Fudai Soden x Junmai Daiginjo “Nikko Homare” = Nikko Soy Sauce “Homare”

Another Nikko soy sauce story

[Rediscovery of the local area, the fruit of accumulated research! ]
2020 was a turning point for our company.
At a time when everyone was suffering and uncertain about the future, a wonderful coincidence occurred.
Sake lees is an indispensable ingredient in Tochigi's local dish ``shimotsukare.''
The taste of the dish changes depending on the ingredients, and the ingredients truly embody the taste of the brewery.
Personally, I have always loved Nikko Homare, a Junmai Daiginjo made by Watanabe Sahei Shoten, a local sake brewery in Nikko, but this was the first time I had focused on the sake lees extracted from it as a material for making soy sauce. did.
At this very moment, my sense of value towards sake lees changed dramatically.


[The material of Fudai Soden is “rice”, and if sake lees is also “rice”…]
The ingredients used to pickle Nikko's Robatazuke are the soy sauce ``Fudaisouden,'' which is made using a two-step process that combines carefully selected raw soy sauce with rice koji.
Enzymes in rice malt break down starch, the main component of rice, and convert it into glucose.
If rice koji can be self-digested, it might be possible to decompose sake lees as well!
I have never heard of making soy sauce using sake lees.
Isn't the reason it's not common because it doesn't work? However, I felt strongly that it was more important for local companies to collaborate with each other and create new value for Nikko than to be afraid of failure.


[Many people have helped me grow this. ]

I thought as I held the finished soy sauce in my hands.
In order to make soy sauce that lives up to the Nikko name, the backbone must be thick and strong in human terms.
The question I always get asked is "recommended cooking method."
However, although we can make soy sauce, we are amateurs at cooking. In that case, I decided to ask a top chef for directions.

Thanks to the many people who helped me during that time, I was able to learn something truly irreplaceable.

At The Ritz-Carlton Nikko, we are serving it as an item of Japanese cuisine with our feelings in mind.

At Steak & Grill Myogetsubo, when the season is in season, we serve exquisite shiitake mushroom steaks and Nikko soy sauce ``Homare'' on a wonderful stage.

The photo is of Otowa Restaurant, which has a charm that exceeds imagination.



[The secret story behind the development of Nikko Soy Sauce Baum]
At the local Baumkuchen workshop Hachiya in front of Kinugawa Onsen Station, we are baking Nikko soy sauce Baum using Nikko soy sauce "Homare".
In fact, Mr. Hachiya had told me that he wanted to bake Baumkuchen for Fudai Soden, and most of the time, he had completed the baking recipe and package design.
However, the completion of Homare is just around the corner.
I was wondering if I should tell you about it myself.

However, at that time, word of the Nikko soy sauce ``Homare'' that was under development reached President Yagisawa, and he said the following.
``If Yacchan (President Watanabe) and Hiyama-kun made soy sauce, there's no reason why I wouldn't use them!''...It was an instant decision.

The two are great seniors at the Nikko Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
It was a really happy event and I can't thank you enough for being supported by so many people.