Like in Western cooking, there are many salad dressings in Japanese cuisine. Here is a summary of commonly used Japanese Dressings that are made using vinegar / citrus as a base. Once you remember the proportions, all you need to do is to come up with a good combination of vegetables, seaweed and protein.
The blog title “Dressings” is a little misleading here as some of the “dressings” are also used as marinades or dipping sauces. But they all have acidity and no oil. The vinegar/citrus based clear dressings are called awase-zu (合わせ酢) as a whole. Awase (合わせ) means mixing in this context and zu (酢, vinegar).
Common ingredients to make the dressings are shown in the photo below. From left to right: shouyu or shoyu(醤油, normal soy sauce), usukuchi shouyu (薄口醤油, light soy sauce), mirin (味醂), sake (酒), su (酢, vinegar). I included sake even if it is not used in the recipes below as sake belongs to this condiments group.
Shouyu (醤油, soy sauce)
There are several different kinds of soy sauce in Japan and nowadays you can buy almost all of them at Asian grocery stores or definitely at Japanese grocery stores. Main types of soy sauces are:
- Dark soy sauce (or just “soy sauce”) – normal soy sauce widely used in general cooking as well as pouring over food.
- Light soy sauce – lighter in colour and 10% saltier than normal soy sauce. Used in dishes to enhance the colour of the ingredients or in noodle soups.
- Salt reduced soy sauce – this is made in the same process as dark soy but the amount of salt is reduced to almost half. This was produced for people with hypertension, heart diseases, kidney diseases but these days many people in Japan use this to reduce amount of salt intake.
- Tamari soy sauce – this soy sauce is thicker and richer than normal soy sauce and used as dipping soy sauce for sashimi. It can also be used to make Teriyaki sauce.
- Shiro soy sauce – extremely light in colour, almost like the colour of fish sauce. It contains touch of sweetness but strong salty flavor. This is suitable for simmered dishes.
Mirin (味醂)
Mirin is made from sticky rice. It contains 40-50% sugar and 14% alcohol. It is not only used for cooking food but for noodle soup and for giving food its glaze. You can buy mirin at Asian grocery stores and some super markets.
You can also buy artificial mirin, usually labelled ‘Mirin Seasoning’ which is not made from rice but syrup and glucose with 1% alcohol. Real mirin normally has the label “Hon Mirin” (本味醂) to distinguish it from artificial mirin. “Hon” comes from the word “honmono” (本物) which means “real”. High quality mirin can be drunk directly from the bottle, though it is very sweet.
Sake (酒, Japanese rice wine)
Like mirin, you can also buy sake which is used for only cooking. It is called ryori-shu (料理酒) meaning “cooking sake”. The bottle in the photo is ryori-shu. I normally use ryori-shu and it is cheaper than real sake.
The important thing to remember though is that ryori-shu has salt in it so if you use real sake, you might need to make a tiny adjustment to the amount of saltiness. You can buy sake. particularly ryori-shu at any Asian grocery stores or super markets.
Su (酢, vinegar)
Just like Western style vinegar, Japanese vinegar also has varieties. The most commonly used Japanese vinegar is grain vinegar and rice vinegar. You can buy both types of vinegar at Asian grocery stores of some super markets.
The vinegar bottle in the photo above is grain vinegar. Grain vinegar is made from mixture of wheat, rice and corn while rice vinegar is made purely from rice and more expensive. In the case of rice vinegar, you will see the kanji character “米酢”(kome-zu) meaning “rice vinegar” on the label to distinguish it from grain vinegar.
Common dressings are listed here with ingredient proportions. Eg. Rice Vinegar 3 + Sugar 1 + Salt ¼ means 3 parts rice vinegar, 1 part sugar and ¼ part salt. There are no definitive proportion to make these. You can adjust the quantity of each ingredient to your liking.
Sushisu (寿司酢, sushi vinegar)
- Rice Vinegar 3 + Sugar 1 + Salt ¼
- Suitable for making sushi rice
- Amount of sushisu should be 10-15% of cooked sushi rice or short grain rice
Amazu (甘酢, sweet vinegar)
- Rice Vinegar 1 + Sugar 1 + dash of salt
- Suitable to marinate vegetables
- Example – julienned daikon (white radish) and carrots salad
Gomadare (ゴマだれ, sesame sauce)
- Makes 120ml (4 oz)
- Ground roasted white sesame seeds 4 tbsp + 2 tbsp dashi stock (refer to Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock) + 1 tsp miso + 2 tsp Rice vinegar + 2 tsp Soy sauce + 2 tsp Mirin
- Suitable for salad dressing, also as dipping sauce for hot pot.
- Example – green leaves salad, Shabu-shabu hot pot
Nihaizu (二杯酢, 2 ingredients vinegar)
- Rice vinegar 3 + Soy sauce 2.5
- Suitable to dress/marinate seafood or seafood with vegetables
- Example – boiled octopus with cucumber, white meat sashimi with okra
Sanbaizu (三杯酢, 3 ingredients vinegar)
- Rice vinegar 3 + Soy sauce 2.5 + Mirin 2-3
- Most commonly used dressing
- Suitable for both vegetables and seafood
- Example – boiled squid and cucumber, boiled chicken and shredded carrot
Ponzu (ポン酢, citrus soy sauce)
- Makes 120ml (4 oz)
- Soy sauce 50ml (1.7 oz) + Lemon or Lime juice 50ml + Mirin 15-20ml (0.5-0.7 oz) + Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) 5g (0.2 oz) + Konbu (dried kelp) 5cm x 3cm (2 inch x 1 inch)
- Mix all liquids together, then add Katsuobushi and Konbu, leave for at least 24 hours preferably 3 days in the fridge, then strain.
- Keeps for months in the fridge. The longer you leave it the better it tastes.
- Suitable for salad dressing, also as dipping sauce for hot pot.
- Example – seaweed and green leaves salad, Yudofu (tofu hot pot)
Tosazu (土佐酢, Tosa vinegar)*
- Rice vinegar 2 + Light soy sauce 1 + Mirin 1 + dashi stock (refer to Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock) 4-5
- Milder acidity than Sanbaizu
- Suitable for both vegetables and seafood
- Example – Marinade for Shimeji mushrooms and Enoki mushrooms
The photo above is sambaizu. See the darker colour of the dressing compared with Tosazu in the next photo. Nihaizu would look very similar to this sanbaizu but marginally darker.
Tosazu in above photo has lighter colour than sanbaizu and nihaizu due to equal amount of dashi stock added to other ingredients.
Making ponzu would look like this before straining. Notice the ratio of bonito flakes against the amount of liquid. That’s why it is so tasty.
These are the simple basics and there are many variations to the above dressings. For example, traditional way of making Tosazu makes dashi stock ingredients with vinegar, soy sauced mirin and boil all together.
There are also other dressings using miso, mustard, etc. I am intending to post other dressings and sauces some time later together with recipes.
Yumiko
Thank you for explaining ingredients in the sauces. Do you have a recipe for a sesame steak sauce it looks like the last picture
Hi Cheryl, I am sorry, I don’t a recipe but will certainly look into it!
Hi, have you heard of something called “betako sarada?” It was used in a salad in a restaurant in Japan. I asked what dressing they used and the only English-speaking staff wrote this down for me.
Hi Chris, I am sorry but I have never heard of it. I checked the Japanese websites but no luck. What was in the salad and what kind of flavour was the dressing?
Hi Yumiko! Thanks for replying and for helping to search. It was just an ordinary salad, but I’m afraid I can’t really describe the taste of the dressing other than it was a bit oily, savory, and colorless. Appreciate you trying, though!
Nagi/Yumiko… can you please tell me if rice vinegar is the same as rice wine vinegar. I want to use the correct vinegar for my sushi rice. Thanks
Hi Vicki, rice vinegar and rice wine vinegar are the same thing. Good luck with sushi rice!
Hi Yumiko,
Thanks for your super quick response to my earlier question.
I am now making some Ponzu dressing. After mixing all the ingredients in a bowl do I store in the fridge or at room temperature for 3 days?
Cheers Vicki
Hi Vicki, store in the fridge. Sorry that I was not clear about it in the post. I will update it.
Hello yumiko, thanks for this post !! It has been very useful since I had a little confusion with the different types of dressings. However, I feel that it is not clear to me what is the use of sesame oil, in which the Japanese usually use it?
Hi Noemi, sesame oil has unique nutty aroma and flavour so people often use it to add sesame fragrance and flavour to dishes or dressings. When added to the non-oily dishes, it makes the dishes a bit richer. By adding a small amount of sesame oil to the sauce, it often turns the sauce into Japanese flavour. However, compared to salad oil, sesame oil is much heavier so, you don’t want to completely replace salad oil with sesame oil when it comes to salad dressings. You will only replace part of it and the amount is dependant on how strong you want the sesame aroma to be. If small amount is used such as stir frying, you can replace oil with sesame oil. Typical use of sesame oil includes: salad dressing (part use), oil for stir fry (either 100% or half with normal oil), oil for tempura frying (professionals use mixture of sesame oil and normal oil to deep fry), add a dash of sesame oil to Japanese simmering dishes. You can also add sesame oil to some dipping sauces, particularly when they are soy based, eg. gyoza dipping sauce. You could even add a dash of sesame oil to miso soup if the soup has a lot of ingredients. As a rule, it does not go well with cream/butter.
Thanks for answering!! . A few days ago I buy sesame oil and I must say that I love the smell it gives to food. However, I’ve heard that you have to refrigerate it, right?
Hi Noemi, you don’t need to refrigerate sesame oil. Even after opening, it can stay at room temperature unless the room temperature is extremely high. Ideally, keep it in cool place such as under the sink. If you keep it in the fridge which is below 4C (39F), white substance might appear in the oil, though it will disappear when warmed up.
Hello yumiko, I appreciate your answer on my question about sesame oil
I’m thinking about trying the ponzu sauce and I see that you recommend using it with salads, however I wonder what type of salads? For example, what ingredients are recommended and with which ones? I’ve also seen recipes where they combine ponzu with mayonnaise
Hi Ruth, you can use ponzu for almost any kind of fresh leaves salad, daikon and mizuna, cucumbers and seaweed, thinly sliced onions, wake seaweed with/without bonito flakes, tofu and lettuce, blanched bean sprouts, etc. You might be surprised to know that ponzu goes well with most vegetable salad. You could even add sliced cooked pork or shredded blanched chicken to the salad and ponzu dressing.
Re ponzu and mayonnaise, I personally haven’t tried it and I am not sure if I would like it. But there are quite few recipes out there using ponzu mayonnaise dressing. You may want tottery and see if you like it.
Hi, I do not consume alcohol, how can i substitute the sources which contains alcohol.. i love Japanese food, and would like to be able to cook it.
Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Hi Ashiena, if you would like it to be 100% alcohol free, then I would suggest that you replace sake with water, mirin with water + sugar (1/3 of mirin quantity). The flavour of the sauces would not be the same but still OK.
Thank you so much for sharing that wonderful recipe.I have learn something new.I am going to make it.It’s so interesting about Japanese cooking and food.
You are welcome, Gail. Enjoy!
I love all these, Yumiko! Thanks so much! I hope I can try all your recipes at home for my family! A big, big hand to you!
Hi Marinet. Thank you so much! I hope so, too. Let me know how it went.
Went to a Japanese hibachi express place today really under par. Think you could show them a lot of techniques and actual japanese dishes. Its called koyoto in La Follette, TN. They use a sauce that is ranch dressing the rice is extremely bland.
Ranch dressing wouldn’t go with rice in my view and certainly the dish does not sound like Japanese!