chinese
Restaurant Syndrome. Does MSG really do that to you? Some people do have sensitivities and allergies to all sorts of ingredients like peanuts, soybeans, even apples. So I don't see why not that some people will definitely experience ill effects from consuming MSG. But I don't know about MSG affecting everyone in that way. MSG stands for monosodium glutamate. And if that sounds like
a scary chemical to you, just know that the table salt that we use, that chemical name is
called sodium chloride. I don't know, sounds kind of iffy to me too. That's why we named it salt. Sodium chloride is a salt. Monosodium glutamate is also a salt. Guess what? Our body needs salt to function. So next time seeing MSG scares you, just think of it as a salt. You sprinkle salt on when you eat, you can sprinkle MSG on
when you eat and cook too. But just so we're clear, not all salts are edible salts. Some of them are quite poisonous, lead diacetate for example. You probably know as well as I do that lead is not good for us. It is quite poisonous
and toxic to our bodies. But lead diacetate was used by the Romans as a sweetener. They cooked all sorts of things in pots that had lead
in it to sweeten them. If you thought sugar was bad, just look to the past to what we did. Suffice it to say we
don't sweeten anything with lead diacetate anymore but MSG is not lead diacetate. Besides, did you know
that our bodies already have about four pounds on
average of glutamate in it? Our bodies are like MSG factories. Besides being found in our bodies, it's also found in a lot of
other sources, naturally. It's in tomatoes. It's an aged cheese. It's in seaweed, mushrooms, fish, fermented stuff aka all
the good things in life that has, you know, flavor. There's a reason why tomatoes taste amazing in anything. And also, cheese. Nowadays MSG is found
in a whole lot of stuff and it's not just Chinese food. It's become incorporated in a whole lot of seasoning mixes, condiments, spice mixes and seasonings, snack foods, canned goods, fast food, all the things that we love because it tastes good. So what does MSG taste like? Well, interesting. It's a little bit sweet, a little bit savory, not quite salty and almost tastes like slightly burning plastic, but in a good way. It reminds me of this light seafood taste that comes from crab meat. That kind of sweet, savory seafoody vibe is exactly what MSG gives to me. It kind of makes me
salivate just a little bit and it leaves this light layer of airiness on my tongue and palate. It's not unpleasant unless you're eating a
whole teaspoon of it, which you wouldn't even
do with table salt. So don't do that with MSG. On its own MSG isn't mind-blowingly good, but almost no spices are
that good on their own. It's only when you use it in combination with other spices, other flavors, that it comes together
into this indescribable, (indistinct) TLDR. MSG on its own, meh, MSG paired with other things, magic. I am curious though if MSG can actually make a discernible
difference in taste. Which is why I went ahead and bought so many things
with and without MSG. Those are all the snacks that I bought. And we will be taste testing some of those with Aaron. Aaron what do you think
they're constructing outside? - [Aaron] Hopefully an MSG factory. (chuckles) - We have an MSG factory. It's called my countertop. Okay, so I went to the store, grabbed a lot of snacks. Some of them have MSG in the ingredients, some of them don't. Doesn't mean that they
don't have MSG already naturally occurring, it just means they didn't
add it into the process. Can we taste the difference? Let's see. First up, crackers. One of these doesn't have MSG and the other one does. They both are thin crackers made of wheat. (plates clattering) Aaron, I have a seven course MSG tasting feast for us. - What happened to you hair? - Fantastic things. Are you ready to have your MSG taste buds put to the test? (claps hands) Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun-
- That's copyright. - Oh sorry. All right two crackers. One has MSG, one doesn't. Or maybe I'm lying to you. But anyway taste them. Tell me what you think. No, you cannot mix. No. (plates clattering) - Well it's kind of hard because the whole thing with MSG is it doesn't taste like
anything on its own, right? (crackers crunching) It just makes other flavors tastes better. So this whole test today is basically, I'm gonna be telling you what I think tastes better. That's it. - I don't think MSG makes
everything taste better, do you? - Well to the point it makes the flavors come out more, right? - It's true. Do you think this one's flavorful? - Has more MSG. That has more MSG. - That has MSG? - Yeah. I'm only picking that because it's well seasoned. - It is very well seasoned. Just look at the flavor on this baby. - Punch in on that. Punch in on that like you did before. Punch in on those flavor crystals. - Next round, canned fish (plates clattering) Fish time. - Our favorite not sponsored but totally should be
fish is back, panasonic. - Panasonic- - Yeah sponsor us panasonic fish. - Okay, so, I don't think they're gonna do that. (laughs) So one of this fish is MSG added and one of the fish
does not have MSG added. Can you guess which? - It's kinda hard because these are different
flavors, you know. - They are different flavors you're totally right. Delicious. - That's tough. They're both really good. - I agree. Are you saying? - I like this one more so I'm gonna say this one has MSG. - You like that one more. - It tastes like there's more complex
flavors going on here. Plus just a good fish taste. - That one tastes saltier to me. - Yeah. - Like it tastes a lot more, like aged soy sauce. - That's MSG right there, that's umami. - But this one has a sweeter flavor to me. - Okay. What does that mean though? What does that mean? - Currently not doing too good. And now we have come
to my favorite portion of any day, any week, any month, any year, chips. I love chips. And boy do we have chips. For our first round, we're gonna go with sweet and salty, corn snacks. This is my favorite
snack of 2020 by the way. Love this one. Do you tear your bags of chips or do you cut your bags
of chips with a scissor? Comment down below. Team scissor for the win. - Is that your corn (indistinct)? (chuckles) The corn (indistinct). Am I allowed to be influenced by the fact that this is an Asian snack and this is an American snack? - Sure if you wanna be a racist. Golden orbs of goodness. - [Aaron] I already know the answer. This tastes more savory so I'm gonna say this has MSG. - That's more savory? - Yeah, because that's a lot more sweet. And why would you put MSG in sweet stuff? Why I ask you, why? - Because flavor. We're trying to do like more. - I've forgot how good PopCorners are, I'm just taking these with me. - Hold on. So your vote is MSG on the PopCorners? - Yes. Is that right? - Do you really wanna know if you've been right or wrong? - Yeah. What else is the point? - I will tell you Aaron, so far three out of three rounds, you have been wrong on all accounts. (laughs) I will say that the PopCorners have way more of a genuine corn taste, like it tastes earthier and carbier. And this corn ball as delicious as it is it just tastes like extracted creamed corn flavor, you know? - I'm just processing how wrong I've been. I thought I knew food. I thought I was a food man. (corn snacks crunching) - Next round, savory corn snacks. (corn snacks crunching) Crunchy. - [Aaron] I have a theory. - What's your theory? - [Aaron] So all the
stuff so far that has MSG has tasted really good. Like I've liked it but it hasn't been as flavorful as the non-MSG thing. - Interesting. - So my theory is that
food producers add MSG to foods that are naturally less flavorful in order to bump them up a little bit, in order to get them to
compete with the foods that they offer that are more flavorful. So MSG makes stuff taste good but can only do so much to raising a food's flavor level. Which is why I'm going to pick the these corn bits as the
ones that contain MSG. They're relatively plain but they taste great and have this nice level of savoriness that I think the MSG is doing that amps them up to good snack. - So you're saying MSG makes blend things tastes a little less blend. - Yes. Because enough spices and salt will obviously
make anything taste good. And we know that from Aaron week, the way I cook. - So you're saying this one has MSG and this one doesn't? - Yeah. - Final answer? - Yes. - You sure? - Yes. - You got it right. (crowd cheering) - My theory is right. - I agreed that Tostitos
taste absolutely amazing. But my question for you Aaron is, why wouldn't food producers just use the spice mix that they put on these, on these? Instead of MSG. - Why don't, because these are different flavors These are just like a relatively plain fried corn snack which wouldn't taste like much if it's just fried corn and oil, right? Maybe a little bit of salt. But the MSG makes it snackable. - Gotcha. - That's what I'm saying. - These are so flavored with MSG. You can see the little
crystals of MSG in the bag. Not gonna lie, I am feeling pretty thirsty but not sure if because of MSG or salt. These snacks have plenty of both. Final round of packed snack taste test, this meatless Chicharron thing. I have no idea what it is but Aaron wanted to try it, so we shall. (coughs) Aaron what is this that you picked? - Oh wow. - What do you think? - Yeah that's salt and vinegar. It's really good. Oh my God that vinegar
went straight up my nose. - June I love them. - Does this taste like a
vegan Chicharron to you? - It's vegan? - It's not pork. It's green peas. You like? - Yeah big time. - MSG or no MSG? - I think I picked it 'cause it had MSG. - Did you taste it? - No, but I see it. - Do you taste that sweetness? I feel like MSG always
gives things a sweet curve. - Really? - It's not sugar but it's like a sweet curve. It's like a little bit plasticy. - I think has MSG has a
branding problem, right? 'Cause it has this
chemically sounding name. But anything can have a
chemically sounding name, like water- - Sodium chloride. - Water could be called
dihydrogen monoxide. Why don't we just call
MSG the Chinese name? We should call it essence of flavor. - It's true. (speaks foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) flavor. (speaks in foreign language) essence. - This has been Chinese
lesson of the day from June. - So up next we're gonna
make our super salt, one part MSG, nine parts kosher salt and then we're going
to cook some real food and season one version with the salt and one version with the super salt. Who will win? Because MSG is just a flavor enhancer, we're not trying to make it, make the food taste like
anything in particular. We're basically just letting it amplify the food's natural flavors. Much like Aaron said, if something is just, you know pouring a little okay, a little blend MSG we'll make it pop just a little more. It's kinda like when you go on Instagram and you like just up the saturation a little bit on your photo and it makes it look that much better. (lighthearted guitar music) Here we have it. 1.3 grams of MSG to 11.7 grams of kosher salt. We're gonna mix it up a little bit and we're going to use
it to season our food. So we got our super salt on this side and our kosher salt on this side. Really can't tell the difference. (lighthearted guitar music) Okay. First thing we're gonna cook, sunny side up egg. That's it. We're gonna season it when it comes out of the pan. Simple. Cast our iron skillet over medium heat, a little drop of oil, let it get hot. We're going to drop in our eggs. Let them get nice and golden on the bottom but still runny in the middle. I'm going to put the MSG on this plate and I'm gonna put the salt one on this. We'll take them off. We'll sprinkle them with salt on one and super salt on the other and we'll see if we can
taste the difference. Lets eat. - (indistinct) - Yes. - Okay. - Yes indeed. - Can I pee first? (chuckles) - I think it's quite the perfect day consistency. Yeah. Ooh yeah. You need a knife? You want a knife? (chuckles) Really struggling there Aaron. - (indistinct) scramble. - Welcome to hour eight
of Aaron sawing through a sunny side up egg with his fork. Can you just use your mouth? Shall I cut it up for us? - That salt tastes pretty super. - The one that you have there? I have a white shirt on to be careful. - Okay. (plates clattering) - Which one is it? - I think this one. This tastes richer. - That is richer? - Yeah. - That has MSG. - Yep. - All right let me taste this. Trade. - No. I don't know. This is hard. - Can you taste the difference? - Not really. So I'm just kind of guessing. I think I'm gonna switch to this one because that one was saltier. - And as opposed to that one? - It's salty and maybe a
little bit of the savoriness. I think, I just picked that initially because it was saltier - Salty and savory. - Yeah. - So you think that one has MSG? That's the super salt one. - Yeah. - You got it right. - Nice.
(crowd cheering) - Congrats bud. We're just gonna put a
little extra super salt on my last bite, you know? I feel like the one that
has the super salt on it almost makes it taste a little bit more like seasoned, spiced. It's not spicy but it is spiced. It makes sense because MSG was extracted from kelp which has intense umami. And that flavor reminds
me of Japanese dashi which is a broth brewed from kelp, bonito, all of that good umami oceany flavors. And it's not seafoody off the bat but it does have that like
sweet, savory edge to it. (upbeat music) Next up cucumber salad. We're gonna keep it super simple. We're just gonna use our salts and a little bit of sesame oil as well as graded garlic. That's it. I'm going to take two Persian cucumbers, trim off their ends, split them in half, chop them, smash them, throw them in a bowl. And then we're gonna drizzle a little bit of sesame oil over, grate about half a clove
of garlic into each bowl. And then we're going to top with a quarter teaspoon of our mixture. One we'll have the super salt mixture and one we'll just have
the kosher salt mixture which I guess isn't really a mixture. Right. No MSG. It's a tale of two bowls. Aaron. - [Aaron] Yeah. - Cucumber salad. - [Aaron] Okay. Where's the chili? - No chili. This is just pure flavor, okay. - Pure flavor? That's what chili is. (chuckles) I think this is it without even trying the other one. - Wow interesting. Why? - I tasted that savoriness. - Without even trying the other one. - Okay now I'm not so sure. They taste so similar like the egg. It's mainly just a guess. - If you dig to the bottom of the bowl that's where the dressing is and it might give you more of a clue. This is pretty salty. - It's that one, that's salty and savory. - Salty and savory? - Yep. - You can taste it? What, can you describe
what that savoriness is? - It's umami. - Umami. Which one do you prefer? - I don't think it's a
question of preference, it's just. Yeah this is just like a
more simple salt flavor. Well, this just has like
more interesting richness. - Richness? - Yeah. - Okay. That sounds good to me, richness. - I assume I'm right. Yeah. - This is the MSG super salt. Even though it's a nine to
one ratio of salt to MSG, I feel like it does make a difference. - It still comes out. It does yeah. Now can I (indistinct) with chili? - Yes go ahead.
- Okay. - I think with each additional
course that we're tasting, it just becomes more and more evident that MSG gives you that intrigue. You can't quite put your finger on it but there's something
more there than just salt. And that to me is quite delicious. Introducing chicken gizzards. I grew up eating these. My mom would braise them
in a soy mixture of sorts over a very low heat, over a very long period of time and they would get kind
of soft and still chewy but very tender and very,
very, very flavorful because all of that soy goodness will just get absorbed in there. Gizzards are part of the
bird's digestive track. It's kind of where
(cock crowing) they grind up all of their food and process it for ingestion, digestion. (burps) I don't know. I don't, I'm not a scientist guys. (upbeat music) To cut down on the chewiness that could result from a
short, fast cooking process, I removed some of the
more muscly, tenderny connective tissue from the gizzards. I'm gonna be putting the
MSG version in this bowl and the kosher salt version in this one. (gizzards sizzling) Going in with about a
half teaspoon of salt. As always when cooking new things, as soon as you know the meat is cooked, give it a taste, adjust seasoning as you see fit. (bowl clattering) (gizzards sizzling) Half a tea spoon of our super salt. When I can see that it's mostly cooked and ready to come off the heat, I'm going to turn the heat off. I'm going to move the gizzards to cover the browning fond
on the bottom of the pan and let it rest for about three minutes and then all the fond will be able to absorb the moisture from the gizzards and be lifted off of the pan, that means more flavor into your bowl. (plates clattering) - Cheers. - Smells good. What's the seasoning in here, just your super salt? - It's either salt and then with oil and garlic, that's it. - That's a great snack. - What do you think? - This is a tough one. Because meat is already a
very savory umami flavor. - Umami yeah. - Especially gizzard. - It's not very organ in tasting. - No. - It's got like a slightest
hint of (indistinct) but it's really really. - This reminds me of Japanese
(speaks in foreign language), umami and the flavor is. - It's a little bit like yakitori, like just grilled gizzards. - That's my MSG guess. - Why? - Because the flavor is
rounder and smoother. Well this has a sharper saltiness and is less vibrant. - These one's the one with MSG. - I don't know, I was mainly guessing. (laughs) It was really hard. (laughs) - I do feel like this one tastes saltier. - Yeah. That's why I didn't pick it because so far I've picked everything. that's tasted less salty and been right about it for MSG. - You know the only
difference this time around is I cooked these. I cooked the salts into the process. So I wonder if that develops- - Maybe. - That salty flavor. - They will taste great though. I think what I've learned today is the main utility of MSG is in making food that already doesn't have a ton of flavor and
making it taste richer. These gizzards are already very tasty and very rich umami tasting. So the MSG I don't think is going to help them out too much. I think this is the best example of what MSG can do to food. Because it's just fried
with a little bit of oil and that doesn't have
much flavor on its own, just corn. And I think the MSG makes
it really addictive. - So you don't think
the gizzards needed MSG? Is that what you're saying to me? - No. I think meat or as has been tradition for humans for thousands
of thousands of years. - I think you're right because glutamate is a protein, right? And meat has a ton of protein. - Tons of it already. - Especially gizzards. - Yeah that's what-
- Very protein heavy. - That's what makes meaty flavors so enticing for humans. - But I think it really did
do a service to the cucumber. Cucumber, no protein. - Agree. - But that doesn't make sense 'cause tomatoes don't have protein and they're so packed. - Tomatoes are just special, June. (chuckles) - Like me? - A very special veg. - Yes. You're the tomato of people. - Well guys we have
eaten a lot of MSG today and I'm very happy because everything was delicious. (upbeat music) Is MSG necessary? Probably not, but I like using it and maybe you will too if you just give it a try. Sometimes it just works. You can ask the same
question of any other spice that you put into your cooking. Why are you using it? Because it brings with
it, its own flavors. Flavors that can't be replicated by any other spice out there. That's why we have so
many spices to play with because they're all delicious and they're all worthy of
belonging in a dish somewhere. MSG is just one of those things where you can put it into almost anything and it'll change the flavor profile for better or worse or
maybe not detectable at all. But as far as I know, half the condiments in my kitchen have MSG and I will continue to use
them with great happiness. Let me know down below what spice you want me to
introduce you to next time. If we do this again, I want you to give me some
wild, cool new things. Maybe some things that
even I haven't tried. I'm here to learn with y'all and until next time, stay hydrated, take care of each other and be freaking well. See yah. (soft music)
