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Sauces and condiments from Japan — first made in Yanai, Yamaguchi

Saishikomi shoyu (twice-brewed)再仕込み醤油

Saishikomi is soy sauce brewed twice. A normal soybean and wheat koji is mixed not with brine but with raw soy sauce pressed from an earlier mash, then ripened for a year and a half to two years or more. The result is dark, thick and rich in nitrogen, yet lower in salt than koikuchi.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe JAS standard fixes the raw materials and the use of raw soy sauce; no source gives batch amounts.
Soybeans and about the same amount of wheat, made into shoyu koji[jas-shoyu][maff-hakko]
Raw soy sauce (kiage) pressed from a finished first-brew moromi, in place of brine[jas-shoyu][maff-hakko]
Starterkoji mould on the soybean and wheat koji; the second mash ferments in raw soy sauce

Total time across the recorded steps: 18 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countMoulds

What changes: Koji mould grows over a soybean and wheat mix, as for ordinary soy sauce

Step 1 of 5
Make the shoyu koji
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

Soybeans and about the same amount of wheat, as for koikuchi.

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

Saishikomi is soy sauce brewed twice. A normal soybean and wheat koji is mixed not with brine but with raw soy sauce pressed from an earlier mash, then ripened for a year and a half to two years or more. The result is dark, thick and rich in nitrogen, yet lower in salt than koikuchi. Made in 5 steps over 18 months. The longest step, ripen the second moromi, takes at least 18 months (MAFF 2023). Salt is 15 % (宇都宮由佳 (Utsunomiya Y.)). Koji mould (kōji-kin) grown on the soybean and wheat koji does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 18 monthsReported[maff-hakko][utsunomiya-fc29]Ripen the second moromi
Salt15 %Reported[utsunomiya-fc29]Press and finish

What makes this one different

The koji is the same as koikuchi, but it is packed in raw soy sauce instead of brine and ripened for one and a half to two years or more. MAFF describes it as thicker and richer in taste and colour than koikuchi, with somewhat less salt.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ibaraki saishikomiUnheated raw soy sauce from domestic whole soybeans, wheat and salt is used to brew domestic soybean and wheat koji a second time, then aged long.

Safety

MAFF says its salt is somewhat lower than koikuchi's, and a Yamaguchi maker puts it near 15 %. The JAS standard asks for a well fermented and ripened sauce with no off-taste, off-smell or mould.

History and sources

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

Takata Denbē, fourth head of the Yanai house Takata (Tomoya), is said in the Takata kanro shōyu record of 1895 to have devised it around the Tenmei era (1781–1789). Presented to the lord Kikkawa, it was praised as "kanro, kanro" (delicious), which gave kanro shōyu its name. By the Anei years (1772–1781) Yanai soy sauce was sold to nearby islands and across the Seto Inland Sea, and by 1908 Yanai merchants shipped as far as Hawaii, Korea and Taiwan. A 1978 paper reports it brewed in 23 prefectures by then.

  1. [kimura1978] 木村精二 (Kimura S.) 1978, 最近のさいしこみ(甘露)醤油 (saishikomi soy sauce today), 日本釀造協會雜誌 73(6):441–443paper
  2. [jas-shoyu] MAFF, Japanese Agricultural Standard for soy sauce (しょうゆの日本農林規格), MAFF Notification No. 1703 of 13 September 2004, article 6 (saishikomi)spec
  3. [maff-hakko] MAFF 2023, にっぽんの発酵食品 (Japan's fermented foods), chapter 3, soy sauce types tablegov
  4. [maff-ibaraki] MAFF, にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japan's traditional foods), 茨城の醤油 (Ibaraki shoyu)gov
  5. [utsunomiya-fc29] 宇都宮由佳 (Utsunomiya Y.), 山口と九州の甘いしょうゆの形成要因 ― 再仕込みしょうゆの広がり、混合しょうゆ (why Yamaguchi and Kyushu soy sauces are sweet), Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture, FOOD CULTURE No. 29, pp. 15–20paper