And like usukuchi shoyu, it’s used in dishes where ingredients need to maintain their natural color. Unlike usukuchi shoyu, however, it’s light in color. What’s at stake is something much bigger than soy sauce. Until a century ago, Japan’s five main fermented seasonings (soy sauce, miso, vinegar, mirin and sake) were all made in kioke. Today, only 3,000 kioke are used in Japan to make soy sauce, and far fewer are used to ferment the country’s other seasoning staples. When these natural fermentation chambers are replaced with steel vats, you lose the authentic taste of traditional Japanese cuisine. And if they were to vanish completely, so would part of Japan’s cultural and culinary soul. That said, not all soy sauces are made this way. More traditional Chinese varieties of soy sauce come from a process that can take up to two years. This longer fermentation time is what many say contributes to the more complex flavor of these soy sauces. They will often use a mold like Aspergillus and mix the soybeans and wheat into a mixture. Similar to soy sauce, shoyu is made with fermented soybeans. It also contains wheat, salt, and water. The sea salt acts as a preservative, and they add koji, a type of fungi that helps with the fermentation process.

About Yamaroku | Yamaroku Soy Sauce

This premium soy sauce is generally imported from Japan. What makes it unique and different from others is the process of fermentation. The fermentation takes place in a 100-year-old barrel, which, in turn, makes it flavorful. A: My father told me not to inherit the family business as it is hard to make profit producing soy sauce with this traditional method. So I got a job as a sales rep at local food company. There, I experienced first hand the situation regarding food and the big emphasis that is placed on pricing. Even with additive-free high quality goods, buyers would always try to beat down prices as much as possible to the point where, if you weren’t selling artificially produced products at a low price, you wouldn’t sell anything at all. With authentically produced food gradually disappearing, I kind of felt like I didn’t want to have to go and try to sell to those aggressive buyers. I wanted to make those buyers come to me, asking for me to sell to them. I thought it just might be possible if it was soy sauce brewed in the traditional wooden barrels we had at home, and so decided to take up the family business, after all.The presence of only soybeans helps in enriching the food flavors naturally. It is a better option than other chemically fermented soy sauces. Unlike them, it employs the natural fermentation process.

Yamaroku 4 Years Aged Kiku Bisiho Premium Japanese Soy Sauce Yamaroku 4 Years Aged Kiku Bisiho Premium Japanese Soy Sauce

Tare makes a delicious dipping sauce. You can also add tare to stir-fry dishes or use it as a marinade for meats and vegetables.For those who want to try his flagship soy sauce, Tsuru-bishio in the UK, it is available at Japan House in London. Developed through trial and error in collaboration with Mr. Takahashi of Yamamo Takahashi Shoten (founded 1852). Q: Is there anything you’d like to share with potential visitors from the UK to your Shodoshima Yamaroku brewery? Anything to be aware of when they visit? This is what gives our soy sauce its unique taste,” Yamamoto said, pointing to a 150-year-old wooden barrel. “Today, less than 1% of soy sauce in Japan is still made this way.” If you’re looking for a soy sauce to use as a dipping sauce or in something like sushi, Shoyu would be the better choice. Shoyu is also suitable for:

One Man and His Barrels: Yasuo Yamamoto and His Mission to

I love experiencing new cultures through foods and it shows in my travels. When I'm at home I try cooking healthy but love blending dishes I've learned with fresh local ingredients. This soy sauce made from water, soybeans, wheat, and salt is fermented and aged for four years in 100-year-old wooden barrels via the traditional kioke method. When the cedar barrels typically used for this aging became expensive and harder to find, many companies stopped using this process, but not Yamaroku for its Kikubishio Soy Sauce. It brews its product on the warm and dry Shodo Island in Southern Japan.Q: We read that you weren’t always planning on going down the soy sauce production road, but what made you decide to continue the family business in the end?