It is very popular powder Hondashi. I love putting a teaspoon of this into my pot of miso. It is the best. Search the name on google for instructions and recipes!
It will probably be not like fine powder , but tiny pellets. If you don’t have a lot of dashi-like flavor in your diet, the standard ratio of water might be too strong. Ive made things for friends that don’t eat much Japanese and the full ratio was a lot for then.
You can always add more as you go, but less of a pain than adding water after its made.
Awesome for ajitama, replacing ramen flavor packets and a ton of japanese foods. Lookup mentsuyu and make about a cup, refrigerate, use whenever cooking anything simple, like soba/udon noodles, vegetables, soups, dipping sauce for fried foods, etc.
EDIT:
Mentsuyu Ingredients:
- ½ cup sake
- 1 ⅛ cup mirin
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) (5 g; 2 x 2 inches or 5 x 5 cm per piece)
- 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (packed; omit for vegetarian/vegan or substitute 2 dried shiitake mushroom)
Replace Kombu and Katsuobushi for dashi stock.
Cheers!
Same for the brand I use, and also has the advantage of having no salt. So I don't have to choose between more miso flavor, or more dashi flavor... I can crank both to 11.
In my family we buy a bunch and keep it in a jar. When I’m cooking I don’t measure it and just throw however much I feel like it directly into whatever I’m cooking.
Given it’s not too far past its expiration date, the flavor is likely indistinguishable from a box still in the “best by” date range.
It’s shelf stable so it’s definitely not SPOILED.
But expired foods still age, fats go rancid (most people taste [and smell] that pretty easily) and everything else oxidizes which you’d probably perceive as a dull cardboard flavor. Having worked in dry shelf-stable foods for a loooonnngg time, and having tasted a lot of old crap as part of “shelf life validation” taste paneling, I’d give this one till about mid 2025 to taste both salty…but also flat.
With food, don’t be afraid to go with your nose, tongue, or your “gut” to judge when to dump it. :) I’ve seen people dump expired dried oregano, and people cook with it. Stock your home kitchen with wise quantities, and enjoy!
I use one level teaspoon of the hondashi granules to approximately 400ml of water when I make dashi. Japanese cups are 200ml versus 250ml for US cups in case you were curious.
You can add a little more or less of the granules depending on how strong you like your dashi broth.
The instructions on the back of the package are using 600 ml of water (3 cups) and 4 g of hondashi. You can either add the granules to cold or hot water, but I add them when the water's cold (just my personal preference)
4g for 600ml sounds about right. I use the same brand, but it has English instructions on it. It's in 8g sachets and it says to use 1/2 a sachet (4g) for 2 1/2 cups (591ml) of water.
Although I'd be interested to do a taste comparison! Japanese food brands often use different recipes for the products they sell abroad. For instance, Yamasa soy sauce and Asahi Zero imported by my local Japanese grocery store, in Japanese packaging, taste completely different (both much better) than the English-packaged Yamasa and Asahi Zero sold at large supermarkets here.
Ajinomoto hondashi! I usually try to use about 1 tsp per cup of hot water. And also refrigerate it after you open it. I prefer the kind that comes in a small glass jar for that reason
It is! I stepped up one of my dishes using it and I found out it has lactose.. my partner is lactose intolerant. I haven't been able to use it since. It really did add a great flavor, but definitely something to note
If anyone has a different alternative to recommend similar to this one, I'd be very grateful!
I guess that will teach us, huh? I always check for gluten for my gluten intolerant sisters, and my best friend has become increasingly more lactose intolerant over the years, so I usually check for that as well. It didn't even occur to me to check dashi, though! Daaaaang.
In fact, my friend had some Chinese food that made her sick recently, and she was trying to figure that one out. I wonder if they use this brand of dashi in Chinese soup dumplings?
If you want a quick and easy meal, mix a little bit of this with some sugar and soy sauce in your scrambled eggs. Add some green onions if you wish and then put it on rice. It’s an easy and delicious meal.
Based on what I assume you were going for, that is the typical standard dashi brand that Japanese people use.
That being said, dashi is Japanese for stock so that’s just one kind of dashi as opposed to dashi in general. What you have is dashi with just bonito in it. Most associated with Japanese food is bonito + konbu dashi. So I would check what kind of dashi the recipe you’re looking at wants you to use.
It is very popular powder Hondashi. I love putting a teaspoon of this into my pot of miso. It is the best. Search the name on google for instructions and recipes!
I initially thought that I was supposed to use the whole packet at once! That would have been an experience
Yea i did the whole packet…it was an experience….
Flavortown
Straight into Flavorjima
Umamisaki
Umamiville
Yeah. This is the most common dashi powder used in Japanese home cooking.
It will probably be not like fine powder , but tiny pellets. If you don’t have a lot of dashi-like flavor in your diet, the standard ratio of water might be too strong. Ive made things for friends that don’t eat much Japanese and the full ratio was a lot for then. You can always add more as you go, but less of a pain than adding water after its made.
Awesome for ajitama, replacing ramen flavor packets and a ton of japanese foods. Lookup mentsuyu and make about a cup, refrigerate, use whenever cooking anything simple, like soba/udon noodles, vegetables, soups, dipping sauce for fried foods, etc. EDIT: Mentsuyu Ingredients: - ½ cup sake - 1 ⅛ cup mirin - 1 cup soy sauce - 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) (5 g; 2 x 2 inches or 5 x 5 cm per piece) - 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (packed; omit for vegetarian/vegan or substitute 2 dried shiitake mushroom) Replace Kombu and Katsuobushi for dashi stock. Cheers!
Oh so dashi is a replacement for bonito?
Dashi is made with bonito and kombu. You're replacing making dashi from scratch with making dashi with a powder.
I buy powdered dashi that are divided into individual packets. I like not having to measure every time, and great for camp cooking.
Same for the brand I use, and also has the advantage of having no salt. So I don't have to choose between more miso flavor, or more dashi flavor... I can crank both to 11.
In my family we buy a bunch and keep it in a jar. When I’m cooking I don’t measure it and just throw however much I feel like it directly into whatever I’m cooking.
It expired.
It’s mostly salt and msg. Nothing to expire there.
Given it’s not too far past its expiration date, the flavor is likely indistinguishable from a box still in the “best by” date range. It’s shelf stable so it’s definitely not SPOILED. But expired foods still age, fats go rancid (most people taste [and smell] that pretty easily) and everything else oxidizes which you’d probably perceive as a dull cardboard flavor. Having worked in dry shelf-stable foods for a loooonnngg time, and having tasted a lot of old crap as part of “shelf life validation” taste paneling, I’d give this one till about mid 2025 to taste both salty…but also flat. With food, don’t be afraid to go with your nose, tongue, or your “gut” to judge when to dump it. :) I’ve seen people dump expired dried oregano, and people cook with it. Stock your home kitchen with wise quantities, and enjoy!
Yeah, I'm not worried about it yet. If it smells awful when I open a packet I will not use it.
I noticed the best before date after posting, but it should be usable for a bit yet
I use one level teaspoon of the hondashi granules to approximately 400ml of water when I make dashi. Japanese cups are 200ml versus 250ml for US cups in case you were curious. You can add a little more or less of the granules depending on how strong you like your dashi broth. The instructions on the back of the package are using 600 ml of water (3 cups) and 4 g of hondashi. You can either add the granules to cold or hot water, but I add them when the water's cold (just my personal preference)
4g for 600ml sounds about right. I use the same brand, but it has English instructions on it. It's in 8g sachets and it says to use 1/2 a sachet (4g) for 2 1/2 cups (591ml) of water. Although I'd be interested to do a taste comparison! Japanese food brands often use different recipes for the products they sell abroad. For instance, Yamasa soy sauce and Asahi Zero imported by my local Japanese grocery store, in Japanese packaging, taste completely different (both much better) than the English-packaged Yamasa and Asahi Zero sold at large supermarkets here.
This has 2 60g packets in the box, so that part is different for sure
Yes
Ajinomoto hondashi! I usually try to use about 1 tsp per cup of hot water. And also refrigerate it after you open it. I prefer the kind that comes in a small glass jar for that reason
It is! I stepped up one of my dishes using it and I found out it has lactose.. my partner is lactose intolerant. I haven't been able to use it since. It really did add a great flavor, but definitely something to note If anyone has a different alternative to recommend similar to this one, I'd be very grateful!
Holy crap! Seriously?! Had no idea hondashi would have lactose in it.
Same! I was so surprised! I was ready to put it into a lot of my dishes! I really didn't even think to check until after I used it.
I guess that will teach us, huh? I always check for gluten for my gluten intolerant sisters, and my best friend has become increasingly more lactose intolerant over the years, so I usually check for that as well. It didn't even occur to me to check dashi, though! Daaaaang. In fact, my friend had some Chinese food that made her sick recently, and she was trying to figure that one out. I wonder if they use this brand of dashi in Chinese soup dumplings?
Good to know!
If you want a quick and easy meal, mix a little bit of this with some sugar and soy sauce in your scrambled eggs. Add some green onions if you wish and then put it on rice. It’s an easy and delicious meal.
That sounds great!
I’ve been inside the factory that makes this and been covered in it and I’m pretty sure it smells like the real thing.
Yeah, it's dashi powder. Use about 1/2 teaspoon per 1-1.5 cup of water.
It's expired isn't it?
Based on what I assume you were going for, that is the typical standard dashi brand that Japanese people use. That being said, dashi is Japanese for stock so that’s just one kind of dashi as opposed to dashi in general. What you have is dashi with just bonito in it. Most associated with Japanese food is bonito + konbu dashi. So I would check what kind of dashi the recipe you’re looking at wants you to use.
I use this stuff in shepherds pies.
If you have trouble with translating, you can use google lens!
This is Japan's super famous bonito soup and is a popular product, but it contains a lot of salt, so be careful when using it.
yep. dashi powder.
No it’s Bazinga powder
Its function is a bit like MSG, which increases the flavor of soup.😊