10.31 SOY!

Grodinsky “The Joy of Soy” chapter 3 from 
A Taste of Health

Miso and soy sauce, both soy products, are used in one way or another in just about every dish in Japanese cuisine.

Soy Sauce:

• first known reference to “soy sauce” is from 1597 in the Ekirinbon Setsuyoshu as “tamari shoyu”
  
• soy sauce came later due to the machinery needed to create it (squeezing liquid from the beans)
  
• not easily done at home like miso
  
• Noda is where commercial production became and it still remains prominent 
  
• 50 yrs or so passed and they had arranged the flavor with half roasted wheat and half soy beans and created their pure product of “shoyu”
  

consumption: 

• In the 18th century 14.5 liters per year per person of soy sauce were being consumed. 
  
• Nowadays it’s down to about 9 liters per year per person.
  

Popularity:

• 17th century, Japan began exporting soy sauce (now it exports to 100 countries)
  
• Soy sauce grew in popularity during WWII because of American Soldiers returning home after time in Japan
  
• 1957, in the USA soy sauce sales were growing at about 15% a year
  
• 1973, Kikkoman opened factory in Wisconsin (otherwise soybeans woudl always be exported to Japan, then imported BACK in as soy sauce - a waste of everything!) 
  

MISO:

• “In many ways, miso is to Japanese cooking what butter is to French cooking and olive oil to the Italian way.” - Shizuo Tsuji, Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
  


• 8th century there was miso but it wasn’t shared by everyone until about 12 century (mostly likely due to Buddhism encouraging simple diets) which helped define a “simple” meal of rice, miso soup and pickles. 
  
• There is a huge variety of miso (similar to that of the variety of cheese in France).
  
• Also a huge variety of HOW it is made (some made with rice, barley, dark, light, sweet, salty etc...)
  
• Until about 1960s miso was made at home. 
  

Consumption:

• A Japanese eats a few tablespoons of miso per day (according to stats)
  
• It can be used in soup, as a marinade, sauce, pickling, dishes like dengaku, nabe...
  

Fermented Soybean Products and Japanese Standard Taste by Erino Ozeki
Standard Taste As a Cultural Model

• we recognize a repeated flavor/taste eventually as a cuisine
  
• instances where people return to their childhood flavors include: shocked by exotic flavor/living for a long period of time in foreign place
  
• our original childhood flavor preference is what we judge all other flavors by
  
• Standard taste is often misunderstood and takes the form of a stereo typed food item in a culture
  
• this this usually the product of ingredients/seasonings etc... simply being uncommon
  
• In history availability of foods and “suitable processing and cooking methods” guided taste
  
• in ca be influenced by introduction of foreign products (such as red hot pepper in Korea)
  
• discovery of using ingredients differently etc... (soy over fish in modern Japan)
  
• “Standard tastes are deeply associated with particular ingredients and specialized preparation techniques” 
  

Standard Taste: The Japanese Case

• Two Major Elements: dashi and fermented soy bean products
  
• these tow could have been pivotal due to “Umami cultural area”
  

Origins of the Components
Dashi components:1.) kombu

• first mentioned in Shokunihongi AD 797
  
• first used for dashi in Genroku Period (1688-1704)

2.) katsuo bushi with mold appeared in Edo Period (1603 - 1868) 

• Dried fish (particularly katsuo-bushi)
• eaten as early first century BC (Yayoi Era)
  
• eighth century AD (Nara Era) references to it as dried fish and boiling it became common
  
• the name didn’t appear till Muromachi Period (1333 - 1573)
  

Hishio - salt fermented food such as grains, fish, meat, or vegetables. 

• 1.) salted soy and grain varieties  2.) salted fish and meats  3.) pickled vegetables
  

Misoshiro - Muromachi Era, when mortar and pestles became more popular

• By the end of the Edo Period skills and procedure had improved miso
  

The Persistent Nature of the Standard Taste

• About a thousand years passed between the introduction of jiang/miso and katsuobushi and it as a standard taste
  
• It was early 19th century when miso, shoyu, kombu, katsubushi became affordable
  
• then it developed as a steady and “persistent” standard taste 
  

The strength of the Standard Taste (people are returning to it, even though so many exotic/foreign options are available).

• Slow food movement has been spurred by mass media showing homecooking as “traditional” and “authentic” - anti-fast food movements
  
• However fast food still is moving along, through other ways such as convenience stores
  
• now customers want high quality and fast at the same time
  
• Both Fast food and Slow food are moving towards more traditional ways
  

Ongoing and Prospective Changes

• Changes that have occurred:
  
• ready made instant dashi (loss of patience for slow home cooked dashi)
  
• miso/shoyu/fermented soy products have become lighter in flavor (no longer needed for preservation and health awareness)
  

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