Disodium guanylate

Guanylate disodique

What it is

Kuninaka Akira closed the set in 1957, isolating it from dried shiitake and completing what Ikeda and Kodama had started. Drying is what makes it: a fresh shiitake holds almost none, and the dried cap holds a great deal, which is why the two are not the same ingredient and why a recipe asking for dried mushrooms rarely accepts fresh ones.

In the kitchen

Same rule as inosinate — with a glutamate source, never instead of one. Soaking water from dried shiitake already carries it, so a stock built on that needs none added.

Goes with

Dried shiitake (donko) Shiitake Kombu Monosodium glutamate Button mushroom Soy sauce Chicken

Same species

Disodium inosinate

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