• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Published Articles
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

Tsunami of umami/breast is best

November 30, 2009 21 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

Visitors book

Phoebe feeding…is there anything more beautiful than a mother feeding her baby?

Phoebe’s milk, Lorna’s milk
Breast milk boobsicles
Stuffing mackerel
Dashi
Yuzu marinated sea bass
Gold and silver leaf in the sake

Eleanor Seabird and Gaz Twist played

Confit

That liquorice foam looks a bit dodgy doesn’t it?
Do we? Don’t we? Oh what the hell…

What is umami? It’s the fifth taste after salt, bitter, sweet and sour, discovered in 1908 by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda, who was trying to define the taste of ‘dashi’, a typically Japanese broth. Chemically, umami is a L-glutamate, which is why MSG (Monosodiumglutamate) makes food so moreish. Umami is a Japanese word (onomatopoeic in that it sounds like ‘yummy’ )and the nearest translation is probably ‘savouriness’.
I realised earlier this year that almost all the food I like is umami: Marmite (naturellement), cheese, tomatoes, anchovies, seaweed, mushrooms, umeboshi plums, soy sauce, seafood, pickles, in fact anything fermented… meat is probably the only umami ingredient I don’t like.
Umami also satiates and produces serotonin; in other words it makes us feel full and happy when we eat. In my research I found it particularly interesting that human breast milk is very high in umami, much higher than cow’s milk or formula. I’m not a scientist but this leads me to believe that umami is somehow necessary for human development. Clearly breast milk had to go on the menu, but who would donate?
I registered for mumsnet and put up an ad. It was taken down within seconds. I asked around for months. One lady agreed but her boyfriend objected. Finally a saviour: Petra Chocstar’s cousins, Lorna and Phoebe, had recently given birth and even better, were willing to donate!
It’s a controversial ingredient. Most people’s reactions both in real life and on Twitter, ranged from ‘ew‘ to ‘no to breast milk. It feels quite wrong to me… cannibalistic even..‘ to the extreme ‘I’m going to open an underground restaurant and serve a cum sandwich.See how you like that’ and even further ‘I don’t care if it cures cancer and promotes world peace! It’s effing BREAST MILK!! That’s disgusting!’. (Thank you Chris Pople).
While it’s perfectly acceptable to exploit the milk meant for calves, in the process separating mother and child, apparently it sparks outrage when donated by an animal that can give consent, the human female. The aversion might be centred around that it reminds us that we are, in fact, animals. When I was breastfeeding, especially having to ‘express’ milk from a pumping machine, I did feel like a cow. It brought home to me that society’s sexualisation of breasts meant that we’d forgotten the basic function of them…to feed our young.
Vegans are very pro-breast milk: PETA, the animal rights activists suggested that Ben & Jerry’s icecream use human milk rather than cow. Not so weird actually, for there is an icecream company that does precisely that. Breast milk recipes can be found at this link, the aptly named site Land of Milk and Honey.
On Twitter I discovered up and coming culinary star Signe Skaimsgard Johansen (@scandilicious). She too is an umami buff and agreed to help me devise and cook a menu for a special Underground Umami night. Signe was a stagière at The Fat Duck lab, has trained in Japan and at Leith’s cookery school. An academic, specialising in fermented foods such as bread and cheese, Signe has contributed recipes to The Bumper book of Marmite, The Ultimate Student cookbook (soon to be reviewed) and will be teaching at the newly set up School of Artisan Food in Nottinghamshire.
Wakana of Akashi Tai came to help out with front of house plus provide free sake tastings for my guests. In the kitchen Wakana suggested a private tasting with some aged sake (2002) which matched impressively with the cheese board. Sake is not in itself umami but, paired with certain flavours you achieve ‘umami convergence’ a food boffin’s term for bloody delicious.
Signe and I decided to add gold and silver flakes (courtesy of @spoon hq) from Laura Santini’s Easy Tasty Magic clever food range to add sparkle to the sake. We also used her Taste No5 Umami paste (and funnily enough I was wearing Chanel No5) to up the umami quotient in the mackerel stuffing.
The menu:
Complimentary Kir royale
A shot of dashi, a shot of Akashi Tai sake flecked with gold and silver, a taster of yuzu, white miso, umeboshi plum, kaffir lime and ponzu marinated sea bass with pickled ginger
Parmesan custard with wild mushrooms on sourdough toast
Roasted mackerel stuffed with sun-blushed tomatoes, Laura Santini’s Taste No5 umami paste, parsley and thyme served with a confit of fennel, celeriac, lemon and capers
Cheese plate from Neal’s Yard: Colston Basset stilton, Stawley goat cheese and Gorwydd caerphilly, orange blossom honey, chilli jam from Italy, almonds and oat cakes.
Chocolate fizz pop icecream served in cinnamon and cardamom cones with Marmite butter caramel and liquorice air
Mother’s milk
Coffee
Marmarati goodie bags
One of the great things about collaborating with others is you pick up tips. As we prepped and cooked through the day on Saturday, Signe shared both old wives’ tales from her Scandinavian background and professional knowledge. After removing the mackerel bones with tweezers, she suggested using cheap vinegar to remove the fish smell from our hands and chopping surfaces.
I prefer to use wooden chopping boards rather than nylon. Wood is a natural disinfectant and heals itself from cuts. Sig told me a trick: especially on wood used for meat, sprinkle a thick layer of salt on the boards, leave overnight and discard the salt in the morning. This thoroughly disinfects the wood and prevents it from buckling from moisture.
Fizz Wiz in the icecream
The standout dish for me was the ceviche style yuzu-marinated seabass, a classic Japanese dish to which I added both fresh Kaffir lime and ordinary lime. This is definitely going on the menu for future dates. I adore ceviche, ate it all the time at street stalls in Peru (where it was paired with sweet potato) and this Japanese take on it hit all the right taste receptors.
As for the breast milk, I decided to keep it simple as I only had enough for a mouthful for each of my guests. I froze it in little breast shaped chocolate moulds with a goji berry representing a nipple. The guests were remarkably open-minded, all but two ate theirs. How did it taste? Subtly sweet…

Recent posts

Queens of Kelp, from the Outer Hebrides

June 4, 2023

midsummer supper club June 17th 2023 Msmarmitelover

My next supper club: midsummer June 17th

May 28, 2023

I organised a street party for the Coronation

May 10, 2023

Previous Post: « Cussin
Next Post: Online sommelier »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. James

    November 30, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    Bitty.

    What a umamifest!

    Reply
  2. the good soup

    November 30, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    Just wanted to say, I'm really impressed with the breast milk effort. I've been wanting to write something for ages on our aversion to drinking from our own species- philosophically I think it's very interesting. I've just blogged a piece on the bandaid to industrial agriculture that is milk pasteurisation. And now you've inspired me to start writing even more on this milk thing. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and say, next I'm in London (I'm living in Berlin at the moment) I'll be reserving a seat at your inventive place.

    Reply
  3. Maggie Bob

    November 30, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    I think you're right about the human reaction to breast milk – if you think about it logically, surely drinking milk from a cow is more unnatural than drinking that from a human. It's all about what society has instilled in us as 'the norm', which is why we are happy (in this country) to drink cows milk, or eat their meat, but find it disgusting to drink the milk of other animals, such as, say dogs, and eat their meat too…

    Reply
  4. Petra Barran

    November 30, 2009 at 11:07 pm

    What a feast. And so funny to see that pic of Phoebe breast feeding! I'm glad it was a success and isn't it fascinating how reactionary some people are? Big up to the boobies!

    Reply
  5. Chris

    December 1, 2009 at 10:02 am

    Thanks for the mention! For what it's worth, I probably would eat dog meat, and have eaten insects, fruit bat, snake blood and kudu (a kind of African antelope). Didn't like all of it, but none of it made me squeamish. I just draw the line at consuming someone else's bodily fluids.

    Reply
  6. theundergroundrestaurant

    December 1, 2009 at 10:05 am

    But it's considered perfectly acceptable for a woman to consume a man's body fluids…

    Reply
  7. Ann

    December 1, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Is human breast milk set to become the next 'luxury ' food item? I can see it now, mass production, exploitation for profit.

    Reply
  8. Kanga_Rue

    December 1, 2009 at 11:41 am

    I totally agree with what you said about breast milk – in fact, I'm jealous that I didn't get to try it! The rest of the meal sounds delicious too.

    Reply
  9. theundergroundrestaurant

    December 1, 2009 at 11:55 am

    Ann: visions of The Handmaid's tale?
    Of course I'm not suggesting exploiting human females for milk, although there exist of course Adult Nursing Relationships (ANR's) in which an adult nurses from a lactating woman. The benefits are a closer relationship they say and both sides gain satisfaction. Sometimes these ANR's are not sexual merely about comfort.

    Reply
  10. Fiona Beckett

    December 1, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    Brilliant menu! I'm so sorry to have missed it – not due to an aversion to breast milk I hasten to say. I see absolutely no objection to that. Interesting that it was sweet which may account for the fact that most of us have a sweet tooth. I haven't, maybe because I was bottle fed from day 1. It would be fascinating to do some research into the taste preferences of babies that were breast fed for different periods and ones that weren't at all. Sounds like a project for Sig!

    Reply
  11. theundergroundrestaurant

    December 1, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    I was bottle fed as well.
    Funnily enough I remember my own breast milk as being quite savoury…I wonder if the fact that I don't eat meat contributed to that or the insult 'vinegar tits' would be apt in this case.
    😉

    Reply
  12. theundergroundrestaurant

    December 1, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=vinegar%20tits

    Reply
  13. green drawers

    December 2, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    So glad it went down well. As discussed previously I cannot understand why people are so squeamish about this. It seems we have become so far removed from what we are that we cannot bear to be reminded. And yet we drink other creatures milk with no problem whatsoever. Like the good soup, and many others, I too believe that we take particularly the 'simple' foods so for granted that we just don't want to think about where they come from and what is done to them to make them 'palatable' to us. In the case of milk, pasteurisation is done so that we don't have to husband the animals as carefully as we would if the milk were left raw. What does that say about us? We don't really care as long as we get what we want. Cheap. All food should be considered nourishment, not just fodder.

    green drawers

    Reply
  14. Anonymous

    December 3, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Wow, it all looks delicious. I find it weird that people took offence at breast milk being on the menu, I mean it's our natural food and without it the human race wouldn't be here.

    Even so I'm a bit squeamish, but that's just a personal thing, not a statement of position! Maybe it's because I've never had human milk. A friend of mine really wants to make cheese out of it.

    Reply
  15. theundergroundrestaurant

    December 3, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    It's hard to make cheese out of it, unless you add rennet…

    Reply
  16. James

    December 4, 2009 at 12:32 am

    Ooh cheese on toast.

    Reply
  17. George@CulinaryTravels

    December 5, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    What a feast indeed. A very thought provoking and informative post. Food for thought.

    Reply
  18. The Curious Cat

    December 7, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    The seabass was indeed fantastic! This menu looks very exciting…not sure about the breast milk…I'm sure I'd have had a little taste out of curiosity…I hope! Wooden board tip is interesting too – and what you say about it being a natural disinfectant – why don't food hygiene people take that into account or tell you that when they are teaching?! xxx

    Reply
  19. shayma

    December 23, 2009 at 11:17 pm

    e brava brava brava! love the menu, *all* the items on it.

    Reply
  20. giselle

    February 11, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    Chris you already drink someoneelse body fluids when you were a baby. There is so many things society make us believe an do, but we havethe desicion. Now I know we should not be drinking cow milk, perhabs the majority of animals don't drink milk when they become mature, what make me think we should just drink milk to certain age. There is a reason why people make a 2% fat milk and just kids should be drinking whole milk. If you drink whole milk every day of your life you may become over fat. It may not be healthy for you. So it make sense to me that we should be drinking from our own species, not others. But I don't we are suppose to drink milk our whole life. There is calcium in other food.

    Reply
  21. Robert Giorgione

    February 25, 2011 at 8:37 am

    Boobilicious!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Petra Barran Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
My next supper club 17th June london tickets £50 My next supper club 17th June london tickets £50 BYO book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsummer-supper-club-tickets-june-17th #london #supperclub #msmarmitelover #midsummer
For tonight’s event I had to push the boundaries For tonight’s event I had to push the boundaries. Here is how to prepare goose neck barnacles or percebes which are a very expensive and rare delicacy, hunted down from cliffs. It’s quite dangerous to forage them. #canapes #eventcatering #satanicfood #percebes #grossfood #seafood #devilsfood
Midsummer supperclub 17th June book tickets here h Midsummer supperclub 17th June book tickets here https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsummer-supper-club-tickets-june-17th at London’s pioneering supper club. Tickets £50 BYO. Scandinavian inspired summery food. #supperclub #msmarmitelover #midsummer #northwestlondon #londonevents #popups
Tina sweating through a gig at Brixton academy cir Tina sweating through a gig at Brixton academy circa 1987 pic: kerstin Rodgers #rip #tinaturner #rockphotographer #kerstinrodgers #teenagephotographer
Attended an incredible talk with @frenchpete_1 on Attended an incredible talk with @frenchpete_1 on war photography in the Ukraine . Go to the exhibition @thebppa @thebargehouse in SE1 last few days 
Had to stop filming cos I was told off. The photographers would be less forthcoming if they were filmed I was told. 
Anyway @frenchpete_1 should be followed by a camera crew cos he’s a star.
For yesterdays lunch I made a blue cheese puff pas For yesterdays lunch I made a blue cheese puff pastry quiche and a little one with less blue cheese & no salt for my 7 month old granddaughter. She absolutely loved it. I’m enjoying seeing her experience and explore new foods with baby led weaning. Avocado, strawberries, kiwi & buttered crumpets are a hit. Pasta less so. Who is this child? Are we even related? #babyledweaning #quiche #homemadepuffpastry
Nice to be featured as The Great Read in The natio Nice to be featured as The Great Read in The national newspaper again. These are the stories I love to do: I go off on an adventure, take my time, interview people (especially women), photograph them in their environment and create recipes on site. This story cost me a lot more than I made as I had an accident and lost my excess. My own damn fault though! Loved loved loved having a campervan. Thanks for lending me it @camperdays.international and sorry about the hole in the side.  https://www.thenational.scot/news/23505593.foraging-seaweed-western-isles/
My terrace on a sunny May morning. The builders @l My terrace on a sunny May morning. The builders @lk.general.building left yesterday. They’ve been working since January. I had the awning installed, the encaustic Minton tiles removed and put back with green grout. The terrace was causing damp so this had to be done. My calamondin plant is looking lovely. The benches which I repaired with hard wood & I repainted using a mix of 2 colours. The marble table I bought in Suffolk at a car boot. Everything is still dusty & I’m waiting for the window cleaner to arrive.
Last but very heartfelt thankyou to @cideriswine f Last but very heartfelt thankyou to @cideriswine for their contribution of these beautiful dry ciders for the coronation street lunch. Gorgeously illustrated labels. #stcuthbertsrd #kilburn #london #cider #artisanaldrinks
When it comes to vodka I much prefer potato vodka. When it comes to vodka I much prefer potato vodka. It’s smoother. Artisanal distillery @devoncovevodka contributed some bottles to my coronation lunch which gave everyone a feeling of being at a classy party. Thanks so much. And also @rawfoodanddrink for arranging. If you want to read my blog post about how and why I organised this event, copy and paste this link: https://t.co/GWNNW2XKba #coronationstreetparty #biglunch #community #kilburn #london #forthepeoplebythepeople
I’ve been a fan of @luscombedrinks for years now I’ve been a fan of @luscombedrinks for years now. They sent a selection: elderflower bubbly, st. Clements orange 🍊 Sicilian lemonade, @belvoirfarm_uk lemonade, which were all delicious and just the tickets for the fortuitous mini-heatwave that occurred on the Sunday coronation lunch. #thankyou #community #coronation #streetparty #biglunch
Our street party. Double page spread in The Sun! T Our street party. Double page spread in The Sun! Tiny bit in the guardian. Decent pic in the Mail and The Star credit @asproider #coronationlunch #kilburn #stcuthbertsrd #kingscroftrd #fordwychrd #templarhouse
My coronation quiche with Broad beans, tarragon, s My coronation quiche with Broad beans, tarragon, spinach, cheddar. I used crème fraiche and blind baked puff pastry shells. I was up at 11 last night making these for todays street party, which featured in the mail, telegraph, mirror, metro courtesy of photographer Gavin Rodgers @asproider
Seaweed foraging at Spring tides in the Outer Hebr Seaweed foraging at Spring tides in the Outer Hebrides with @outerhebrideanforager Fi bird. She’s cutting sea spaghetti. I drove my campervan @camperdays.international from london to the Hebrides- using my gas stove to cook foraged and local ingredients. A real food safari. With the sea spaghetti I made a sea spag vongole with giant parlourdes picked up from the sand at the same time. Great fun, beautiful weather and, the day of the full moon, a wonderfully low tide. This was on south Uist.
More flavours, the flavour thesaurus is a plant-ba More flavours, the flavour thesaurus is a plant-based version of the original. Beautifully constructed, designed and written by @nikisegnit it’s vegetarian rather than vegan but recommended for both. She widens the sensory vocabulary around plant flavours in this book- encouraging new delicious sounding combinations. Now she includes new categories such as flower & meadow, caramel roasted, zesty roost- just the words make me salivate. #foodbooks #bookstagram #newbooks
Yesterday I attended @marmaladeawards @dalemainman Yesterday I attended @marmaladeawards @dalemainmansion I found out so much about marmalade. I’m going to make it this winter. I found out the worlds best maker is Japanese, in fact I was most impressed by the Japanese marmalades in general. Everyone wore orange. I must have tasted 50 marmalades. I met Paddington’s sister, karen jankel who is michael bond’s daughter, born in the same year as Paddington. She gave a charming talk on Paddington, mentioning how the queen insisted on having real marmalade sandwiches in her @launerlondonofficial handbag during the shoot. The house itself is Tudor and Georgian. I stayed in my campervan from @camperdays.international in the car park, cosy in the rain. Another freewheeling adventure. #yorkshire #marmalade #travel #food #ontheroad #campervan
I had a piece in @thetimes on Sunday about being a I had a piece in @thetimes on Sunday about being a vegetarian rather than a vegan. How I still need butter. And how restaurants & plane meals are now vegan rather than vegetarian. But, there are still more the double amount of vegetarians as vegans in the UK. I’ve written a vegan cookbook V is for vegan (link in bio) and am a big fan of vegan foods. I’ve not eaten meat for over 40 years. This is a sustainable diet, in terms of longevity. Vegans that I knew from the early noughties have reverted to meat eating. #newpuritanism? #vegetarian #vegan #foodwriter
Scrambled croft eggs (bright yellow yolks) with a Scrambled croft eggs (bright yellow yolks) with a seaweed that tastes just like truffle. Just done a little kelp foraging at low tide with @thetempleharris’ Amanda Saurin. Isle of Harris. Turquoise sea, white sand, cloud hovering just above. @camperdays.international @roosterpr
I went to Wembley in north west london to talk to I went to Wembley in north west london to talk to Sophie of @tobia.teff she uses the iron-rich, gluten free teff grain from her homeland Ethiopia. She showed me how to make injera, the Ethiopian flatbread which is fermented. She also talked about the coffee ceremony, 3 cups, which they pair with toasted barley or, currently, popcorn! I’d love to visit Ethiopia and find out more about their ancient food culture, history, 3.5k year old monarchy and religions.
Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @bre Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @brentcouncil Willesden library. I’ve been doing this a few times a year for the last few years. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a kitchen set up permanently. Libraries are community centres and could be used to teach how to cook from scratch.
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2023 msmarmitelover