Salt’s extremely important role in Japan’s food culture is due, in part, to the abundance of sea salt available. The list goes on to include an inspired range of flavored specialty salts. And there are dry as well as moist salts that are ideal for cooking because of their spice and herb-like tastes or a mellow roundness that is characteristic of the flavor of refined Japanese cuisine. The bright intensity and audible crunch of other salts serves to accompany fruit and vegetables at the peak of their flavor, prime seafoods and meats, and luxurious desserts. There are salts with an ethereal freshness for the most delicate of foods or a powdery sweetness to complement the richest. Different sources of seawater and types of harvesting methods create myriad combinations of taste, texture, consistency, color, and even aroma. Japan’s salts are some of the most interesting in the world. Salt-making houses have sprung up all along the coasts and islands of Japan’s vast archipelago, and today salt makers are making hundreds of different types of salt that are the best they can be in terms of taste of place, overall flavor, honesty of production, and use in the kitchen and at the table. Lastly, salt is used to finish foods to make them appealing and unique.Ī salt-making renaissance is underway in Japan, triggered in 2002 when the government deregulated salt production, ending a government-run monopoly during which salt was made as a simple, all-purpose commodity for nearly 100 years. Japan’s mineral-rich and umami-laden sea salts are also key ingredients to help dishes be light yet flavorful and for making Japan’s two great fermented salty seasonings-soy sauce and miso-for dishes that rely on a heartier flavor. Salt is the main agent to preserve foods and primary seasoning in cooking to capture a food’s seasonal freshness at a moment in time. Its fundamental use in cooking mirrors its deep cultural role in Japanese life as a ward against evil and bearer of good fortune. Together with the other two oceanic ingredients fish and seaweed, salt forms the “holy trinity” that is the backbone of Japanese cuisine. All Japanese salt is sea salt, which is why the word is simply shio, or salt.
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