MSG is my go-to ingredient that adds depth of flavor to my dishes. For every teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, I start with 1/4 teaspoon of MSG and increase it to around 1/2 teaspoon if it needs a more savory punch.
MSG—monosodium glutamate—has always shaped the way I eat and cook. It’s the seasoning that makes my scrambled eggs, peanut butter noodles, and stews taste restaurant-worthy. My grandparents add it to brisket and stir-fried vegetables, which, truthfully, is probably how they got me to love broccoli. When I briefly became a vegetarian in college, I found myself yearning for the savory richness of meat. Though adding MSG to my cooking didn’t fully satisfy that craving, my vegetarian meals became exponentially more delicious once I incorporated it. These days, I rarely serve a dish without a sprinkle of MSG. This humble pantry staple adds depth of flavor to my dishes and keeps people coming back for seconds.
I’m certainly not the first to praise MSG. In 2019, former editor Kenji wrote, “I, like my mother, and her mother before her, keep a small jar of it right next to the salt in my kitchen.” Our senior editor, Genevieve, swears by the ingredient and uses it to enhance the flavor of her noodles, dumplings, and vegetables with a generous pinch.
But MSG hasn’t always been treated fairly, especially in the US. In 1968, Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine describing what he called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” He claimed to experience migraines after eating Chinese food, an anecdote that, despite lacking scientific evidence, has ignited decades of fearmongering. While plenty of prepared foods and restaurants used MSG at the time, the backlash unfairly targeted Chinese establishments. Beginning in the late 20th century, a wave of reporting and academic studies has come to its defense—including a 1999 Vogue feature “Why Doesn’t Everyone in China Have a Headache?” by food critic Jeffrey Steingarten and a more recent 2024 James Beard Award-winning feature from Food & Wine—highlighting MSG’s benefits while stressing its track record of safety.
MSG is, after all, a pure crystalline form of glutamic acid. Glutamates occur naturally in many foods, including ripe tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms, and soy sauce, and are also developed during fermentation, ripening, and aging processes. If I’m not cooking with the seasoning, I’m almost certainly adding one of the above ingredients.
Today, we’re in an era when MSG is celebrated, yet it has been slow to catch on in many American home kitchens. Here’s my theory why: With salt, there exists extensive guidance on its use, including our own articles on salting generously, seasoning to taste, and even choosing the best pantry salt. On the other hand, MSG education is relatively nascent. Though many have come to MSG’s defense, very few have written much on how to actually use it. In recipes, it is often called for in small amounts—1/8 to 1 teaspoon—with little to no context. And left to their own discretion, many home cooks with limited MSG experience are liable to treat it like salt and add too much, potentially turning them off before they’ve learned to love it. Clearly, this beloved seasoning deserves its own set of rules.
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
How I Use MSG
Just as salt is sodium combined with chloride, MSG is glutamic acid combined with sodium. MSG, however, isn’t salty on its own. It contains about two-thirds less sodium than table salt and should be used to complement, not replace, salt.
Here’s what I tend to do when I use it: For every teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, I start with 1/4 teaspoon of MSG and increase it to around 1/2 teaspoon if it needs a more savory punch. I find that I use less salt in recipes that include MSG while still achieving a satisfying savory flavor. Balancing a dish’s flavor is key: If your cooking still tastes flat after salting, try a dash of MSG instead.
As with salt, it’s possible to overdo it. In Kenji’s piece, he noted that some people may have mild sensitivities to MSG, much like salt sensitivity, but reactions are short-lived and rarely, if ever, severe.
Restaurants have played a key role in championing the many uses of MSG. “The most important trio in Cantonese cooking is salt, sugar, and MSG,” wrote chef Calvin Eng in his cookbook Salt Sugar MSG: Recipes and Stories from a Cantonese American Home. At Bonnie’s, his celebrated Cantonese American restaurant in Brooklyn, NY, Eng sprinkles MSG throughout the menu: in clams with black bean sauce, Cantonese sticky rice, and even a martini.
Like Eng, I use MSG alongside sugar and salt to add savory depth: I toss it into pasta and noodles, add a pinch to marinades and stir-fries, and whisk it into eggs and salad dressings. I slip it into burgers, Thai curries, and even my everyday sheet-pan chicken.
MSG isn’t a miracle ingredient that can salvage a culinary disaster, but it can enhance the flavor of whatever you’re cooking. I only caution using it in dishes that are supposed to be light and fresh, such as sashimi and poke, or those that are already intensely savory, as the seasoning can overwhelm the natural flavor of the meat. But learn to use it well, and you’ll find yourself whipping up restaurant-worthy meals with an incredible depth of flavor.
The Takeaway
MSG isn’t a trendy hack or shortcut to delicious food. Just as salt and sugar have earned their spots in kitchens around the world, MSG is a foundational seasoning that deserves to sit beside them.
