5 Favorite Pantry Products Tested Here at Milk Street

1

Yamashin Tosa Bonito Shoyu

WORLD CLASS SOY SAUCE

There are endless problems with supermarket soy sauce—it can be flat, salty, one-dimensional, harsh—and they’re all thrown into sharper relief when you try a really good one. This one is made by steeping excellent shoyu with bonito flakes, the base ingredient for dashi. This takes a one-note condiment and turns it into something smoky, earthy, slightly sweet, much more intense overall. I add it to soups, noodles, fish and even tomato sauce. This bottle is really hard to find, which means I stock up when it’s here.

2

THIS JAPANESE CITRUS PEEL TASTES LIKE FRUIT

Biting into a piece of candied citrus peel from an American confectioner is usually an over-sweet slog—first, you have to plow through a sticky exterior and then a tough, over-boiled rind. But this sampler pack includes unusual Japanese citrus—have you heard of of iyokan, the Japanese tangerine?—that hit a range of flavors, like sweet, tart, bitter, sour, rich. The rinds are cut into thin, tender strips. I toss them into granola and baking, but there are more applications to be explored, if I can ever stop snacking on bag.

3

Nihonichi Umami Soy Sauce Seasoning

YOU CAN SPRINKLE THIS SOY SAUCE?

Here’s the issue with soy sauce: Sometimes I want a hit of salt and savoriness, which soy is perfect for, without adding a wet ingredient to a dish. This seasoning gets around that problem—it’s a mix of dried soy sauce (from a shoyu producer who’s been making it since the 1700s), warm spices and a hint of garlic. I add it to rubs for meat and spice mixes and sprinkle it on popcorn. Peppery, salty and a little tangy, it’s perfect for steaks and short ribs or dusted over foods as they come out of the fryer instead of salt.

4

Inoue Miso Gozen Nesashi 5-Year Barrel Aged Miso

GAME-CHANGING MISO

The world of miso is so vast, it’s a little hard to navigate: there are your buttery whites, your rich reds, and many of them are good—great, even—but what makes something really special? Time. Aged in wooden barrels that have been in existence since the company’s start 147 years ago, this miso is made from Japanese rice, soybeans and salt, as well as handmade koji (malt).

While most miso typically ages for a few months to a year, Inoue’s gets its deep complexity and robust flavor from aging for a whopping five years. The result? The cheesy funk of lesser miso fades away and the sweetness is played up. In fact, one of my favorite ways we tested it was in a caramel sauce that was really amazing—it hit all of the miso’s earthy, fruity, chocolate notes. You can use it anywhere that calls for miso, but it’s best used where miso is the star. Add to broths, pan sauces, dressings, soups, compound butters and meat marinades, or caramel, brownies, cookies and more. Even non-traditional dishes like bolognese or chili could benefit from a teaspoon.

5

Soy Sauce Koji Paste

MY NEW GO-TO MARINADE

I did a side-by-side experiment at the restaurant I worked at, marinating half the pork chops for katsu in a marinade with koji paste and the other half without. There was no contest. Once roasted, the chops with the koji were caramelized and had a deep color. I think this paste, which combines soy sauce and koji rice, is excellent as a tenderizer: Slather it on to a steak or mix it into a marinade. The paste also gives a boost of savory-sweet, malted notes and a little tang to sauces, stir-fries and grilled vegetables.