Shiro Dashi is a concentrated dashi product that you use in very small amounts to add depth of flavor and umami into your dishes. It's often used as a secret weapon by professional chefs since it doesn't add color but enhances the flavors of the components without imparting too much flavor of its own. Definitely play around with it: add a splash to soups, broths, sautees, marinades, sauces, pasta, or anything really and see how the flavors begin to pop. 

For Japanese cooking, you use shiro-dashi to season tamago-yaki, or use it as a base for your udon broth, suimono (clear sipping broths), miso soup, chawanmushi, nimono, etc. But let me say this again: this is a concentrate, so use it in really small amounts. (You use 1 part shiro dashi to 10 parts water to make udon broth, for example). And if you're going to use shiro dashi to enhance your dishes, don't salt your dishes as you're cooking, but rather add salt only after adding the shiro dashi. I know, it's counterintuitive for western cooking, but in Asian cooking, you often don't add salt and the salt is added in the end in the form of seasonings and sauces. 

In a nutshell, shiro dashi is dashi + white soy sauce + mirin + sugar. This one is made by Yamaki, a company that specializes in bonito flakes, and so it's a bonito based dashi. White soy sauce is a soy sauce that's made with a larger proportion of wheat to soybeans so the flavors are milder and the color is lighter. For a similar vegetarian option (not made with white shoyu tho), check out the konbu tsuyu.

Yamaki is a 100+ year old highly esteemed katsuobushi company based in Ehime, Japan, and they recently opened up a facility in Forest Grove, Oregon.

16.7 fl oz

*Refrigerate after opening

contains wheat, soy, fish