Kewpie mayonnaise is a favourite amongst cooks — and for good motive. “It’s the iconic bottle of my childhood, having grown up in a Taiwanese-American family,” says Eric Huang, chef and proprietor of Pecking Home in Brooklyn, New York. “I don’t like American mayos, as they’re too candy for me,” provides chef Claudette Zepeda. “At my home, we use [Japanese Kewpie] and my youngsters refuse all different manufacturers.”

Kewpie is tangy, wealthy, and, not like different American mayos available on the market, full of umami thanks to 1 key ingredient: MSG.

Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is a seasoning made out of glutamic acid, an amino acid that’s naturally present in components like cheese, soy sauce, and nuts. When used as a meals additive, MSG is a taste enhancer, rising the savoriness of any dish it touches. MSG is what makes Kewpie stand out amongst different store-bought mayos — it can provide any common potato salad or tomato sandwich an additional oomph. 

The standard formulation, which is available in a squishy plastic tube lined with a plastic bag with Kewpie’s iconic, pink and white child emblem, has been produced in Japan since 1925. Within the early Nineties, Kewpie Company started exporting mayonnaise to the US — it step by step gained recognition however has continued to be far tougher to supply than, say, Duke’s and Hellmann’s. To today, you’re way more prone to discover Japanese Kewpie at an Asian market than at your neighborhood’s grocery retailer. 

However in 2019, Q&B Meals, an American division of Kewpie Company primarily based in Irwindale, California, introduced that it might produce Kewpie stateside. The packaging is completely different — it’s nonetheless in a tube, however that tube is extra dense and comes with out the bag. The “Kewpie Mayonnaise” emblem is in the identical font, however the Japanese translation is lacking. There’s nonetheless a child on the label, however whereas the Japanese model has its full, cartoon physique outlined, the newborn on the American model is depicted from the neck-up, giving slightly wave. The forefront of the American Kewpie bottle is the picture of a sandwich crammed with (so far as we are able to inform) lettuce, pickles, deli meat, tomatoes, and a beneficiant drizzle of mayo. However, each variations have one important function in widespread: a star-shaped tip underneath the cap, bringing a contact of caprice any time Kewpie is used. 

The American model of Kewpie is offered at main grocery retailer chains across the nation, so after I wanted to purchase a bottle for Meals & Wine’s mayonnaise style take a look at, I merely went to my native Complete Meals. However when it got here time to strive the mayo, it tasted … completely different. It nonetheless had a custard-like consistency, however that complexity and punchy umami that I’ve come to anticipate from Kewpie was far much less intense. I turned the bottle round and located that, to my shock, the components have been completely completely different from the unique, Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise. I made a decision to research.

In line with Kewpie’s web site, listed below are the components in Japanese Kewpie: Vegetable Oil (Canola Oil, Soybean Oil), Egg Yolk, Vinegar, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Spice, Pure Taste.

And listed below are the components in American Kewpie: Soybean Oil, Egg Yolks, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, Mustard Flour, Purple Wine Vinegar, Rice Vinegar, Yeast Extract, Pure Flavors

There’s so much to unpack right here. The primary ingredient listed for each mayos — the oil — shouldn’t make a lot of a distinction. Whereas the Japanese model makes use of a mixture of canola and soybean oil and the American model simply makes use of soybean, each soybean and canola are impartial oils, so the change isn’t seemingly impacting the mayos’ taste or consistency. Notably, the third ingredient within the American model is water — an ingredient lacking from the Japanese model. This might clarify why the American Kewpie is barely extra runny than its Japanese counterpart. 

As for the vinegar, the American Kewpie lists distilled, pink wine, and rice vinegars, whereas the Japanese model simply lists “vinegar.” In line with Kewpie’s web site, the corporate makes use of a “distinctive mix of vinegar” which different sources declare is rice vinegar, pink wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and distilled vinegar. The exclusion of apple cider vinegar makes the acidity on the American model barely much less refined and sophisticated.

However right here’s the place it will get actually juicy — the American Kewpie has sugar, whereas the Japanese Kewpie doesn’t. I’m going to hypothesize that that is as a result of American choice for a sweeter mayonnaise. The 2 hottest mayos within the nation, Hellmann’s and Miracle Whip, embrace sugar of their formulations. Why shouldn’t Kewpie observe the identical mannequin? 

One other ingredient present in American Kewpie and never the Japanese model is mustard flour. Often, mustard flour is used for its yellow colour fairly than its taste. This is sensible, as Japanese egg yolks are typically extra orange than American eggs attributable to their red-hued feed which incorporates paprika. This provides their mayo a definite, butter-yellow colour. If the American-made Kewpie is meaning to mimic that colour whereas nonetheless utilizing American eggs, mustard flour can be an ideal instrument for doing so.

Now we’ve come to the largest distinction of all of them: American Kewpie doesn’t use monosodium glutamate. In an electronic mail to the Chicago Tribune in 2019, Q&B Meals’s then director of gross sales Terry Dunseith stated that the American Kewpie had the “similar nice style as the unique from Japan, however with out the MSG that many Individuals are inclined to keep away from.”

Though MSG is used to make Doritos, Campbell’s rooster noodle soup, and Slim Jim’s, many Individuals have the incorrect presumption that the ingredient is dangerous. In an essay for Meals & Wine, author Mari Uyehara defined how this false impression has been steeped in xenophobia ever since 1968, when a health care provider revealed a letter within the New England Journal of Drugs about experiencing ache and weak spot after consuming at a Chinese language restaurant. Readers, and later, scientists, started to theorize that MSG was the reason for his “unusual signs.” Though MSG has by no means been confirmed as a dangerous ingredient (the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration and the American Chemical Society has acknowledged that average consumption of MSG is completely protected), many Individuals nonetheless keep away from it, particularly when it’s related to Chinese language eating places and Asian meals normally. 

2019 was a very long time in the past — within the final 5 years, there was rather more discourse surrounding the unfavourable connotations round MSG — and but, the American model of Kewpie has the identical method because the day it was invented. As a substitute of MSG, there’s yeast extract, which Dunseith described as “one other umami secret.” Satirically, monosodium glutamate is a naturally occurring chemical in yeast extract. There’s a detectable trace of umami in American Kewpie, however it’s way more understated than the Japanese model.

“In my view, [the American Kewpie] is much less flavorful, seemingly as a result of elevated use of MSG within the Japanese model,” says 2023 F&W Greatest New Chef Edgar Rico, proprietor of Nixta Taqueria in Austin. “It positively tastes extra delicate. Not in a great way,” provides Zepeda. 

To be clear, the American model of mayonnaise continues to be stable — it’s well-balanced, creamy, and nonetheless extra nuanced than a lot of its opponents. However in case you’re on the lookout for the mayo that chef’s around the globe hype up; the one that may actually give a punch of umami to any dish, I like to recommend searching for out Japanese Kewpie. For those who can’t discover a bottle at a grocery retailer in your space, observe Zepeda’s lead and order a six-pack on-line.