Masking
Japanese: マスキング
The phenomenon where one taste or aroma conceals another. Salt suppressing bitterness, sweetness softening sourness—integral to flavor balance in fermented foods.
Masking is the phenomenon where one taste component makes another less perceptible. Adding sugar to coffee to soften bitterness is an everyday example.
In miso's flavor balance, masking plays an important role. Saltiness masks bitter peptides from protease breakdown; amino acid sweetness rounds out salt sharpness. Burnt notes from the Maillard reaction can be masked by fruity ester aromas.
Excellent fermented foods are shaped not only by 'addition' of components but by the 'subtraction' of masking. Rather than eliminating unpleasant components, they are concealed by others. Balance within complexity exists thanks to this mechanism.