The MSG used in food production is chemically identical ... He called it monosodium glutamate and created a company called Ajinomoto, meaning “the essence of flavor,” to sell it.

If I’m making homemade stocks or broths, I’ll add about a quarter-teaspoon of MSG per four cups of liquid before I add salt simply because I might not need as much as I think. Taste the food ...

and in unexpected places—kind of like how MSG and other glutamates naturally pop up in a lot of our food. Eng uses MSG like any other seasoning in this cookbook, because that’s exactly what it ...