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Sauces and condiments from Japan — Ishikawa

Ōno shōyu (Kanazawa umakuchi soy sauce)大野醤油

Ōno shōyu is the soy sauce of Ōno, the old port of Kanazawa, and is essential to Kaga cooking. Roasted wheat and steamed soybeans are grown into koji, using koji mould passed down through generations, for about 43 hours, mixed with cooled brine and fermented about 6 months, then pressed slowly and heated. It is a koikuchi type, but lighter in colour, mellow and gently sweet.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives amounts for the traditional brew.
Soybeans, steamedŌno's port, a stop for Kitamae ships, made soybeans easy to get; in the Edo period they came by sea from Hokkaido and Niigata, and farmers also planted them on rice-paddy banks[maff-ono][kikkoman-fc28]
Wheat, roasted and crackedWheat was grown widely around Ōno and toward Noto[maff-ono][kikkoman-fc28]
Seed koji made from koji mould passed down through generations[maff-ono]
Cooled salt brine made with good waterStored salt from Noto, in the Kaga domain, was easy to get[maff-ono][kikkoman-fc28]
Starterseed koji (tane-koji) made from koji mould passed down through generations

Total time across the recorded steps: 6.1 months

Start
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What changes: Wheat is roasted and cracked while soybeans steam

Step 1 of 6
Roast the wheat and steam the soybeans
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Ōno shōyu is the soy sauce of Ōno, the old port of Kanazawa, and is essential to Kaga cooking. Roasted wheat and steamed soybeans are grown into koji, using koji mould passed down through generations, for about 43 hours, mixed with cooled brine and fermented about 6 months, then pressed slowly and heated. It is a koikuchi type, but lighter in colour, mellow and gently sweet. Made in 6 steps over 6.1 months. The longest step, ferment under temperature control, takes 6 months (MAFF). Salt is up to 18 % (福留奈美 (Fukutome N.)). Koji mould passed down through generations and used to make the seed koji does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6 monthsReported[maff-ono]Ferment under temperature control
Saltup to 18 %Reported[kikkoman-fc28]Mix with cooled brine

What makes this one different

Ōno shōyu is a koikuchi sauce that tradition says learned its method from Yuasa. Its seed koji is made from koji mould passed down through generations. The result is somewhat paler than Yuasa or Shōdoshima sauces, with a mellow aroma suited to kombu stock rather than the sharper Kantō aroma suited to bonito stock, and a softened, gently sweet umakuchi taste.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Blended (kongō) Ōno shōyuRaw soy sauce blended with amino-acid liquid; MAFF lists amino-acid liquid among Ōno shōyu's main ingredients, and a Kikkoman table lists an Ōno sample as a blend.

Safety

Fukutome notes that the soy sauce of the late Edo period carried nearly 18 % salt to prevent spoilage [kikkoman-fc28]. MAFF says careful temperature control during the roughly 6-month fermentation matters because it keeps conditions right for the useful microbes [maff-ono].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Tradition says that in the Genna era, from 1615, Naoe-ya Ihei of Ōno learned the Yuasa method on the orders of Maeda Toshitsune, the third lord of Kaga. Fukutome notes that other accounts name Chōshi or Noda and that no firm record exists. Ōno's port, a stop for Kitamae ships, brought in soybeans, wheat and Noto salt, and the domain backed the trade. In the Kōka and Kaei years (1844–1853) Ōno had up to 60 brewers making tens of thousands of koku a year, and it was counted among the five great soy sauce centres with Noda, Chōshi, Tatsuno and Shōdoshima. From the end of the shogunate into the Meiji era Ōno lost the domain's protection, and brewers' ties from before the war later helped Ōno's brewers join cooperatives when the industry consolidated after the war. An old method in the Ōno town history adds rice koji to the mash; the Ōno brewing cooperative revived it as the naturally brewed Ōno Murasaki.

  1. [maff-ono] MAFF, にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japan's traditional foods), 大野醤油 (Ōno shōyu)gov
  2. [kikkoman-fc28] 福留奈美 (Fukutome N.), 北陸のしょうゆ造り ― 江戸時代から昭和にかけて (soy sauce making in Hokuriku, from the Edo period to the Shōwa era), Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture, FOOD CULTURE No. 28, pp. 11–18paper
  3. [kikkoman-fc26] 福留奈美 (Fukutome N.), 宇都宮由佳 (Utsunomiya Y.), 郷土料理からみた醤油の地域特性 (regional character of soy sauce seen through local dishes), Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture, FOOD CULTURE No. 26, pp. 8–25paper