Vol. XXVIII · The Cuisine of Japan Plate 1 of 11Japanese pantry, 醤油, koikuchi, usukuchi, tamari, 味噌, miso, みりん, mirin, 酒, sake, 米酢, rice vinegar, 昆布, kombu, 鰹節, katsuobushi, tare, tsuyu, kaeshi, ratiosF

The Japanese Pantry.

Soy, mirin and sake in equal parts make a glaze; soy softened with a little mirin and let down with three parts of dashi makes a dipping sauce, and with ten a noodle soup.

Japanese soy sauce (醤油) is brewed from soybeans and roughly equal wheat (XIV.7). Koikuchi (濃口), the everyday dark soy, is about 16 % salt; usukuchi (淡口), "light" soy from Kansai, is paler in colour but saltier, about 18–19 %, so that it seasons without darkening clear soups and vegetables; tamari (たまり) is made with little or no wheat, thick and rich. Miso (味噌) is fermented soybean paste, from sweet white Kyoto miso at about 5–7 % salt to dark red and barley misos at 11–13 %. Mirin (みりん) is a sweet rice liquor of about 14 % alcohol and 40–50 % sugar, which adds sweetness, gloss and a rounded aroma; sake (酒) adds umami and removes fishy smells; rice vinegar (米酢) is mild, about 4–5 % acid.

The cook combines them by ratio. Soy, mirin and sake in equal parts, reduced, are teriyaki glaze (XXVIII.6). Soy and mirin, heated and rested, become kaeshi (かえし), the base of noodle sauces: diluted with about three parts of dashi it is the dipping sauce for cold soba (つけつゆ), with ten or more the hot soup for udon (かけつゆ, XXVIII.9). Simmering liquids (煮汁) sit between (XXVIII.7). Kombu and katsuobushi supply the dashi that carries them (XXII.3, XXVIII.2). The workshop mixes a sauce.

Below: the salt, sugar and alcohol of a sauce mixed from the parts of soy, mirin, sake and dashi you choose (typical compositions; exact mixing by weight, before any cooking off), and the use that strength suits.

What you will learn

Tell koikuchi from usukuchi and tamari.
Know miso, mirin, sake and rice vinegar.
Mix sauces by ratio.
Match a salt level to a use.

Workshop

Typical compositions per 100 g (labels and Japanese food tables; teaching round values): koikuchi soy 16 g salt, usukuchi 18.5, tamari 16; hon-mirin 45 g sugar and 14 g alcohol; sake 15 g alcohol and 3 g sugar; dashi 0.1 g salt. Uses by salt (teaching, from common recipes): above 7 % glaze or tare; 3–7 % dipping sauce; 1.3–3 % simmering liquid; 0.8–1.3 % noodle soup; 0.5–0.8 % clear soup.

One family of sauces, diluted

Equal parts of koikuchi, mirin and sake are about 5.3 % salt — a glaze base, reduced further in the pan. Kaeshi of about four parts soy to one of mirin, let down with three parts of dashi, is about 3.3 % salt, a dipping strength; with ten parts of dashi it is about 1.3 %, a noodle soup. Usukuchi, at about 18.5 % salt, is the trap for newcomers: it looks weaker but seasons harder.

Keep soy sauce cool and closed, and refrigerate it once opened if it will take months to use: air darkens and dulls it. Hon-mirin (本みりん) is true mirin; "mirin-style seasoning" (みりん風調味料) is mostly glucose syrup with little alcohol, sweet but flatter. Miso is added at the end of cooking, off the boil, so its aroma survives (XXVIII.10). Make kaeshi for noodles by heating 200 mL soy with 50 mL mirin and 30 g sugar until the sugar dissolves, without boiling; rest it a week in the fridge, where it mellows.

At the stove

Taste koikuchi and usukuchi side by side on a little plain rice. Which looks lighter, and which is saltier?

The Japanese call the order of seasonings さしすせそ: 砂糖 sugar, 塩 salt, 酢 vinegar, 醤油 soy (old spelling せうゆ) and 味噌 miso — the order they go into a simmering pot (XXVIII.7).

Terms

Koikuchi / usukuchi: Dark everyday soy / pale but saltier Kansai soy.
Mirin: Sweet rice liquor: sugar, gloss, aroma.
Kaeshi: Soy and mirin heated and rested: the base of noodle sauces.
Tsuyu: Kaeshi diluted with dashi for dipping or soup.

Japanese sauces are soy, mirin, sake and dashi by ratio: 1:1:1 soy, mirin and sake a glaze; kaeshi diluted with about three parts dashi a dipping sauce; with ten a noodle soup. Usukuchi is paler but saltier. Miso goes in last, off the boil.

Sources

S. Tsuji, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, Kodansha, 1980 (rev. 2006).
A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.