This is a basic marinade for Saikyo Yaki Fish which are served at many great Japanese restaurants. Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade is a sweet miso marinade that is so quick to make. Simply marinate fish or meat and grill it. You will be surprised how flavoursome it can be.
Saikyo Yaki (西京焼き) is a dish of grilled fish or meat marinated in sweetened miso. Once you master Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade, you can make so many different dishes by simply changing the ingredients to marinate.
WHAT’S IN SAIKYO YAKI MISO MARINADE
The basic marinade consists of only four ingredients – Saikyo miso, Sake, Mirin and sugar. The proportion of these ingredients are:
- 300g/10.1oz Saikyo miso
- 1½ tbsp sake
- 1½ tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp sugar
The above quantity is plenty to marinate 6 x 130g/4.6oz fillet.
You need to use the particular miso called Saikyo miso (西京味噌) to make an authentic Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade. It has sweet and very subtle miso flavour.
However, if it is not easy to obtain Saikyo Miso, you can substitute it with shiro miso (white miso), which should be close to Saikyo miso. If your shiro miso is not as pale as Saikyo miso, you may need to add extra sugar to make the marinade sweeter.
ABOUT SAIKYO MISO
Saikyo miso is made in Kansai (the western region of Japan), particularly in Kyoto. The name “Saikyo” (西京) came from the name of the miso production company that started making this miso about 200 years ago to serve to the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
Since then, the capital of Japan has moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. Hence, Kyoto became the western capital, ie. “Saikyo” and the miso company adopted it as the name of the miso. But nowadays, the term Saikyo miso is used generically for cream coloured sweet miso. It is also called shiro miso (白味噌, white miso) because of the colour.
A pack of Saikyo miso and cream coloured Saikyo miso (top right) as well as typical brown miso (top left) as comparison.
Standard brown miso contains about 12% salt while Saikyo miso contains about 5% salt. Sometimes, Saikyo miso even contains syrup to make it a bit sweet.
You might find miso labelled as “shiro miso” in supermarkets or Asian grocery stores but often they are not as pale as Saikyo miso nor as sweet.
In Sydney, I can buy Saikyo miso only at Japanese grocery stores. It is usually stored in the freezer and looks like the photo above. You can see the brand name in the vertical kanji characters “西京”.
ALTERNATIVE TO SAIKYO MISO MARINADE
You can also make a miso marinade similar to Saikyo Miso Marinade using normal brown miso. It is not exactly the same as the marinade using Saikyo miso, as the marinade is much darker to start with, but you can still enjoy the sweetness of the miso flavour.
The ingredients to make miso marinade using brown miso are the same as Saikyo Miso Marinade except the type of miso used. But the quantity needs to be adjusted to compensate for the lack of sweetness in miso. Here is the proportion of these ingredients:
- 300g/10.1oz brown miso
- 1½ tbsp sake
- 1½ tbsp mirin
- 30g/1oz sugar
VARIATIONS TO SAIKYO MISO MARINADE
The sweetness of the marinade can vary depending on your palette. Some people might find my recipe too sweet. Others might want the marinade to be sweeter. You can adjust the amount of mirin/sugar to your liking.
Some recipes don’t use sugar but add more mirin to the miso. It will make the miso marinade a bit loose but that’s OK.
If you are an Aussie, you might have watched the SBS food program where the award-winning chef Tetsuya demonstrated how to make his version of Saikyo Yaki recipe. In his recipe, he adds grated ginger, garlic and grapeseed oil to the miso mixture. This is certainly not the traditional Saikyo miso marinade but it’s still pretty tasty, of course.
MARINATING FISH OR MEAT
Just like any other thick marinades, simply smudge the miso marinade over the fish or meat pieces (see the example below using salmon fillets). Depending on the ingredients, the marinating time varies, too.
Most well known dish using Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade is black cod Saikyo yaki which I will post some day. But as a starter, please see the post Saikyo Yaki Fish (Saikyo Miso Marinated Grilled Fish) for how to marinate fish using Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade.
Yumiko
This is a basic marinade for Saikyo Yaki Fish, which is served at many great Japanese restaurants. Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade is a sweet miso marinade that is so quick to make. Simply marinate fish or meat and grill it.
- 300g/10.1oz Saikyo miso (note 1)
- 1½ tbsp sake
- 1½ tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp sugar
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Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well ensuring that the miso paste is smooth with no lumps, sugar dissolved.
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To store in the fridge, place the marinade in an airtight container, cover the surface of the miso marinade with cling wrap (note 2), then place the lid on.
Alternatively, place the marinade in a zip lock bag, remove air as much as possible (note 2) and seal. Keeps 4 weeks+.
1. Saikyo miso (西京味噌) is a particular kind of miso that is very sweet and has a creamy pale colour (see the photo in the post). It might also be sold as “sweet shiro miso” (白味噌, white miso) due to its colour.
If you cannot find Saikyo miso or sweet shiro miso, you can substitute it with brown miso. If you do, increase the amount of sugar to 30g/1.1oz.
2. Miso marinade can keep a long time in the fridge as long as it is not mixed with water. Covering the surface of the miso marinade prevents the dew that might form on the lid or inside the bag from touching marinade.
3. Please see the post Saikyo Yaki Fish (Saikyo Miso Marinated Grilled Fish) for how to marinate fish using Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade.
4. Saikyo Yaki Miso Marinade can be reused 2-3 times. A small amount of water might come up due to the moisture from the fish/meat. Absorb the water using kitchen paper.
5. Nutrition of the marinade used for one fillet, i.e. 1/6 of the total quantity. However, the values below do not mean much as majority of the marinade will be discarded before cooking marinated fish or meat.
serving: 59g calories: 121kcal fat: 3g (5%) saturated fat: 0.5g (3%) trans fat: 0g polyunsaturated fat: 1.4g monounsaturated fat: 0.6g cholesterol: 0mg (0%) sodium: 1864mg (78%) potassium: 106mg (3%) carbohydrates: 17g (6%) dietary fibre: 2.7g (11%) sugar: 6.8g protein: 6.4g vitamin a: 0.9% vitamin c: 0% calcium: 2.2% iron: 7%
Originally published in November 2016. Rewritten in July 2019, split into two posts with recipes – this post (new) and Saikyo Yaki Fish (Saikyo Miso Marinated Grilled Fish).
Hi Yumiko. I think you look more like your daughter Nagi’s sister than mother so no worry, you will live at least 40 more years.
I just came back from spending 5 weeks in Japan after 4 years of absence due to covid. Lots of changes, mostly those that we do not like. I am also from Tokyo, but it I has gotten more congested than ever. People were always trying to move to tokai, but it has certainly accelerated. Too many restaurants expecting you make reservations now. The ease of dropping into eating places are less. Japan is not ready for the influx of visitors coming back. Lack of service in hotels, airports, and restaurants is very evident.
Hi Rinshin, thanks!
I respect your view on recent changes in Japan. I guess Japan is in a hurry to bring back travellers that they lost during the Covid.
I did not notice too many restaurants are expecting reservations. Maybe because I ate at cheap places such as ramen shops, or places that I had to wait in a long queue. I do agree that booking restaurants appears to have become more difficult. I had a hard time in booking a high-end restaurant prior to travelling. They did not accept overseas travellers’ booking directly from individual even over the phone. They insisted me on booking through my hotel. Apparently, they experienced quite few issues with bookings in the past, e.g. no show, last minute cancellation and changes. I was so disappointed.
Having said that, I still like Japan very much and it is a great place to visit in my view.
Do I have to add sake to the marinade , or is there a non alcoholic substitute.
Hi Chef,
Sake is used here to remove fishy smell of the fillets as well as making the miso marinade slightly softer. My suggestion would be to replace it with 1/2 tbsp of ginger juice (squeeze grated ginger to get juice out) + 1 tbsp water.
Mirin is also alcoholic. If you must avoid mirin as well, use honey because mirin makes the cooked fish shinier in addition to making the marinade sweeter. Replace mirin and sugar in the recipe with 1 tbsp + 1 tsp honey.
Thanks for giving an alternative to saikyo miso as I only have brown miso! I’m gonna try the marinade with cod fish.
Hi KY, I hope you like it! Please let me know what you think.
How and how long can you store this?
Hi Rox, if you place the miso marinade in a new zip lock bag or a air tight container, it can keep for months in the fridge. If using a container, make sure that the container is completely dry and place a kichen paper over the container before putting the lid on so that the inside of the lid will not accumulate water and drop onto the miso.
You can also keep it in the freezer.
I might try this out but need to get myself some Saki and check out my miso! Cheers
Hi Di, please do try it. It’s very easy to do and you can freeze them if marinated many fish fillets. If you want, I can give you some sake at the next golf!