Kombu
Kombu is the Japanese name for Kelp, a truly extraordinary sea vegetable. It is incredibly nutritious, stuffed with trace elements, minerals, vitamins, and amino-acids. If you can think of it, kombu probably contains it.
Kombu is the only foodstuff that contains significant amounts of all three Umami elements: Glutamate, Inosinate, and Guanylate. When Professor Ikeda first identified the Umami taste in 1908, it was Kombu to which he turned to extract its key component, Glutamate.
It varies in length from a metre or so to the 45m Giant Kelp which grows in sea forests off the coast of California, home to Sea Otters who wrap themselves in its fronds to avoid drifting away when sleeping. It can grow amazingly quickly: giant kelp can grow up to 2m per day.
Kombu is an essential ingredient of Dashi, the Japanese Umami-rich soup stock, for which it is cultivated for two years off the coast of Hokkaido, and harvested from June to September.
It is usually bought dried and rehydrated for use, because the drying process concentrates its Umami flavour.
- Glutamate: 550~3380mg/100g