Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG)

Cooking a low sodium recipe with MSG:

If you are trying to cut back on sodium in your diet, MSG can definitely help add flavour to your food while keeping sodium levels in check. How? By cutting back on the amount of table salt used in a recipe, and adding a little MSG, you can boost the flavour of the dish with very little sodium. Getting the dish to taste exactly as you like may take some experimentation, but its not difficult. 

Heres and example of how to do it.

If a soup recipe that yields 6 servings calls for 1 teaspoon of salt, cut it back to 1/2 teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon of MSG to it. This change would result in a "savings" of 900 mg of sodium, or 150 mg of sodium per serving.

When to add MSG to a dish:

Generally , MSG is added to foods before or during cooking and not at the table. For steaks or other meats, sprinkle it on before cooking at the same time you season the meat with salt, pepper, etc. For Casseroles, soup or vegetable dishes, you'd add MSG during the cooking process.

What is MSG?

MSG is the salt version of glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is one of a chain of 20 amino acids that make up a protien molecule.