Koikuchi shoyu

Sauce soja koikuchi

What it is

Roughly equal parts soybean and roasted wheat, koikuchi is about four fifths of everything Japan brews, and the wheat is what separates it from Chinese soy sauce — it supplies the alcohol and the sweet, almost floral aromatics. Counterintuitively it is the less salty of the two standard grades: about 16 per cent against usukuchi’s 19.

In the kitchen

Its aromatics are volatile — add it at the end, or in two goes, because a sauce simmered from the start with koikuchi tastes only of salt by service. Once opened it oxidises in about a month at room temperature; keep it cold.

Goes with

Hon-mirin Junmai sake Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Kombu Wasabi Ginger Rice Tuna

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd

Also used with

Abura-kasu Ashitaba Chicken tail (bonjiri) Japanese amberjack (buri) Fugu shirako Fukujinzuke

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us