Japanese cuisine
Dashi, soy, rice and season: a kitchen that multiplies umami by combining two ingredients and touches the ingredient as little as it can.
Where it comes from
Wet-rice farming reached Japan in the first millennium BC, in the Yayoi period; the dating is still debated. Restrictions on eating certain animals, beginning with a Buddhist-influenced edict of 675, shaped a diet centred on fish, soy and vegetables for centuries — although how strictly they were observed varied by region and class. Contact with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century brought battering and frying, and tempura is usually traced to it. From 1868 the Meiji government encouraged eating meat again. “Washoku”, the traditional dietary culture of the Japanese, was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013.
At the table
The basic pattern of a Japanese home meal is known as “ichijū sansai”: a bowl of rice, one soup (often miso) and three small side dishes, with pickles. The dishes arrive together and each sits in its own vessel. Portions are small, temperature matters, and the season is shown in the colour and ingredients of the plate.
Fat, aromatics and acid
Figures are approximate; apart from those that are a definition or a regulation, they vary by product, recipe and source. Where we have no measured value the line reads “—”.
- kombu ≈60 °C · katsuobushi ≈85–95 °C Dashi — Kombu gives glutamate and dried bonito (katsuobushi) gives inosinate; together they register as far stronger umami than either alone. Kombu is never boiled, or it turns slimy and bitter. The site has no record for kombu or katsuobushi.
- ≈15–18 % tuz / salt Soy sauce — The typical range for dark (koikuchi) soy; the paler usukuchi is saltier. Part of the seasoning comes from the soy, so less salt goes in separately.
- yağ / oil ≈170–180 °C Tempura batter — The batter is mixed with ice-cold water and barely stirred so gluten does not develop and the crust stays thin and brittle.
- pH ≈4.1–4.6 Sushi rice — Seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar and salt; the vinegar both flavours it and lowers the rice’s pH to where bacterial growth slows. Reported ranges vary between sources.
- — Ginger and sesame — Fresh ginger pickled (gari) or grated; sesame toasted and ground for goma dressing.
How this kitchen cooks
- Deep frying Tempura and karaage.
- Grill & BBQ Yakitori and salt-grilled fish.
- Fermentation Miso, soy sauce and natto.
- Pickling Tsukemono.
- Blanching Spinach for ohitashi.
- Poaching Egg and fish cooked in dashi.
- Cold Sashimi: no heat, only the knife.
- Plating & table Showing the season on the plate.
What is in the pantry
The historical claims rest on these books. Contested origins are written as contested.
- Naomichi Ishige, The History and Culture of Japanese Food. Kegan Paul, 2001.
- Shizuo Tsuji, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art. Kodansha International, 1980.
- Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Scribner, 2004.