Basic seasonings and how to choose

Basic seasonings and how to choose

The basic seasoning I think is
Salt, soy sauce, miso, mirin, vinegar, sake

There are six.
By the way, the seasonings given here are basically for Japanese food.
At the same time as being the most familiar, it is the seasoning that is the most counterfeit, so I took it as a basis.
If you think that it doesn't contain sugar, please study again.
Sugar isn't very good, but it's not considered a seasoning.
Since it is nutritionally the same as a stimulant, first discard sugar from the kitchen, then discard brown sugar, sugar beet sugar, and sanon tou, which are the basics of good health.
And this may be the most difficult task for people all over Japan and around the world.
Here's a simple way to choose what kind of seasoning to choose for each seasoning.

● Salt
For salts, avoid those whose ingredient label is only sodium chloride.
This is because it is a chemically purified salt.
Sure, the main component of salt is sodium chloride, but naturally occurring salts contain a variety of minerals.
This mineral is not only nutritious, but also an ingredient in umami.
Sodium chloride is just salty, but if you lick salt that contains various minerals, you will feel a unique umami taste.
Therefore, when choosing salt, it comes from sun-dried seawater and rock salt.
If it's hard to understand, it's a good idea to choose one that has minerals such as magnesium and potassium in the ingredient list.

● Soy sauce
The ones mentioned above are out of the question, but they are basically naturally brewed with no extra ingredients in the ingredients.
Natural brewing is a method of natural aging that takes more than a year.
By the way, in the case of the method of artificially aging fast brewing, this aging period may end in a few weeks.
Some are labeled as "honjou", but please note that the term "honjou" is ambiguous and may be used to make a fake look real.
The basic ingredients for soy sauce are soybeans, salt, and wheat.
In some cases, it may be labeled with Jiuqu or Hon Mirin, but it is better not to buy the ones labeled with other ingredients.

● Miso
Miso includes rice miso, wheat miso, bean miso, etc., but here we will describe general rice miso.
The only ingredients for miso are rice, soybeans, and jiuqu. As a general rule, it's best to avoid other ingredients listed.
By the way, the difference between white miso and red miso is due to the difference in soybean processing method, type of jiuqu, and aging period, and the basic raw materials are the same.
As with soy sauce, be sure to choose naturally brewed ones.
By the way, I often see products that claim to reduce salt with soy sauce, miso, or pickled plums, but most of them are not recommended because they contain preservatives and additives instead of reducing salt.
In the first place, high blood pressure is not bad for the body, but everyone has an illusion, and is it partly that high blood pressure = excessive salt intake? So, if you are interested in this, please check it out.

● Mirin
Mirin is a seasoning with many misleading fakes.
As you can see immediately if you check it at the sales floor such as a supermarket, various products such as pure rice mirin, mirin, mirin-style seasoning, and mirin-type brewed (fermented) seasoning are sold as mirin.
Of course, the only real seasoning in this is Junmai Hon Mirin.
Although the name of Hon Mirin seems to be genuine, most of them have brewing alcohol or sugar added because there is no proper definition.
However, some Hon Mirin is made only from genuine ingredients, so please check the ingredients.
I personally recommend Junmaimoto Mirin, which has been aged for a long period of 2 years or more.
However, mirin is sweet, but I think that those who wonder what it is are sharp people.
I don't deny using mirin for cooking, but I think people who want to use it after all are sweet addicts or sugar addicts.
When using it, I think it is important to use a small amount to make the best use of the taste of the ingredients.

● Vinegar
There are various types of vinegar depending on the raw material, so here we will describe general rice vinegar.
Since it is rice vinegar, please choose pure rice vinegar made from rice only.
It may seem easy, but if the raw material is rice, there is a problem that the raw material is still rice, even if it is old rice or inedible waste rice.
Some conscientious vinegar manufacturers tell you what kind of rice they use on their website, so please look for it.
There are many other types of vinegar, but never choose one that contains brewing sugar, brewing alcohol, or sugar.

● Sake
The only ingredients for real sake are rice, rice jiuqu and water.
Therefore, avoid using ingredients that are labeled with other brewing alcohols or brewing sugars.
You should choose Junmaishu as the product label, but in fact, there are various problems with this Junmaishu label.
I'm going to talk about sake as a seasoning, so I won't go into details, but if you are interested, please check it out.
By the way, there are some sakes that are written as "rice-only sake" but have a note such as "does not meet the standards for pure rice sake", but these sakes are made from rice bran.
Since it is rice bran, rice is the only rice, but I think it is only rice bran.
It can be said that it was developed by a major manufacturer to make effective use of the rice bran that was cut to make expensive sake.
It's not that rice bran is bad, but I can't recommend this kind of sake.