it’s like Ketchup, kinda.
Burgers come alive with ketchup. What you are doing is slathering the beef patty with a liquid that enhances the flavor of the beef.
Over hundreds of years the Japanese have found their own way to “ketchup” everything to taste good. They call it dashi.
What is Dashi?
It’s stock of Kombu and Katsuobushi.
Widely used in Japanese dishes from miso soup, udon soup, tempura sauce, agedashi tofu, and simmering meats. Think of the wide use of butter in french cooking or olive oil in Italian.
Dashi brings out flavor in other ingredients and makes food savory. Together with shoyu and miso they form the Japanese umami trinity. Dashi tastes close to neutral on its own.
Ingredients
Kombu ….. 20g (or 2% of water), Dashima in Korean
Katsuobushi ….. 20g (or 2% of water), Bonito flakes are the cheaper version
Water ….. 1 quart (1,000g)
Instructions
Soak kombu in water overnight.
The goal is to get the unbound glutamate from the kombu infused into the liquid. Boiling the kombu will quicken the process, but if you boil too long the bitter taste of the kombu will come out. That is why the best Japanese and Korean chefs will insist on soaking overnight.
If you need to do a quick dashi, try to soak the kombu for 15 minutes. Wait to see if the liquid gets ‘slippery’ (you will know when you try). Gently bring to a boil then discard the kombu immediately.
Discard Kombu.
Kombu itself doesn’t taste good. Once we have the unbound glutamate infused in the liquid take the kombu out. You can use the kombu as a garnish on salads. Put some honey to flavor the kombu before garnishing.
Add Katsuobushi
Simmer the liquid to a boil then add katsuobushi. The flavors from the katsuobushi flakes will dissolve in about 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness of the flake. We are infusing the liquid with flavors and inosinic acid from the katsuobushi.
Strain liquid.
You can opt to leave some of the flakes in for flavor of the fish. But for a neutral dashi take out the katsuobushi.
You can keep for one week in fridge.
Using Dashi
Here are some general ways to use dashi. Since not only your dashi, but also shoyu, mirin and miso will vary in taste based on producer, use your tasting spoon to find the right balance. Using dashi is an art, not a science.
Little Neck Miso Soup
Boil dashi, miso, little neck clam and tofu then garnish with chopped scallions.
Eggs DMS
Add dashi, mirin and shoyu (instead of salt) while whisking eggs. Then scramble, omelet, or steam custard.
Simmer the Don
Boil dashi, mirin, shoyu with chopped onion. Then simmer protein (beef, fish, chicken, pork, etc) in broth. Add whisked egg to broth. Garnish with scallions. If you put it on a bowl of rice, you have donburi.
Umami Sauce
Add dashi, mirin, shoyu. Garnish with ground daikon and scallions. Use for dipping tempura, soba, udon, or deep fried tofu. Sauce can be cold or hot. You can substitute mirin with sugar.
If you use dashi like this you will enjoy the savory taste of Japanese cuisine for sure. Learning to use dashi will change your Japanese cooking entirely!
Serious Dashi
To go to the next level and incorporate dashi into your everyday cooking repertoire you really need to understand glutamate. And to understand glutamate, you have to start with protein.
Protein
Let’s say you eat a half pound (8oz) of steak. About a quarter of the steak is made of protein. So you end up consuming 2 oz or 60 g of protein. The body then uses the protein to make bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, blood, enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals.
You eat about 100 grams of protein per day.
Amino acids
Proteins are made up of smaller building blocks called amino acids joined together in chains. Think of a beaded necklace as a protein where each bead is an amino acid. Some proteins are just a few amino acids long, while others are made up of several thousands.
Your gastrointestinal tract breaks down the proteins into amino acids so your body can absorb and use it.
One amino acids, glutamate, activates our savory taste receptor when in the mouth.
Glutamate in your body
Glutamate is one of twenty amino acids that make up proteins in your body. You store about 4.5 lbs of glutamate in your brain, muscles, kidneys, and liver. Your body, including the brain, also synthesize about 50g per day.
On average you eat about 15g of glutamate per day from meats, dairy, legumes and nuts.
Most (95%) of the ingested glutamate is used as fuel for the cells of the gastrointestinal tract. The rest is absorbed by the bloodstream and delivered to cells to be used for metabolism. Excess glutamate is not stored by the body, preventing toxicity. It is passed off as waste.
Some argue that glutamate may enter the brain and trigger migraine headaches. However the glutamate we eat is almost entirely used by the gastrointestinal tract, and excess is discarded. Also, the blood brain barrier blocks glutamate from entering the brain (unlike sugar).
Glutamate in foods
Glutamate is in pretty much every food. It's a major component of protein rich foods like meat, dairy, eggs, and fish. It is also ubiquitous in legumes, grains, nuts, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, and even mother's milk.
Glutamate Unbound
Most glutamate in foods is bound in protein chains. However, there are a few foods that have high levels of unbound glutamate.
The unbound glutamate is able to connect to the taste buds in the mouth and trigger the savory sensation. The more unbound glutamate there is the more savory flavor.
Here are some ingredients that have high levels of unbound glutamate (per 1 kg).
Kombu: 30 g
Sundried Tomato: 10 g
Dried Shiitake mushrooms: 10 g (non dried is 0.7 g)
Walnuts: 7 g
Anchovies: 6 g
Clams: 2 g
Fresh Tomato: 2 g
Garlic: 1 g
Corn: 1 g
Glutamate Unleashed
There are foods around the world that have been developed to unleash the savory flavor of glutamate.
Aging, culturing, dry-curing and fermentation are some of the methods that are used to create unbound glutamate.
Marmite: 20 g
Parmigiano-Reggiano: 17 g
Fish sauce: 15 g
Soy sauce: 10 g
Oyster sauce: 10 g
Miso: 5 g
Kimchi: 3 g
Cured Ham: 3 g
Beef Jerky: tbd
Gochujang: tbd
Sriracha: tbd
Ketchup: tbd
Worcestershire sauce: tbd
Nutritional yeast (savory yeast flakes): tbd
MSG: tbd. Produced by fermentation similar to vinegar or yogurt.
Hondashi: tbd
Dahisda: tbd
Bouillon cube: tbd
Yogurt: tbd. Used as a garnish for savory food, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia.
Unbinding Methods
Here is a list of processes developed over the years in cooking that has the effect of unbinding glutamates. Further investigation is warranted.
Aging
Drying
Culturing
Curing
Fermentation
Some combination of the above
There must be more…
the Medium
Here are the different mediums unbound glutamates are delivered to the cooking process. Is the medium the message?
Liquid
Dashi, fish sauce, shoyu, worcestershire sauce
Dense Liquid (soft solid)
Ketchup, sriracha, yogurt
Paste
Dried tomato paste, miso, gochujang, marmite
Powder
Nutritional yeast, ajinomoto, hondashi, dashida
Flake
Parmesan, katsuobushi
Block
Parmesan, bouillon cube
Whole
Anchovy, kimchi, fermented shrimp (새우젓), cured meats, dried shiitake
Rethinking Dashi
Unbound glutamate can be used to elevate your cooking. Just like salt, fat, acid and heat, you have to master it to create masterful dishes.
Dashi
Dashi is a liquid full of unbound glutamate. Because it is closest to “pure” unbound glutamate it is usually balanced with shoyu and mirin in Japanese cuisine. This trio is responsible for the Japanese taste we are accustomed to at restaurants.
Parmesan
Other unbound glutamate foods are NOT pure. Take parmesan cheese for instance. It is high in unbound glutamate, but also has a high sodium content and has as distinct flavor. So when you use it, you have to understand the whole material. The strict ingredients, size and shape of the cheese block, and aging guidelines of parmigiano-reggiano insure some consistency of unbound glutamate.
Thai Fish Sauce
The fermentation of fish has unbounded the glutamate within a salty spicy liquid. The type of fish and fermentation method will give each fish sauce a unique delicious taste.
Gochujang
The unbound glutamate is snuck in though dried miso powder as an ingredient before the fermentations of gochujang. The type of miso and its unbound glutamate content give each gochujang a different flavor profile.
Good Kimchi
When making good kimchi you want the fermentation to do magic. The best kimchi uses unbound glutamate in the form of Jutgal (fermented seafood). Kimchi fermented without Jutgal is like miso soup without the dashi.
Caesar Salad
A good Caesar salad will have parmigiano-reggiano. A great Caesar salad will have the best anchovies too. The anchovies add flavor, but also have a lot of unbound glutamate to elevate the flavor of the entire dish. Oh, and don’t forget the worcestershire sauce.
Pizza
The Napolitano pizza is full of unbound glutamates from the fresh San Marzano tomatoes. But if you can’t get the best of the best ingredients, like San Marzano tomatoes, you make Pizza Margherita which is a Napolitano pizza made with your local ingredients and elevated with parmesan. Parmesan delivers some much needed unbound glutamate to bring it alive.
Burgers
Burgers come alive with ketchup. What you are doing is slathering the beef patty with red tomato unbound glutamate.
Tacos
I like to season the taco protein (including sweet potatoes for vegan friends) with gochujang. Its kinda like a chili sauce with unbound glutamate. I know some chefs are adding gochujang to their carne asada and el pastor seasoning. They are embracing unbound glutamate.
Spaghetti
Tomato pasta sauce recipes usually have both fresh tomatoes and tomato paste. It’s because tomato paste is made from sun dried tomatoes which have high unbound glutamates. Yes you can make tomato sauce with just fresh tomatoes. But it will taste different. Like miso soup with no dashi.
For Namho
My friend Namho lives in Seattle with his two teenage kids. He hand grinds his coffee each morning, fries his rice in a wok, sears his salmon in a stainless steel skillet, and occasionally makes his own kimchi. He is a good cook.
When Namho asked me “What is Dashi?” I knew he was looking for an answer that could help him elevate his cooking.
I hope this article helps. This one is for you, Namho.
I'll keep my questions coming. Your writing is like dashi to my cooking :-)
Is the Umami Sauce the dipping sauce for zaru soba?