Kabocha no nukazuke: pumpkin in a fermented rice-bran bed
Kabocha no nukazuke: Refrigerated commercial fermented bed; use removed portions the same day.
Japan
Recipes by the places recorded in their sources.
Japan
Nukazuke
Japanese pickles made by burying vegetables in nukadoko, a reusable bed of rice bran, salt and water that is turned daily and ripened by lactic and yeast fermentation.
Soy-mirin tare for glazing
A modern tare-style glaze of koikuchi soy sauce, mirin, water, sugar and optional ginger, gently reduced and brushed onto food near the end of cooking.
Whey vinegar
Vinegar made by fermenting the lactose of cheese whey to alcohol with a Kluyveromyces yeast and then to acetic acid; sold in Switzerland as Lactavinaigre from the 1950s.
Umezu (ume pickling liquid)
The very salty, sour liquid drawn out of Japanese ume fruit by salt during umeboshi making: acidity from the fruit's citric and malic acid, not from acetic fermentation; white, or red with shiso.
Tofuyo
An Okinawan fermented tofu: dried tofu cubes matured in rice koji, awamori and salt, traditionally with red Monascus koji, until the curd turns smooth and intensely savoury.
Awaji moshio
Awaji moshio is a modern Japanese seaweed salt made by TaDa PHILOSOPHY from Awaji Island seawater and seaweed. Its premium process concentrates brine, extracts seaweed flavor, then crystallizes, separates, dries and grades the salt.
Elevated risk
Rice-koji soybean miso
A traditional Japanese fermented paste made by mixing cooked soybeans with rice koji and salt. This guide details the ratio, the long enzymatic breakdown, and the months-long maturation required for depth.
Elevated risk
Shio Kombu (Seasoned Salted Kelp)
Japanese kelp simmered in soy sauce and seasonings, sometimes dried and salted, eaten with rice or used as an umami seasoning.
Ise takuan
Regional takuan from Ise City, Mie, made with Misono daikon dried on a rack, then matured in a weighted barrel of rice bran and salt for months to years.
Shiokara natto (hama natto, tera natto)
A Japanese family of salted, dark, non-stringy natto made from whole soybeans, roasted grain and salt water, with names such as hama-natto, Daitokuji-natto and tera-natto. Not the sticky Bacillus natto.
Yuba (soy milk skin)
The protein-lipid film that forms on hot soy milk, lifted sheet by sheet from a wide shallow pan; eaten fresh, or dried for later use.
Takuan-zuke
Japanese pickle of daikon roots dried for about two to three weeks, then matured for months in rice bran and salt under weight. Yamagata is its named association.
Shio-koji
Shio-koji is a Japanese seasoning of rice koji, salt and water, left at room temperature until the grains soften and turn sweet and the mixture thickens.
Saishikomi shoyu
Saishikomi shoyu is a double-brewed soy sauce: a second moromi is made with a finished soy sauce in place of salt water, which makes a dark, concentrated sauce with softer salt.
Elevated risk
Kusaya
Izu Islands fish cured by repeated immersion in a maintained microbial brine, then dried. The reused brine, not drying alone, is what defines the product.
Green tea leaf salt (ocha-shio)
Green tea leaf salt is a dry seasoning made by grinding tea leaves, sieving them and mixing the powder with fine salt. This Japanese-style version follows a documented equal-parts method.
Ama-koji
A thick, naturally sweet rice-and-koji preparation used to add body and sweetness to marinades, dressings and sauces. This method follows a published Marukome home recipe and is an enzyme-conversion hold, not a way to grow koji mould.
Wasabi-zuke (Shizuoka wasabi pickled in sake lees)
A Shizuoka pickle of finely chopped wasabi stems and roots, salted, squeezed and kneaded into sweetened sake lees, then rested airtight for two to three days until pungent.
Usukuchi shoyu
Usukuchi is Japan's light-coloured soy sauce, a Kansai style identified by its pale colour rather than by lower salt, with the colour set by production choices made during brewing.
Sweet miso glaze
A Japanese-style glaze of pale rice miso, water, sugar and rice vinegar, heated gently until it coats a spoon and spread over cooked aubergine, tofu or vegetables.
High risk
Shottsuru
Shottsuru is the fish sauce of Akita, Japan, made from salted fish, most often the sandfish hatahata, which liquefies over a long maturation of a year or more.
Shiro dashi (light soy dashi concentrate)
Shiro dashi is a pale Japanese seasoning stock of kombu and bonito dashi, light soy sauce, mirin and salt, used to flavour dishes without darkening them.
High risk
Shiokara
Shiokara is a Japanese salted and fermented seafood preparation, in which squid or the organs of other fish are matured in salt until the flesh breaks down into a thick, savoury paste that keeps its solids.
Seasoned Sushi Vinegar (Sushi-zu)
A Japanese mixed seasoning of vinegar, sugar and salt for sushi rice. Ratios vary with the rice batch and style; this version follows Marukan Vinegar's formula for two go of rice.
Kombu dashi
A clear Japanese broth made by gently extracting kombu’s savoury taste into water. Use it on its own for delicate dishes or as the kelp base for a separate bonito or dried-fish dashi.
High risk
Rice koji
Rice koji is steamed white rice through which koji mold has grown. It carries the enzymes that turn rice starch into sugar, and it is the starting point of sake, sweet miso, amazake and shio koji.
Nihonshu / seishu (Japanese rice sake)
Nihonshu (日本酒), or seishu, is Japanese rice sake: steamed rice, rice koji, water and a yeast starter ferment together in one mash, which is then pressed and finished.
Elevated risk
Natto
Natto is a Japanese fermented soybean food with a sticky coat and long strings, made by steaming soybeans and inoculating them with a natto Bacillus starter, then keeping them warm.
Mushi-pan (Japanese steamed quick cakes)
Mushi-pan are Japanese steamed quick cakes made from a lightly sweetened wheat batter raised with baking powder. This four-cake version is cooked in paper-lined ramekins set in a shallow pan of boiling water.
Miso mustard
Karashi-su-miso is a smooth Japanese sauce of sweet miso, rice vinegar and hot mustard, stirred together for vegetables, seafood or poached fish.
Mirin
Hon-mirin is a Japanese rice seasoning made by saccharifying glutinous rice with rice koji in shochu, then pressing and usually heating the mash.
Koya-dofu (freeze-dried tofu)
Tofu frozen, thawed, pressed and dried into a porous, durable soybean food; Japanese sources trace the tradition to the late Kamakura period.
Kōri-dōfu (frozen and dried tofu)
Japanese tofu frozen, aged below freezing, thawed and dried to a light sponge that is simmered in dashi; Iwadeyama makes it in winter air.
Karashi (Japanese hot mustard paste)
Karashi is Japan's hot mustard: powder stirred with a little water into a stiff paste, covered for a few minutes so the heat develops, and served in small dabs with oden, natto and fried food.
Elevated risk
Frozen raw mushrooms
Frozen raw mushrooms are cleaned mushrooms frozen without a preheating step, the variant a Japanese forest-volunteer manual describes beside its cooked version.
Umeboshi
Naturally acidic ume fruit salted and sometimes dried in Japan; the salt, the fruit’s own acidity and the loss of moisture supply the preservation, and the preparation is not always fermented.
Fresh yuzu-chilli-salt paste
A fresh, uncooked yuzu and green chilli paste inspired by Kyushu’s yuzu kosho, made here as an untested small-batch seasoning rather than a preservation formula.
Shoyuzuke
Foods steeped in soy sauce, a salty fermented seasoning liquid that transfers salt and fermentation products into them; shoyuzuke uses a transformed liquid medium rather than a fresh brine.
Quick tonkatsu-style serving sauce
A small-batch, non-fermented tomato, fruit and savoury sauce assembled for crisp tonkatsu and cabbage, inspired by Japanese yoshoku serving traditions.
High risk
Izushi
Hokkaido izushi layers fish, vegetables, rice and kōji for cold-season lactic fermentation. This MAFF recipe uses small hatahata with a vinegar pretreatment; it is one regional household formula, not a universal izushi method.
Toasted sesame dipping sauce, without mayonnaise
A sesame-rich goma-dare-style dipping sauce made by loosening toasted sesame paste with water, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar; this original development formula remains untested.
Saru-region rice and egg-millet tonoto
Tonoto is an Ainu ceremonial grain drink. This Saru River version ferments equal amounts of rice and egg millet with malted rice for about two to three days in summer or a week in winter.
Sake-Lees Amazake
A Japanese sweet drink made by dissolving sake lees in hot water and adding sugar, often with ginger or salt; it carries flavours and alcohol from sake brewing but normally undergoes no new fermentation.
Neutral classic mayonnaise
A plain mayonnaise of 200 g refined neutral oil emulsified into pasteurised yolk, vinegar, water and a little Dijon mustard: a clean base for tasting, comparing and flavouring.
Aso takanazuke
Takana mustard greens from Aso in Kumamoto are salted and pressed into a fresh spring pickle, or aged into a sour furuzuke that is fried and mixed into takana rice.
Elevated risk
Rice-koji amazake
Cooked rice, rice koji and water are held warm for hours so koji enzymes turn the rice starch to sugars, giving a naturally sweet Japanese drink with no added sugar and no second fermentation.
Batabata-cha
A Japanese post-fermented tea from Asahi in Toyama: mature tea leaves are steamed and fermented aerobically in turned, self-heating heaps, then dried; traditionally boiled and whisked into a foam.
Okyūto (Fukuoka Egonori Seaweed Jelly)
A traditional Fukuoka seaweed jelly made by boiling dried egonori, sometimes with igisu, until it forms a thick extract that sets into soft sheets, eaten cold with soy sauce, vinegar and aromatic condiments.
Tonoto with millet malt
An Ainu grain drink for festivals and housewarmings, made by cooling cooked grain gruel, adding millet malt and holding it in a sake-making vessel.