DRIED BONITO FLAKES

Dried Bonito Flakes, are a commonly used ingredient in Japanese cuisine, but their ubiquity should not detract from their remarkable nature. To those uninitiated with Japanese cuisine, they may appear quite unusual in appearance, but even more special is the way in which they are produced; a painstaking process that takes months and has been honed for centuries.
A remarkable ingredientThe katsuo, or ocean bonito, is a popular fish in Japan, which has been eaten since the Jomon period (c. 10,000-3,000 BC). It is generally caught during early summer in the northern seas off Hokkaido and during autumn in the warmer waters further south. Its red, meaty flesh is eaten fresh, particularly as tataki, when the outer part of the fillet is briefly grilled over a flame leaving the centre raw, and is also often cooked in a teriyaki sauce.The fish is best known, however, for being made into katsuobushi, which are shaved from a bonito fillet that has not just been dried but also smoked and mould cured over a long period of time to create something that in shape, colour and hardness very much resembles a piece of wood. Having been eaten fresh for millennia, the first record of dried bonito being consumed dates from around the eighth century. It was not until the Muromachi period (1336-1573) that records speak of something vaguely resembling katsuobushi as we know it today; not simply dried, but also hardened. During the Edo period (1603-1867), meanwhile, the techniques of smoking fish and meat products to remove the moisture from them and mould curing became more widespread and bonito-processing centres able to carry out these tasks sprang up along the Pacific coast of Japan. Today, the katsuo fishing industry is centered on Makurazaki in southeast Kyushu and Tosa on the south of the island of Shikoku, both in the warm waters at the south of the country.
A painstaking processThe process of making katsuobushi is a painstaking and fascinating one, and begins soon after the fish have been landed. After being filleted, the flesh of the fish is boiled for between twenty and thirty minutes to set the proteins and the bones removed using special tweezers, a process known as hone nuki. The fish is then wood-smoked for several hours a day for up to two weeks until the moisture content is reduced to around a quarter of what it was at the outset. Next, the fillets are dried in the sun for two or three days, in preparation for the curing process. The fish is placed in a chamber impregnated with a mould called Aspergillus glaucus, a close relation of the kojikin mould, Aspergillus oryzae, which is used in the making of miso, sake, mirin and other Japanese beverages and condiments. In many cases, the same chamber may have been used for many years, which not only means that it is unnecessary to add additional mould, but also that the mould present will be unique to that chamber and give the resulting katsuo a distinctive character. After the mould has had two weeks or so to develop on the fish the fillets are removed from the chamber and placed in the sun to kill off the surface mould. They are then returned to the chamber and the moulding and sunning process is repeated for up to six weeks until the fish has completely hardened. The blocks of bonito are traditionally shaved using a device called a katsuobushi bako, which is identical to a carpenter’s wood plane but collects the shavings in a box underneath. The flavour and aroma of katsuobushi are at their best immediately after shaving and the process should therefore be carried out as close to the time of cooking and eating as possible. So much so that it is said that in some top quality restaurants the chef does not shave the katsuobushi until the customer has arrived at the restaurant. The majority of homes and restaurants in Japan nowadays, however, do not shave their own katsuobushi, even though it used to be quite common in many families until around the 1970s. Instead, the majority of katsuobushi used nowadays are pre-shaved and sealed in airtight bags to preserve flavour and aroma.
Many flakes, with many uses As discussed earlier in this chapter, the importance of katsuobushi lies in the fact that it imparts the umami taste. The long, slow fermentation process causes the proteins in the fish to break down releasing, amongst other substances, the nucleotide inosinate, which is one of the three main umami-imparting ingredients. Its role in ichiban dashi is particularly important, with the 5’-inosinate being combined with the glutamate of the konbu to create a powerful umami hit. dashi is also sometimes made just with katsuobushi, when it is ideal in suimono clear soups and forms the basis for tempura dipping sauce. The intensely savoury flakes have a number of other uses besides dashi , however, and are particularly effective in very simple and lightly seasoned dishes such as o-hitashi (boiled and seasoned green vegetables), hiyayakko (a block of chilled tofu) and yudofu (tofu hotpot), with the combination of katsuobushi and soy sauce creating a delicious, synergistic umami hit. The flakes are also often used as a garnish for savoury foods such as o-konomiyaki (savoury pancakes) and takoyaki (chopped octopus in batter), which are both often topped with a thick, dark Worcester-style sauce and mayonnaise before being sprinkled liberally with katsuobushi, which appear to dance and writhe around on the hot food.

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What's in a Name? Are MSG and Umami the Same?

The Japanese word `umami' has a long past. It was already in use during the Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate) of Japanese history, which ended in 1868 (Mason, 1993). In Japanese, `umami' often connotes a cognitive category (Yamaguchi and Ninomiya, 1998) of taste, or perhaps flavor, with definitions that include deliciousness, flavor, relish, gusto and zest (Inoue, 1983). In effect, the Japanese word `umami' can denote a really good taste of something—a taste or flavor that is an especially appropriate exemplar of the flavor of that thing (Backhouse, 1978).
Recognition of a role for sodium salts of glutamic acid in flavor has a shorter history. In 1909 Dr Kikunae Ikeda reported the isolation of metallic salts of glutamic acid from a brown kelp [tangle, genus Laminaria (Guiry, 2002), `konbu' or 'kombu' in Japanese] commonly used in Japanese cuisine, and recognition that the (mono) sodium salt of glutamic acid imparted a familiar and highly desirable flavor to foods (Ikeda, 1909; Murata et al., 1985). Dr Ikeda noted that the flavor could be described as delicious, nice or palatable (`umai' in Japanese). It seemed to him to be related to his impressions when he ate meat or bonito (dried marine fish flakes; `katsuobushi' in Japanese), and was based upon a taste that differed from generally recognized basic tastes. He accepted the suggestion that this taste could temporarily be called `umami'. In a later publication, in English (Ikeda, 1912), he chose to use the description `glutamate taste'.
The taste of monosodium glutamate (MSG) by itself does not in any sense represent deliciousness. Instead, it is often described as unpleasant, and as bitter, salty or soapy (Yamaguchi, 1998; Halpern, 2000, 2002). However, when MSG is added in low concentrations to appropriate foods, the flavor, pleasantness and acceptability of the food increases (Halpern, 2000). These differences illustrate the distinction between the taste of a single tastant and the effects upon flavor of tastants in a food (Lawless, 1996).
MSG is a tastant, as is salt (NaCl). We can study transduction mechanisms for NaCl or MSG, and peripheral and central gustatory neural responses, in a particular species, while recognizing that the gustatory mechanisms and responses discovered in one species may be quite different from those in another (Halpern, 2002). For human responses to NaCl, we talk about salt taste, or saltiness. In similar fashion, for MSG it is appropriate to speak of glutamate taste, as Dr Ikeda did (Ikeda, 1912). Flavor, derived from human descriptions of foods and beverages, depends upon mixtures of tastants (and odorants) but represents aspects that emerge from the array of tastants and odorants, and their matrix (Halpern, 1997). In general, individual tastants are not described as delicious. In isolation, the taste of neither NaCl nor MSG is delicious. In similar fashion, naturally occurring tastants, such as potassium chloride or phosphate salts, amino acids like glycine, arginine and alanine, and nucleotides such as adenosine 5'-monophosphate, taken alone, are not described as delicious. However, these same tastants, combined in appropriate proportions with NaCl and glutamic acid (or MSG), yield the flavor of boiled crab (Konosu et al., 1987), and may be characterized as delicious, perhaps with reports of `umami'.

Bruce P. Halpern

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NIBOSHI (Small Dried Fish)

Often described in English as dried sardines, the term niboshi, sometimes substituted for the synonymous word iriko, is in fact used to denote several types of small dried fish. The most popular of these is the katakuchi iwashi, or anchovy. Other commonly used species include ma iwashi (pilchard), urume iwashi (round herring) and kibinago, as well as fish often eaten in other forms, such as aji (horse mackerel), saba (mackerel) and tobiuo (flying fish). In each case, the fish are harvested when only a few centimeters in length before being dried. The dashi that is derived from niboshi is strong-tasting with a slightly bitter edge and is therefore best suited to robust-tasting dishes such as miso soup and nabe hotpots, as opposed to those where a delicate taste is required. It is possible to eliminate some of the bitterness of niboshi dashi by ensuring that the heads and entrails of the fish are removed before cooking. Furthermore by roasting the niboshi before making dashi the resulting stock will be more aromatic.
Rich in history, rich in minerals, rich in tasteThe fish used to make niboshi have been consumed by the Japanese since earliest times, and by the beginning of the Nara period (710-784) the boiling and drying techniques used to turn them into niboshi had been developed. By the beginning of the Edo period the popularity of niboshi was considerable. Due to the abundance in which they were caught they were available widely and cheaply and were therefore used to make stock by those who could not afford to buy katsuobushi or konbu. The way in which niboshi are prepared not only ensures that they can be preserved for a long time but also concentrates and deepens their flavour. The small fish are first of all boiled briefly in salted water to prevent deterioration, before being dried. This process causes the proteins in the fish to break down into amino acids and also increases levels of the nucleotide inosinate, which is one of the three main umami providing substances. Traditionally, the fish were laid out in the sun to dry and this method results in the highest possible levels of nutrients and flavour enhancing substances. The sheer volume of niboshi consumed in Japan nowadays, however, means that most are dried using special techniques that preserve as much of the goodness as possible. niboshi are rich in many different minerals, particularly calcium, which has traditionally been important for the Japanese given that their diet does not feature dairy products prominently. They are also rich in DHA, a substance that is required by the human brain and, if levels drop, can lead to increased risk of depression and Alzheimer’s disease. When selecting niboshi it is important to pay attention to their colour and shape. The fish should ideally have a surface skin that is attractive and shiny and any with a brownish tinge should be avoided as this is a sign that oxidization of fat is taking place. The risk of oxidization can be reduced by storing the niboshi in a frozen state. The body of each fish should be intact and any with a ruptured abdomen should be avoided.A flexible fishNboshi are perhaps most commonly associated with dashi, which involves cooking them briefly in water. The illustrations below depict the most common method of creating niboshi dashi, which involves using whole specimens. They are also sometimes pulverized in a food processor before being added to stock. In this form, they are sometimes mixed with katsuobushi to make furikake, a seasoning for rice. niboshi are also frequently enjoyed as they are as a tasty snack and are available ready mixed with almonds and other nuts to serve as an accompaniment to drinks. The katakuchi iwashi that are used to make niboshi also play an important role in the traditional Japanese New Year cuisine, known as o-sechi ryori. Here, they are served in a teriyaki style glaze of soy sauce, mirin, sugar and sesame seeds to create a dish known as tazukuri or gomame. Like other dishes served at New Year, tazukuri has a certain symbolism, in this case fertility and abundance, as fish were at one time used to fertilize crops in Japan.
How to make niboshi dashi
　Makes 3 cups　· 20g niboshi (dried sardines)　· 3 cups (600ml) water
Remove the heads and guts from the niboshi and place in a saucepan with the water.
Place over a medium heat, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Carefully remove any scum that forms on the surface.
Continue to simmer for 5-6 minutes, then strain.

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What is dashi ?

Dashi is the quintessential stock in Japanese cuisine and forms the basis of a huge variety of dishes. It is made using a few specific ingredients and, although it appears extremely simple and straightforward, the effect it has on the flavour of a dish is profound. It is made by boiling and soaking, generally for a short period of time, certain animal and vegetable products that enhance the flavour of a dish. These are principally konbu, or kelp sea vegetable, katsuobushi, or dried bonito fish shavings, niboshi, or small dried fish such as sardines and shiitake mushrooms.Dashi has a long history in Japanese cuisine. It is known that boiling was first used as a cooking method in Japan in the Jomon period (c. 10,000-3,000 BC), when broth obtained from boiling seafood and fishbones was used to flavour other dishes and by the seventh century AD konbu and katsuobushi were being used as they still are today. The process was refined over the years and dashi really came into its own during the Edo period (1603-1867), when many of today’s most popular Japanese dishes came into being. Today, dashi is used in a wide variety of dishes including nabe hot pots, suimono clear soups, tempura dipping sauce and of course the ubiquitous miso soup to name but a few, and it enhances the flavour of a wide array of cuisine.
Dashi type
Characteristics and usage
Katsuobushi+Konbu
Ichiban dashi
This is a highly aromatic, clear dashi with a refined taste. It is best suited to dishes where delicate flavours are required, such as suimono (clear soups), chawanmushi (savoury egg custard) and steamed vegetables.
Niban dashi
An intensely flavoured dashi that is made using the konbu and katsuobushi left over from ichiban dashi. It is best suited to robust dishes such as nabe (hotpots), miso soups and nimono (simmered dishes).
Konbu
Soaked
A sophisticated dashi with a strong umami taste. The soaking method ensures that the sliminess or imperfections of the konbu are not apparent and is therefore suitable for soups and simmered dishes in Buddhist shojin cuisine.
Boiled
This dashi has plenty of umami from the konbu, and is aromatic with a deep taste. It is suitable for use in dishes such as nimono in shojin cuisine and can be made quickly.
Niboshi
This dashi is usually used in miso soups and nimomo, but if made with quality niboshi it can also be used in suimono (clear soups).
Shiitake
Used in shojin cuisine and dishes where the flavour of the ingredients must be drawn out, such as nimono, tsuyu dipping sauce for noodles and takikomi gohan, where rice is steamed with other ingredients and flavourings.It’s stock, but not as we know it The key difference between dashi and other types of stock around the world such as the bouillon used in Western cuisine and the Chinese stock known as tang is that where in the latter case relatively simple ingredients such as chicken are boiled over a long period of time to release flavour, when making dashi it is common to use ingredients that have been carefully prepared and matured over a long period of time, for example katsuobushi that take six months to prepare and konbu that is not used until it has grown for two years to fully mature, and for them to then only be soaked in water or heated briefly. This ensures that only the essence of flavour of each ingredient is drawn out. Importantly, the main flavour element present in all dashi ingredients is the savoury taste known as umami, which is considered to be the fifth basic taste besides sweet, salty, sour and bitter. The most interesting aspect of umami is that as well as providing an appealing savoury taste of its own it draws out and enhances the taste of other ingredients in the dish. This contrasts with Western stock, whose taste is layered upon those of other ingredients. Dashi for different dishes The classic dashi is that made using konbu kelp and katsuobushi dried bonito flakes. The highest quality dashi , which has a delicate flavour that is ideal in clear soups such as suimono, is called ichiban dashi and is made using fresh konbu and katsuobushi. Niban dashi , which has a richer flavour, is made usingkonbu and katsuobushi that have been previously used to make ichiban dashi and is more suited to miso soup and other strongly flavoured dishes. The other main varieties are those made usingkonbu only and shiitake mushrooms, both of which are used in the Buddhist inspired, vegetarian shojin cuisine, as well as that made using niboshi , or small dried fish such as iwashi , which is a more robust dashi for inclusion in strongly flavoured dishes such as nabe hot pots.
How to make ichiban dashi
　Makes 3 cups　· 8g bonito flakes　· 4cm x 4cm piece dried konbu (kelp)　· 3 cups (600ml) water
Make a few slits in the konbu and place in a saucepan with the water over a medium heat.
Remove the kelp just before it boils and add the bonito flakes.
Bring to the boil and strain.
　
　
How to make niban dashi
　Makes 3 cups　· Recycled bonito flakes and konbu (kelp) from 　　ichiban dashi (see above)　· 5g bonito flakes 　 · cups (600ml) water
Place the reserved bonito flakes and konbu from the ichiban dashi and water in a saucepan.
Heat to just below boiling point, then simmer for 15 minutes. Add fresh bonito flakes.
Wait until added bonito flakes sink, remove from heat and strain.

Umami: the secret of dashi's success The word umami and the concept behind it are now becoming recognized and understood by professional chefs and food experts in the West, but the term was first coined in Japan as long ago as 1908 and it in fact describes a taste that has played an essential part in all cuisine all over the world since earliest times. The fifth taste of human beings The way in which human beings perceive food is a complex combination of a number of factors, which encapsulates not only the taste of the food but also its aroma, the atmosphere in which it is served and even the mood of the diner. As far as the actual taste of the food goes, however, it was generally held by scientists and taste experts to consist of four basic tastes, namely sweet, sour, salty and bitter, which served rather like primary colours and could be combined to build more complex tastes and flavours. In 1908, however, a Japanese scientist, Professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University, made a discovery that would come to have a great impact on the way taste is perceived. Having discerned a taste sensation in konbu dashi that could not be accounted for among the existing four tastes he carried out experiments that identified the source of the taste as glutamate. He christened the taste umami, the word for deliciousness in Japanese, but which in this case equates to savouriness. Subsequent research by other Japanese scientists identified other naturally occurring substances that also produce the umami taste sensation, namely inosinate, identified in 1913, and guanylate, identified in 1960. Further breakthroughs came in 1996 and 2002 when taste receptors were discovered on the human tongue that respond specifically to the umami taste. It was this breakthrough that led to umami being confirmed in the minds of many scientists as the fifth basic taste and led to it becoming more accepted in the wider culinary world. Umami-rich dashi ingredients The main substances that provide umami are glutamate, an amino acid, and 5’-inosinate and 5’-guanylate, which are classified as nucleotides. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and are released when proteins are broken down through maturation, ripening and fermentation. For this reason glutamate levels tend to be highest in foods such as cured meats, cheese and ripe vegetables such as tomatoes as well as fermented seasonings such as Asian fish sauce and Japanese miso paste. Glutamate is also found in many kinds of meat and fish, but the foodstuff with the highest naturally occurring glutamate levels is in fact konbu, or kelp, the sea vegetable that is essential to dashi stock (See Figure 1-1). Of the other two umami substances, 5’-inosinate is found in animal substances such as meat, dried sardines and another key dashi ingredient, katsuobushi or dried bonito flakes (See Figure 1-2). 5’-guanylate, meanwhile, is found in smaller quantities in pork, beef and chicken, but is most abundant in varieties of mushroom, in particular dried shiitake mushroom, which is a popular ingredient in vegetarian dashi (See Figure 1-3).A beautiful synergism Another important aspect of the umami taste and the substances that provide it is the fact that when the various substances are combined together in food the perceived strength of the umami taste is substantially increased, more than the sum of the separate ingredients. This is known as the synergistic effect of umami and although the reason why it occurs is still not completely understood by scientists it has been exploited by Japanese chefs for centuries. As explained in Figure 2 below, the most quintessential example of the synergistic effect in action is that of ichiban dashi made using konbu and katsuobushi. As explained previously, konbu has the highest naturally occurring glutamate levels of any foodstuff, while katsuobushi are high in inosinate. Both of these substances have an umami taste when sampled on their own but when combined together the perceived umami taste is dramatically increased compared with that of the separate ingredients. The home of umami Every cuisine in the world has its share of umami-rich ingredients and condiments, such as tomato ketchup from the USA, nam pla fermented fish sauce from Thailand and Marmite yeast extract from the UK. It is arguable, however, that it is a particularly important part of Japanese cuisine, which would explain why it was first identified by a Japanese scientist in a Japanese dish. It is often said that one fundamental characteristic of Japanese cooking is a desire on the part of the chef to preserve, accentuate and bring out the true deliciousness of each ingredient.
　
Figure 1: Quantity of umami substances in various foodstuffs
1-1 Foods high in glutamate
1-2 Foods high in 5’-inosinate
1-3 Foods high in 5’-guanylate
(Source: Umami Information Cemter)
This graph visualizes the effect that combining two or more umami substances has on the taste of food. konbu dashi contains 0.023% glutamate, as shown in the bar on the left. Ichiban dashi, made using konbu and katsuobushi combined, includes 0.023% glutamate from the konbu, as well as 0.005% glutamate and 0.027% 5’-inosinate from the katsuobushi . This gives an overall umami substance content of around 0.05%, as shown in the middle bar. When the actual perceived umami taste of the ichiban dashi is theoretically estimated, however, it is equivalent to that of a dashi that contained around 0.91% glutamate. That concludes the first part of our investigation into Japan's dashi culture. Why not check back here soon for the second part of this special dashi feature, where we take a detailed look at the ingredients without which dashi would not be as we know it today.

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Protease-resistant fraction of smoked, dried bonito alleviates atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice.

Matsumoto J, Ishikawa S, Doi M, Kishida T, Ebihara K.
Marutomo Co. Ltd., Ehime, Japan.
The effect of smoke-dried bonito undigested fraction remaining after microbial protease treatment (SDBR) on a spontaneously occurring mouse model of atopic dermatitis was studied in male 5-wk-old, NC/Nga mice. Smoke-dried bonito, Katsuobushi, is a traditional Japanese food. SDBR contains 2 major components: bonito oil and protease-undigested proteins. Mice were fed a casein diet containing corn oil (C diet) or a diet containing SDBR (SDBR diet) for 18 wk. In comparison with the C diet, the SDBR diet alleviated the increase in skin severity score and plasma IgE concentration in a time-dependent manner, and lowered leucotriene B(4) (LTB(4))-releasing ability upon calcium ionophore A23187 stimulation. The SDBR diet did not affect scratching time. These results demonstrate that SDBR diet alleviates atopic dermatitis-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice.
PMID: 18079614 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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