In this post, I would like to introduce to you different kinds of Japanese dashi stock. They all have totally different flavours and some of them are vegetarian. I posted the commonly used method of making dashi stock in Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock, but it is good to know the different methods for you to try out.
Depending on the dishes you are making, you use different kinds of dashi (出汁)stock. The following are the main varieties of Japanese dashi stock.
- Awase-dashi (合わせ出汁) – made from katsuobushi (鰹節, dried bonito flakes) and konbu (dried kelp)
- Katsuo-dashi (鰹出汁) – made from katsuobushi (鰹節, dried bonito flakes) only
- Konbu-dashi (昆布出汁) – made from konbu(昆布, dried kelp)
- Niboshi-dashi (煮干し出汁) – made from niboshi (煮干し, small dried sardines/anchovies)
- Shiitake-dashi (椎茸出汁) – made from dried shiitake(椎茸) mushrooms
In the case of awase-dashi and katsuo-dashi, after making stock from the above ingredients, you can make another batch of dashi stock by reusing the ingredients. The first dashi stock is called ichiban-dashi (一番出汁) and the second stock is niban-dashi (二番出汁). The word ichiban/niban means number 1 and 2 respectively in Japanese.
In general, ichiban-dashi mostly used for osuimono (お吸い物, Clear Soup) or lightly flavoured dish as the flavour of the soup is what you are meant to enjoy. I like ichiban-dashi made from awase-dashi best as it has really good flavour.
In the post, Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock I introduced a recipe for the most commonly used dashi at home. Homemade dashi is awase-dashi but instead of getting first and second strains of dashi stock, you strain only once.
Here are the recipes for the different kinds of dashi stocks. All of them are quite simple to make. Some of them are vegetarian and vegan too.
Awase-dashi, Ichiban-dashi
- 500ml water
- 5cm x 5cm (2 inch x 2 inch) strip of Konbu (dried kelp)
- 15g (0.5 oz) Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
- Gently wipe any dust off konbu if necessary using dry towel or paper towel. Do not wash or remove white powder stuck on the surface of konbu by scraping it off as it is the umami (旨味).
- Add the water in a pot and soak the konbu for about 30 minutes if you have time. If you don’t have time, don’t worry.
- Place the pot over medium heat. When small bubbles start appearing in the pot, remove the konbu and reserve for Nibandashi below.
- Turn the heat up and let it come to a boil. Add about 100ml of water to lower the temperature, then add katsuobushi. When the water starts boiling again, turn the heat down to minimum and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove any scum on the surface occasionally.
- Turn the heat off and wait until the katsuobushi sinks to the bottom of the pan. Now the dashi is ready.
- Line a few layers of muslin or a paper towel in a sieve and pour all the contents in the pan into the sieve. Let it drain naturally. Do not squeeze the katsuobushi or the stock will loose clarity. Reserve the katsuobushi for Niban-dashi (below).
Suitable for osuimono (clear soup), and lightly flavoured dishes.
Awase-dashi, Niban-dashi
- 500ml water
- Leftover katsuobushi and konbu from ichiban-dashi
- 5g (0.2 oz) Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
- Add the water and the leftover katsuobushi and konbu from ichiban-dashi to a pot over high heat.
- Once it starts boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the katsuobushi and turn the heat off.
- Wait until the bonito flakes sinks onto the bottom of the pan, then strain as per ichiban-dashi method. Squeeze the katsuobushi lightly to get out the juice.
Suitable for Miso soup, general cooking.
Niboshi-dashi
- 500ml water
- 20g (0.7 oz) Niboshi (dried anchovies)
- Remove the head, split the body and remove the dried guts inside each fish. Discard heads and guts.
- Add water and niboshi to a pot and leave for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.
- Place the pot over medium heat. Boil for 5 minutes, removing any scum occasionally.
- Turn the heat off. Strain using a sieve laid with layered muslin or paper towels.
Suitable for miso soup, general cooking, particularly root vegetables.
Katsuo-dashi, Ichiban-dashi
- 500ml water
- 15g (0.5 oz) Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
- Add the water to a pan and boil over high heat. Once water boils, turn off the heat.
- Add katsuobushi to the boiled water and leave for about 2 minutes.
- Using a sieve lined with layered muslin or a paper towel, drain for about one minute to ensure that as much dashi comes out. Do not squeeze katsuobushi. Reserve the katsuobushi for Niban-dashi (below).
Suitable for osuimono, chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し, savoury egg custard).
Katsuo-dashi, Niban-dashi
- 500ml water
- Leftover katsuobushi from ichiban-dashi
- 5g (0.2 oz) Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
- Add the water and the leftover katsuobushi from ichiban-dashi to a pot over high heat.
- Once it starts boiling, turn the heat down to low and simmer for a few minutes.
- Add the katsuobushi and turn the heat off.
- Wait until the katsuobushi sinks to the bottom of the pan, then strain as per ichiban-dashi. Squeeze katsuobushi lightly to get out the juice.
Suitable for general cooking and miso soup.
Konbu-dashi (Vegetarian)
- 500ml water
- 10cm x 10cm (4 inch x 4 inch) strip of Konbu (dried kelp)
- Gently wipe any dust off konbu if necessary using dry towel or paper towel. Do not wash or remove white powder stuck on the surface of konbu by scraping it off as it is the umami (旨味).
- Add the water to a pot and soak the konbu for about 3 hours. In hot weather, leave it in the fridge. Set aside the konbu after soaking.
- If you don’t have time required as per step 2 above, here is the express way. Boil water in a pot. Turn off the heat and add konbu, leave for minimum 15 minutes. Remove konbu.
Suitable for vegetarian dishes, sushi rice.
Shiitake-dashi (Vegetarian)
- 500ml water
- 15g (0.5 oz) Dried shiitake mushrooms (whole, not sliced)
- Lightly rinse the shiitake to remove any dust.
- Add the shiitake to the water (cold water if possible) in a pot or a bottle/container with a lid and leave it in the fridge for minimum 6 hours, preferably 24 hours.
- Remove the shiitake.
Normally used with other dashi stock to give flavour especially when rehydrated shiitake is one of the ingredients.
You cannot keep dashi very long even in the fridge as it loses flavour. 2-3 days is the max, I would think. Freezing is also not good as it will still lose the flavour but if you don’t mind that, you could freeze the stock.
After making Dashi from konbu, shiitake or niboshi, do not discard the ingredients. You can freeze them and when accumulated enough, you can cook with other vegetables or on its own with soy sauce & mirin. I will show you a dish or two using these in my future post. In the case of konbu, I sometimes just eat it on its own as a snack.
Yumiko
Andy says
Hi Yumiko,
What types of dashi are best for shoyu and tonkutsu ramen? Thank you.
Yumiko says
Hi Andy, you will need bonito flakes. So use either Katsuo-dashi or Awase-dashi.
Miko says
Hi Yumiko, just found your website while looking for vegan cold noodle, then I checked the vegan dashi recipes you have, I must say I’m glad to have found your website. Very easy to navigate, and I like the style of your writing. Can’t wait to explore your site more for vegan recipes option. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, recipes and tips generously! By the way, we share similar name 🙂
Yumiko says
Hi Miko, thank you. I am glad to know that my recipes can be of help to you!
Yes, you’re name is just missing ‘Yu’.
Susan Holmes says
Hi, I love your recipes, and your sense of fun.
My husband loves Miso soup. Do I have to have Dashi to make a clear miso soup?
TIA
Susan
Yumiko says
Hi Susan, I love miso soup too. May I ask what you mean by ‘clear miso soup’? Clear soup and miso soup are different kinds of soups. Clear soup does not use miso.
To make a miso soup, you need to use dashi stock, unless the miso already contains dashi seasoning. Some miso pack already contain dashi in the paste and all you need to do is to dilute the paste in the boiling water. It might be labelled as Dashi Miso or mioso with bonito. It is easier but the flavour is not as good as a miso soup made dashi stock, then add normal miso.
Clear soups are made usually with a good dashi stock plus salt and light soy sauce. However, if the ingredients of the clear soup are shell fish or shopped fish pieces with bones intact, you don’t use dashi stock as the ingredients makes a good stock.
Please let me know if you have more questions.
Jennifer k says
Which stock would you recomment to make tonkatsu?
Yumiko says
Hi Jennifer, I am a bi confused. Tonkatsu does not use dashi stock. Did you mean other dish with the similar name, by any chance?
but in general, I make dashi stock from scratch per my recipe. But if you are asking about dashi stock packs, I try to use the pack that contains no salt and no MSG and other artificial flavourings added. Sometimes the stock pack with no salt added is difficult to find (majority of dashi packs to contain sodium). So my second choice is the pack with natural ingredients with sodium – Shimaya brand sells this kind of dashi pack.
Serena Dorf says
Konbu. I wiped off the white powder as best I could but still got some in the broth so I poured it through a wet white tea filter. Is this ok to do? The konbu broth has a mild flavour. Is this the way it should be? I am much enjoying learning to make Japanese dishes. I hope that you can soon offer a recipe for Okinawan sweet potato. It is widely available in Brisbane. I saw a TV program on this vegetable and how it was eaten in Japan. it was prepared as what looked like gnocchi coins served with rice.
Yumiko says
Hi Serena, you don’t need to remove the white powder perfectly. No need to remove it with a wet towel. YEs, Konbu dashi has a much lighter flavour than the dashi stock made from bonito flakes.
Re Okinawa sweet potato, I think you are talking about reddish purple sweet potato called ‘beniimo’ meaning red potato. Correct? If so, I thought they were mainly used for dessert but some sweet dishes can be served with rice. I am not sure exactly what kind of dish you saw on TV. Wa it deep fried or simmered? I wish I could watch it.
You are lucky to have them widely available in BNE. If I could get them in Sydney, I will try to make a dish with them.
Stan says
We lived in Tokyo for two years and loved every second. Your site is not only the best we have found for real Japanese food but it brings us back to Japan as well.
Yumiko says
Hi Stan, thank you very much for the kind words. Comments like yours do encourage me to keep going!
Frank Trinkle says
Hi! Love the site and your recipes! I have lived a cumulative total of 15 years in Japan from the time I was a little boy…back and forth to the USA. While not as good as it once was, I also speak pretty fluent Japanese, having spent most of my years living in Tokyo and learning Japanese by immersion, not school.
A few years ago, I got really interested in cooking thanks to my wife’s uncle who is a very well- known International Master Chef, and the retired Dean of the Culinary Institute of America. (CIA). He woke up a hobby in me that I was unaware of…and I am now becoming a pretty good home culinary chef.
I am a fanatic Japanese Food lover and have been learning how to properly cook various Japanese meals, but it’s a process of trial and error. Your site and focused recipe instructions are phenomenally good and much better than most sites I have found on the net. Some of these, I have already used many times before seeing your recipe…like agedashi dofu, which my guests absolutely demand whenever visiting…and other simple recipes like Tekka Don, and Kakeage Soba, etc.
Now, with your site, I will be able to dig a lot deeper into Japanese cuisine that I so love…so THANK YOU!
Yuroshiku!
Yumiko says
Hi Frank, I am so honoured. Thank you so much for your kind words! Dōmo arigatō gozaimasu.
Niti says
Hi Yumiko,
I love your website! I have a question about Dashi. Can I freeze the excess into ice cubes and use them for 6 months or so?
Thank you very much !
Niti
Yumiko says
Hi Niti, you can freeze dashi but not for 6 months. 1-2 months is the best after which the flavour of dashi will be lost.
Niti says
I see! Thank you very much, I will not make too much in that case.
julia wang says
love your recipes! Thank you.
Yumiko says
Thank you so much, Julia!
Olga says
What is Dried shiitake mus ???
Olga
Yumiko says
Hi Olga, I am sorry but it was a typo. It should have said “mushrooms” and I just corrected it. Thanks for letting me know!