Aromat

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
61
If and when I get the opportunity to go out for a nice lunch or spot of dinner, I do usually prefer to go to one of the little Swiss Stubes (sp?) in Basel rather than a fast food joint or "tailored for foreigners" restaurants. However, the odd KFC or Burger King has been known to tempt me from time to time, especially when it's an organised group of friends or an EF event as I like the social aspect of it more than the food TBH.

I have absolutely nothing against Swiss food but I don't like Aromat and hate it when a restaurant puts it on my food without asking me. My favourite little restaurant know this so when I get my Rösti pan with eggs and ham they never add Aromat to my eggs anymore.

Anyway, I tend to eat at home most of the time and my better half normally cooks for us both. He makes Swiss food, Italian, English and many other culinary delights....all without the addition of Aromat and his food tastes deeelicious

62
Yes, and Italians make cheese from it (ricotta).

Tom

63
I use as it reduces the inflammation in my lungs, because they are sensitive to aitbourne "stuff" - not because my endocrine system has gone to pot. My hormones are just fine thanks

Actually my point was the medical diagnosis

My point here is that there is little proof to support this. Yes, there is quasi scientific tosh like the clip posted above. And there has been tonnes and tonnes of research done on MSG - believe me

I'm open minded , send me some links to "proof" and I'm all eyes and ears

What other additives cause issues with the endocrine system?

Without putting forward any real proof we can all believe what we want - such as the Kennedy's being shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, Man landing on the Moon, the twin towers being a US internal plot, Wayne Rooney not getting a retrospective red card was right etc

So feel free to believe what you want

64
Thanks Hedgehog - I do.

You missed my point, which was simply that a compromised endocrine system can lead to issues such as sensitivity to airborne stuff ... no matter.

65
You were doing so well until that last one. That was a definite red!

66
That's what you think....

67
Trust me I would know...and so would you when you had to clean up the bathroom after me

68
All I can say, I have nothing against Aromat, but I find it funny how the Swiss can't live without it.

Being argentine, I love grilled meat. So until a Swiss try to spoil the best meat in the world with Aromat I dont care :P

69
What I've come to realize is that MSG-based seasonings* -- be it Aromat, liquid Maggi sauce, regular bouillon cubes, or Ajinomoto in Asia -- are often used by amateur cooks who simply don't know how to actually give food flavor.

How do I know? I used to be one. As my cooking skills have improved over the years, I've been able to nearly eliminate all those things from my cooking. (I do confess, I still use MSG-free bouillon from Coop -- or from Trader Joe's back in USA. And I still use the MSG-laden Korean beef and anchovy bouillons, simply for lack of a practical alternative for quick weekday cooking.)

But for most other stuff, it's just been learning how to season with real seasonings -- salts, acids (real Orleans-method vinegars, citrus juices, tamarind, wine, tomato, etc), fresh aromatics (garlic, onions, shallots, scallions, etc; ginger, lemongrass, galanga, chiles, etc), and quality spices (freshly mortar-ground pepper, cumin, etc). And of course fresh herbs when they help (fresh oregano is no better than dried, but fresh parsley, cilantro and sage are revelations). Judicious use of tasty spirits is awesome, too (try sauteeing mushrooms over high heat, add some shallots, and then deglaze with whiskey. Oh. my. god. is that good!).

Combine this with proper methods (like knowing how to properly brown meat or sear vegetables), and you can make awesome stuff without the junk. No Aromat or bouillon cubes needed. (My friends all call me a great cook, so I guess it's working!)

The downside is that it takes longer than convenience foods. But our pre-1900 ancestors had no convenience foods, and they got along just dandy, didn't they?

*What the MSG gives is the elusive umami . This is also -- IMHO better -- achieved with umami-heavy seasonings that derive flavor from fermented protein: soy sauce, fish sauce, anchovies, etc.

70
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this thread!!!!

I thought I just hated Aromat and never bothered to look at the ingredients. Now that I know it's packed with MSG everything makes sense !

You see, I've become increasingly intolerant of the food from the canteen at work. The cook has gigantic tubs of Aromat, which I only realized existed after wondering why all the food tastes exactly the same . A Swiss friend enlightened me upon hearing me describe the chicken bouillon-ey taste.

I am appalled that the Swiss national spice is MSG laden. MSG has a bad rap with good reason. At work we are getting a new cook in a month and all I can say is I hope she doesn't keep up the Aromat routine. I can't deal with the horrid taste, or the headaches and general dreadful feeling every afternoon!

But at least it makes sense now. Thanks for that.

71
You know, my experience has been that a lot of Suisse weren't aware of the dangers of the MSG in Aromat...But that's changing, I believe...I think there was a special documentary series on it in the last 2 years and now you see non-MSG varieties popping up

But once you develop that taste for the carcinogen that is MSG, tough to extract yourself from it...My wife still has a guilty pleasure for Aromat

72
I'm personally a fan of Aromat, and of MSG---I've always heard the health effects of it, but the more I look into it, the more skeptical I become.

Sure hits the taste buds though

73
Great news!!! I work in a school and I hardly find it suitable for all those little growing bodies to be consuming tons of MSG everyday.

At my favorite Chinese restaurant at home they'll make everything without MSG except for the Almond Chicken. It's irresistible!!! So every once in a while I'd be willing to eat it anyway, but always followed dinner with at least a liter of water! You're right that it hits the tastebuds. Mmmm, Almond Chicken!

74
There is no carcinogen in MSG

Please could you quote your source ...

Assuming language is an issue here , carcinogen mean "cancer causing"

If Unilever were to read your comments they could consider suing ... the owners of this BB might want to think about that.

75
Quite right - MSG is unhealthy. It also makes one eat more than one needs to, contributing to obesity.

76
Yeah Right in the same vein as " guns don't kill people , people kill people?"

It needs to be

"I don't make me fat, MSG makes me fat"

Like hell it does - our Western Excess of indulgence , pampering and "me,me, me" makes us fat

It's up to us to stop shoving food in our gobs and not blaming somebody else.

It an interesting concept called "personal responsibility"

If you kids are fat , it is your fault - not MaccyDee's, not KFC's , or the Telly's ...

77
Was it really necessary for you to groan at everyone who posted a post that didn't extoll the virtues of Aromat on steak, chicken, ice cream, and the baby's diaper rash?

C'mon, reserve the groaning for when someone's actually being a d••k.

78
(Before st2lemans groans at this again: I'm not actually anti-Aromat. I've been known to use it. I have Kräuterlinge -- the Aromat with herbs -- in my pantry to go on popcorn. I just don't want everything I eat to taste of Aromat, which was basically the point of this thread.)

What's surprising to me is how many processed foods here actually contain Aromat as an ingredient. They just call it "Streuwürze". Look on things like snack foods, microwave dinners, etc.

Well, that's really more a damnation of typical chicken bouillon, which tastes more of Aromat than it does of chicken.

I don't know who it is that said this -- I suppose it's been many people -- but it's a shame that most people my generation have grown up thinking that chicken bouillon cube (or packet soup) is what chicken soup is supposed to taste like. Instead, we're simply used to the flavor of salt, MSG, and those hydrolyzed yeast and soy proteins. Sure, they taste good. But they don't taste like chicken. (Substitute -- A trick I picked up from a Chinese recipe: make broth from ground meat. You can get more flavor from it in less time.)

79
MSG does lead to obesity and even in research it's widely proven to cause obesity, both due to it's effect on the pancreas as well as the addictive neurotoxic nature of the 'flavor enhancer'

Carcinogenic implication has been long linked to MSG as well as a long list of medical conditions ranging from Asthma & Diabetes to Endocrine disorders

So, bearing in mind that the FDA & health industry (Coupled with research studies) failed to conclusively target nicotine & cigarette smoking as a danger, I find it awfully naive to assume MSG is safe

Consider this, billions of dollars (Like the cigarette industry) are at stake involving something as seemingly insignificant as MSG and so I have a hard time believing that MSG is 'safe' when the links are commonplace

80
Can you post the links to the research?

If you haven't work it out yet, I work in the food industry , I have no vested interest in selling MSG ( In fact taking it out of products makes us money)

So having invested a considerable amount of time in the last 18 months in MSG, it's affects and the health claims, none of the above appears in any of the credible research seen by the team working for me.

Thanks

The FDA tobacco issue is more bases around the vaguaries (?) of the US political system and party funding. Tobacco companies have a huge influence ( as they do in Canton Neuchatel)

MSG companies are from the far East - companies like Kohjin and Ajinomoto ... so don't expect the same protection from the FDA, if there was any sniff at health issues. If you want a good analogy , have a look at the difficulty Premier Foods has had trying to get Quorn accepted into the FDA in the US... no proof of health issue , but a policy driven by "noise"

MSG does not cause obesity. Shoving to much food down your neck and not exercising causes obesity. It's not someone else fault!

South Est Asia does not have the obesity problems of the West - and they consume the most MSG. The Japanese do have an issue - but that is the adoption of the Western Diet and eating patterns and laziness... not MSG