Teriyaki no Tare (照り焼きのたれ, teriyaki sauce)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Sauce pot (yukihira nabe), or any small heavy saucepan
• •Saibashi (long cooking chopsticks), or a heatproof spoon
• •Clean glass jar with a tight lid

Instructions

1. 1

   Measure the tare

   Measure the koikuchi shōyu, hon mirin, sake, and sugar into a small heavy saucepan. Stir while the mixture is still cold, because sugar that sits on the bottom meets the heat first and can scorch before the liquid has even begun to simmer. The proportions are the lesson: equal liquid parts, with just enough sugar to make the teri, the shine.

   Hon mirin matters here. It brings sweetness, rice aroma, and gloss; mirin-style seasoning is a stand-in, and it often carries extra salt.
2. 2

   Bring to simmer

   Set the pan over medium heat and bring it to a lively simmer, stirring until the sugar disappears. Let it bubble for two minutes so the raw edge of the sake and mirin lifts away. You are not trying to thicken it yet; you are clearing the alcohol's roughness so the finished tare tastes clean, not boozy.

3. 3

   Reduce gently

   Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 6 to 8 minutes. The bubbles will grow rounder and glossier, and the sauce will darken to a clear mahogany brown. Reduce it to about 1 cup, not less. Soy and sugar are obedient until they aren't; once the sauce turns bitter, no polite apology will bring it back.

   If you want a thinner basting sauce, stop closer to 1 1/4 cups. For a brush-on glaze, reduce to 1 cup. Past that, the sauce becomes sticky before it becomes better.
4. 4

   Test the gloss

   Dip in a spoon and draw your finger across the back; the line should hold for a moment, then slowly soften. On a chilled plate, a drop should sit in a shiny bead rather than run like water. Stop while it still looks a little loose, because tare thickens as it cools and tightens again when it hits a hot pan.

5. 5

   Cool and store

   Take the pan off the heat and let the tare settle for 10 minutes. Pour it into a clean glass jar, leaving any dark flecks behind if the bottom caught a little. Cool completely, cover, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Warm it gently before using; hard boiling after storage dulls the soy aroma you made the sauce to carry.

6. 6

   Glaze the food

   To glaze fish or chicken, cook the piece until it is nearly done first. Wipe excess fat from the pan, add 2 to 3 tablespoons tare, and spoon it over the food while turning once or twice until the surface is shining-dark. Add the tare near the end because its sugar burns before a thick piece of fish or chicken cooks through. The sauce finishes the dish; it does not cook it for you.

   For fish with delicate flesh, shake the pan and spoon the tare over rather than turning it again and again. The surface stays clean, and the glaze does the moving.

Chef Tips

• •Use hon mirin if you can. If aji-mirin is all you can buy, reduce the sugar by 1 teaspoon and expect a saltier, flatter sauce. It is a sensible stand-in, not the same thing.
• •Use drinking sake or unsalted cooking sake. Salted cooking sake changes the ratio before you've begun, and this sauce has too few ingredients to hide that mistake.
• •Choose a Japanese koikuchi shōyu with a clean aroma, not a thick sweet soy. The tare has only four ingredients, so each one has to stand up straight.
• •Use it on fish that smells clean and looks glistening fresh, or on chicken with firm, moist flesh. This tare is too simple to hide tired food, which is why it works.
• •Pour out the amount you need before glazing. A brush or spoon that has touched raw fish or chicken doesn't go back into the jar; the master tare stays clean.
• •Keep dashi out of a storage tare. Dashi belongs to soups and simmered dishes; here it shortens the keeping time and muddies the clean soy-mirin shine.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the tare up to 2 weeks ahead and keep it refrigerated in a clean jar. It thickens cold; warm only what you need in a small pan.
• •For weeknight glazing, portion 2 to 3 tablespoons per serving. Add it only after the fish or chicken is almost cooked so the sugar glosses instead of burning.
• •If the sauce reduces too far after reheating, loosen it with a spoonful of sake or water and warm gently until it flows again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 50g)