Soy sauces are an absolutely fascinating topic!
Before coming to Japan I never knew that there are so many different kinds and that they get used in very different situations and aren’t interchangable at all. I just always assumed that there was THE soy sauce and that was it. I knew that different countries have different soy sauces and that those taste very different, but I didn’t realize that even within Japan there are so many kinds. I am going to introduce the most important ones for Kaiseki Cuisine in this post and reference a few others by name as well. That way you have at least heard of them before and can experiment with confidence.
I am going to put a few links in the article to make sourcing easier for you. For transparency I want to also tell you that I might earn a small comission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon associate – there are no additional costs for you though! And by the way: You can even order things directly from Amazon Japan if you can not find them on your own country’s page! You just need to log into Amazon Japan with your normal username and password and put your home adress as your delivery adress. It will even add customs taxes (if needed) etc. to the total price so you don’t get any nasty surprises. I have personally gotten a lot of stuff this way when I was living back home 🙂
first up: KOIKUCHI soy sauce
This one is the most “normal” to non-japanese people and addmittedly also the most widely used in Japan. Whenever you buy Japanese soy sauce in your local asian supermarket this is what you get. Dark brown colour and intense flavour – she’s a classic!
Today KOIKUCHI get’s used for dipping Sashimi, for cooking simmered dishes and in home cooking. This one is definitely a staple pantry item and I would urge everyone to have it in stock at all times.
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
next up: USUKUCHI light soy sauce
This one is the most important soy sauce for Kaiseki Cuisine! It get’s brewed with more rice than the darker Koikuchi soy sauce and that is where the lighter colour comes from. It also has a higher salt percentage and often gets used to give a dish more umami flavour and saltiness while not affecting the colour negatively. Kaiseki dishes are meant to look light and natural, almost as if the vegetables were never processed in any way at all. And to achieve that look USUKUCHI soy sauce is your very best friend! This one is also a pantry staple, if you just get 2 things from this category make it the USUKUCHI & KOIKUCHI soy sauces.
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
TAMARI soy sauce
People who live glutenfree might have heard of Tamari soy sauce, as it is brewed without wheat. Japanese Tamari is not the same as western tamari soy sauce though, so that might be a bit confusing.
Japanese Tamari has a very intense flavour and is almost black and very viscous. Traditionally it was used for Sashimi, but as fish quality improved over time Koikuchi soy sauce has taken it’s place. These days it is mainly used for it’s intense colour, for example to give “Shio-Konbu” a simmered kelp dish it’s deep almost black colour. It definitely has it’s uses but I don’t think you need to include it into your pantry as a beginner.
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
NAMA SHOYU raw soy sauce
Nama Shouyu is traditionally brewed soy sauce that doesn’t get heated at the end of the brewing process, only filtered. That way it keeps more evanescent aromas and thus has a more complex flavour. On the other hand it misses some of the more earthy tones that come from heating – in the end it comes down to personal preference.
It doesn’t really make sense to buy the more expensive raw soy sauce if you want to use it in cooking, because heating it kind of defeats the purpose. It’s use lies more in accompanying Sashimi. Personally I think it’s very delicious (it has more Umami than the normal Koikuchi soy sauce), but it is a bit more challenging to handle. As the enzymes are still active it needs constant refridgeration and will keep on fermenting, so the best before date is shorter than classic Koikuchi.
If you have the chance though please try it out – it has a really nice balance of aromas!
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
Bonus content: MIRIN sweet rice wine
Different to Sake where rice gets brewed with Koji yeast, MIRIN’s base ingredient is sticky rice/Mochi rice! The brewing process is quite similar to Sake, but the resulting alcoholic beverage has a very different taste.
It is very sweet and viscous and get’s used in Kaiseki Cuisine quite a bit – one of the most important uses is giving grilled fish that was marinated a beautiful shine.
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
Bonus content: SEISHU Sake
Sake (aka “Seishu” aka “Nihonshu”) gets used a lot in Kaiseki Cuisine. (It is so clear that I had a hard time taking a photo – I promise it’s there) Sake not only has lots of amino acids and thus Umami flavour, but it also serves as a deodorizer! If you heat up fish in a broth that has Sake in it, most of the unwanted fishy smells will evaporate together with the alkohol. It’s pretty magical honestly and one of the secrets of Japanese Cuisine.
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
Bonus content: KOMEZU rice vinegar
Depending on who you ask the Kanji for rice vinegar might also be read as YONEZU, but that’s besides the point.
The point being: To make good Sushi you need good rice vinegar.
It might seem super obvious, so please don’t laugh but good rice vinegar is made of rice. Some vinegars that say “Sushi vinegar” or even “rice vinegar” actually have vinegars made from random grains in them because they are cheaper, or lot’s of additives, or vinegar essences plus water. What you are looking for when buying your vinegar for Sushi is traditionally brewed vinegar made from rice.
If you want to be a bit fancy (and also very trendy right now) you can try red rice vinegar. It is more of a Tokyo thing than a Kyoto thing so I’m not using it in my recipes, to stay traditional. But if you are wondering why the rice of some michelin star sushi places is a bit colored – that’s the secret! (check it out here)
Check Amazon Japan If you want to know what the Japanese original looks like
Check Amazon.com
Check Amazon.de
I hope that this introduction to the most important seasonings was useful to you and you get to incorporate them into your own adventures! To quickly sum up the top 3 you want to definitely get: KOIKUCHI soy sauce, USUKUCHI soy sauce and SAKE!
As promised a very brief intro to a few other categories of soy sauce: SAISHIKOMI soy sauce – double brewed soy sauce, but in the second step instead of adding water already brewed soy sauce gets added. It tastes very intense- similar to TAMARI soy sauce. MARUDAIZU soy sauce – the soy beans for brewing soy sauce are usually pressed out leftovers from oil pressing (which means lost of proteins and little fat). Marudaizu soy sauce uses normal steamed soy beans instead of pressed out ones. That’s why the soy sauce has a little bit of fat content. TOKUSEN soy sauce literally means “special selection” – it’s a more premium soy sauce with 50% more amino acids (=Umami). Other types that come to mind are for dietary restrictions like gluten-free, alkohol-free or salt-reduced – those are all modelled after KOIKUCHI soy sauce.
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