Comments on: Umami Nation: Kombu Dashi Smackdown

By: Oatmeal Dashi « FoundOnWeb

Oatmeal Dashi « FoundOnWeb — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:19:40 +0000

[...] of katsuobushi tuna flakes. There are different kinds of kombu seaweed, and it seems to matter how you cook it, which part of the seaweed you use, and where the seaweed came from. I’d call it terrior, [...]

By: davearnold

davearnold — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:19:54 +0000

Howdy Christopher, Sorry it took so long to get back.
Add ice water to the bag and then the kombu. Then vacuum seal in a chamber vac (you’d have trouble in a home vac), then circulate.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:58:51 +0000

I know I am probably not the level of cook you normally get here, but I am hoping you could help me understand the process by which you vacuumed the kombu. I mean, pretend I don’t know anything … because I don’t. Does the kombu get ssealed then put in the water? Does 1L water go in with the kombu, get sealed and circulated? Sorry, I know this is pretty rudimentary stuff to you guys but I am looking to make a better dashi than I am currently making. Many thanks for your patience!

By: more miso, please. « chopstick beaten eggs

more miso, please. « chopstick beaten eggs — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:01:37 +0000

[...] the battery on our kitchen scale needs replacing). I’ve since found this very interesting article on various methods of flavour extraction, and extensive reporting on the specific outcomes, which [...]

By: Dave Little

Dave Little — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:02:42 +0000

Hi Chef,

Any chance you’ve taken a look at dashi with bonito yet? If you haven’t really tested it I’d be interested to know any of your thoughts / current procedure anyway.

I’m living and working in Japan and make dashi every day more or less the traditional way. After reading this post I can’t wait to try it in my home-made circulator. Don’t have a vac machine unfortunately.

Incidentally, I saw you mention Ayu fish sauce in another post. No one I know here had heard of it, but I found some quite easily looking online and ordered it. I love ayu and I love fish sauces, so I’m tremendously excited to try this.

By: Dave A

Dave A — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:56:13 +0000

Hi Benjamin,
We haven’t done our bonito tests yet. We hope to soon. We want to test length of steep, temperature, and thickness of slice. We also want to test with chiai and without.

By: benjamin

benjamin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:57:58 +0000

Great post! I’d be interested in your results when steeping bonito into the dashi for soup stocks. I’ve been making dashi almost everyday many years. I find the gently heating the water and konmbu for long time (starting with cold water). Once it reaches the simmering point I’ll add bonito flakes and steep for no more than 15 minutes (seems to go down hill after that). Perhaps heating it slowly is a crude way of getting the most time at 65 C. But I really think the bonito imparts the most flavor when stock is quite hot. What do you think?

Awesome blog. Thanks!

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:07:47 +0000

I thought you might say that. I own a hacked non-chambered vac. machine. but I have access to a large (5.5′x15″) Vac. Chamber that I can run “experiments” in. Hmm… maybe I can use that…

By: Dave A

Dave A — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:12:30 +0000

Hi Nathan,
What kind of vac do you have? On chamber machines vac’ing liquids is no prob as long as they are cold. On non-chamber machines it is a nightmare.

By: Dave A

Dave A — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:11:05 +0000

Howdy Auldo,
Our current favorite (not posted yet, soon), is 20 grams/liter vac’ed down and circulated for an hour at 65 C.