Shepherd’s pie hails from the United Kingdom and Ireland, featuring a savory mix of minced or ground meat, usually lamb or beef, topped with mashed potatoes. It often includes vegetables like onions, carrots, and peas, along with herbs like thyme and rosemary. Baked in the oven until the top turns golden and crispy, this dish offers a hearty meal. Additionally, in some regions, it’s known as ‘cottage pie’; however, traditionally, cottage pie uses beef, while shepherd’s pie is made with lamb.

I made two changes to this traditional shepherd’s pie. First, I used Johnsonville Irish O’Garlic Sausage. The main reason is my wife and neighbor will not eat lamb. Personally, I like both.

Second, and this might surprise most people, I incorporated umami. You can think of it as a natural alternative to MSG.

Umami powder is typically made from dried and ground ingredients that are rich in naturally occurring glutamates, which are responsible for the savory umami taste. These ingredients may include:

• Shiitake mushrooms: Dried shiitake mushrooms are a common ingredient in umami powder. They are rich in glutamates, as well as other amino acids and flavor compounds that contribute to umami.
• Kombu: Kombu is a type of dried seaweed that is also rich in glutamates. It is often used in Japanese cuisine to add umami to dishes like dashi broth.
• Bonito flakes: Bonito flakes are dried, smoked, and fermented flakes of skipjack tuna. They are also rich in glutamates and are a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine.
• Soy sauce: Soy sauce is made from fermented soybeans and wheat, and it is a rich source of umami flavor.

These ingredients are usually dried and ground into a fine powder, ready to boost the umami flavor in a variety of dishes. Cooks often sprinkle umami powder on meats, vegetables, soups, and sauces, or use it to enhance snacks like popcorn and potato chips.

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It is a Japanese word that translates to “pleasant savory taste.” Umami delivers a rich, meaty, or savory flavor, thanks to the presence of glutamate, an amino acid found in foods like meat, fish, tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, and fermented products like cheese. Taste buds on the tongue detect umami, which enhances food by adding depth and complexity. In 1908, Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda identified and named umami when he isolated glutamate from kelp, discovering its unique taste that didn’t fit the sweet, sour, salty, or bitter categories.