When it comes to exporting Australian culinary delights to the rest of the world, it can be a mixed bag. It seems we can keep Vegemite to ourselves, thank you very much, while nobody outside those posh-talking weirdos in Adelaide will touch a pie floater with a 10-foot pole. On the other hand, our sweets seem to be wildly popular with furriners – my Japanese friends go nuts for Australian chocolates and everybody loves Tim Tams.
And you Kiwis can stop now: Tim Tams are 100 per cent our invention.
So is chicken salt, ‘the Australian umami’. Umami is the Japanese word for the ‘fifth taste’, after sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Umami is the ‘savoury’ taste characteristic of broths and meaty dishes, as well as cheeses, soy sauce, tomatoes and other foods. It was discovered in 1908 by Dr Kikunae Ikeda of the University of Tokyo. Ikeda scientifically identified umami as a distinct taste attributed to glutamic acid: yes, in 1909, Ikeda and Saburōsuke Suzuki produced monosodium glutamate, the world’s first umami seasoning.
But it took Australians to invent the savoury delicacy that is chicken salt. In the 1970s, Peter Brinkworth of South Australia took a break from the pie floaters and invented a new seasoning for rotisserie chickens – and chicken salt was born.
Since it’s pretty much an Australian delicacy, we feel as though it’s our responsibility to enlighten our friends in the States – and everywhere else in the world – on all things chicken salt: the facts, the dos and don’ts… and its true origins.
After Brinkworth invented chicken salt to flavour the rotisserie chickens he sold in his Gawler shop, he was bought out by the Mitani family in the late ’70s.
Which meant that they were not only in possession of the store, but also what would soon become the chicken salt recipe. In 1979, the Mitani family began selling chicken salt to fellow takeaway joints, and it soon rose to fame.
Not that any Good Oil readers are likely to care, but chicken salt is, in fact, entirely vegan-friendly – at least, the variety made today is. Brinkworth’s original recipe contained not only chicken bouillon, but the MSG invented by umami discoverer Kikunae Ikeda.
Fun fact: ‘bacon bits’ are vegan-friendly, too. So long as they’re not genuine bacon bits. Most are in fact imitations, made from soy protein and flavourings.
But, back to chicken salt.
For us Aussies, chicken salt paired with hot chips is a no-brainer. But what there isn’t enough discussion on are the nitty gritty specifics that we call… chicken salt etiquette. The golden trio of chicken salted chip perfection is: medium cut chips, well cooked (and we mean piping hot with crispy, golden edges), and EXTRA chicken salt, to the point where the chips are smothered. Are you salivating right now? Because we are.
But chips aren’t the only partner-in-crime for the iconic condiment. We love using it as a seasoning for popcorn, chicken (duh), and even when cooking rice for an extra boost of flavour. It’s one of those ingredients that will just take anything to the next level.
And now Americans are discovering it.
Watching Shark Tank one night, I saw an entrepreneur pitch what he calls “a vegan version of chicken salt.” Chicken and salt were a pair of words I’ve never heard in combination, but it immediately snapped me to attention. So what exactly is chicken salt? [...]
As I daydreamed what chicken salt might taste like over my favorite foods, I realized it’s a flavor I’m already familiar with. The Chinese – of which I am one – have a history of incorporating chicken bouillon powder in our food [...]
The Australian version of chicken salt, I’m told, is less salty than chicken bouillon powder, which contains actual chicken in the form of dehydrated chicken meat and fat.
And it goes hard with a chip shop hamburger with the lot and a minimum of chips. (Although, truth be told, I almost always avoid beetroot and pineapple on my hamburgers.)
