This Japanese sukiyaki sauce recipe combines soy sauce, sake, mirin and two sugars to create a glossy, sweet-savoury warishita for beef hot pot, tofu, noodles and rice.
Calories
115kcal
Protein
3g
Carbs
20g
Fat
0.1g
Wash a heatproof glass jar or bottle with hot soapy water, rinse it thoroughly and allow it to dry. The container should hold at least 550 ml.
Pour the sake and hon mirin into a small heavy-based saucepan. Place the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a gentle simmer.
Simmer gently for 2–3 minutes. This softens the sharp aroma of the sake and mirin, but it should not be treated as a guaranteed alcohol-free process.
Reduce the heat to low. Add the granulated sugar and light brown sugar. Stir continuously for 1–2 minutes until every sugar crystal has dissolved.
Pour in the Japanese soy sauce and stir slowly. Keep the heat low so the sauce heats evenly without boiling aggressively.
Heat for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should be steaming with only small bubbles appearing around the edge. Do not reduce it into a thick syrup.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave the sauce uncovered for approximately 20 minutes. Once it is no longer hot, transfer it to the prepared jar or bottle.
Use the sauce as a concentrated seasoning for sukiyaki, or seal and refrigerate it. Shake or stir before using because a small amount of sugar may settle during storage.
This sukiyaki sauce recipe makes a concentrated Japanese warishita with a balanced mixture of soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. It is sweet enough to complement richly marbled beef but savoury enough to season tofu, mushrooms, noodles and vegetables.
The sauce requires only five minutes of preparation and approximately ten minutes of cooking. It can be prepared before the other hot pot ingredients, cooled and refrigerated until the meal.
Sukiyaki sauce, called warishita in Japanese, is the sweetened soy-based cooking liquid associated particularly with Kanto-style sukiyaki. Thinly sliced beef, tofu, mushrooms, vegetables and noodles are gently cooked in the seasoned liquid.
The traditional flavour is sweet, salty and deeply savoury. Warishita is generally more concentrated than an ordinary soup broth because water released by vegetables and tofu gradually dilutes it during cooking.
Japanese and Lao recipes can both be labelled sukiyaki sauce, but they are entirely different preparations. Japanese warishita is a thin soy, sake, mirin and sugar cooking sauce.
Lao sukiyaki sauce is commonly a dipping sauce containing ingredients such as peanuts, chillies, garlic and fermented bean curd. This recipe is specifically for Japanese warishita and should not be expected to taste like Lao peanut dipping sauce.
The recipe uses slightly more soy sauce than sake, giving the sauce enough savoury intensity to season a complete hot pot. Hon mirin contributes sweetness, aroma and shine, while sake supplies depth without adding more salt.
Most of the sweetness comes from granulated sugar, which has a clean flavour. A smaller amount of light brown sugar adds mild caramel complexity without changing the familiar character of the sauce.
The sake and mirin are heated first. Sugar is dissolved before the soy sauce is added, and the complete sauce is warmed gently rather than reduced aggressively.
Regular Japanese soy sauce, known as koikuchi shoyu, provides salt, colour and umami. It has a balanced flavour suitable for simmered dishes and hot pots.
Chinese dark soy sauce is not a direct replacement because it is darker, thicker and formulated differently. Reduced-sodium Japanese soy sauce may be used when a lighter salt level is preferred.
Sake contributes rice aroma and savoury depth. Drinking sake or unsalted cooking sake is preferable because some cooking products contain a significant amount of added salt.
The brief simmer softens the raw alcoholic aroma, but it should not be assumed to remove every trace of alcohol.
Hon mirin is a sweet Japanese rice seasoning that supports shine, sweetness and a rounded flavour. Mirin-style seasonings may contain different amounts of sugar, salt and alcohol.
Read the label before adjusting the recipe. A particularly sweet mirin-style product may require less added sugar.
Sugar is not merely an optional sweetener in warishita. The sweetness balances the strong soy sauce and complements the rich fat in thinly sliced sukiyaki beef.
This recipe combines granulated and light brown sugar. All granulated sugar can be used when a cleaner, lighter flavour is desired.
Kanto-style sukiyaki is generally cooked with prepared warishita. The sauce is added to the pan before or alongside the beef, tofu and vegetables.
In Kansai-style sukiyaki, beef may be seared first and seasoned directly with sugar and soy sauce before other ingredients are added. A prepared sauce can still be useful for adjusting the pan as the meal continues.
This recipe is especially suitable for the Kanto approach because it produces a consistent sauce that beginners can dilute and adjust easily.
For a hot pot serving four people, begin with approximately 300 ml of concentrated sukiyaki sauce and 150 ml of kombu dashi or water. Increase both quantities for a larger pan.
Do not completely cover the ingredients as though making soup. Sukiyaki is cooked in a relatively shallow layer of strongly flavoured liquid.
Add more dashi or water when the broth becomes too salty. Add more concentrated sauce when vegetables release enough liquid to make the flavour weak.
Some warishita recipes include dashi directly, while others keep the concentrated sauce and dashi separate. Keeping them separate provides greater control and generally makes the concentrate more convenient to store.
Kombu dashi gives the hot pot a gentle seaweed-derived umami flavour. Plain water can also be used because the beef, mushrooms and vegetables contribute flavour as they cook.
Heat a shallow cast-iron pan, electric skillet or heavy frying pan. Sear a few slices of well-marbled beef briefly, then add enough warishita to cover the bottom of the pan.
Add tofu, shiitake or enoki mushrooms, napa cabbage, green onion and shirataki noodles. Arrange ingredients in separate sections where possible and simmer gently.
Cook additional ingredients in batches instead of overcrowding the pan. Adjust the sauce with dashi or water as the meal continues.
Because the sauce is concentrated and salty, begin with a small amount when using it outside a hot pot and dilute it as needed.
Use reduced-sodium Japanese soy sauce or dilute the prepared sauce with additional dashi. Avoid simply removing too much soy sauce, because doing so also reduces the umami foundation.
Salt levels differ considerably between soy sauces and cooking sake products. Taste the sauce after cooling, then remember that the hot pot ingredients will dilute it further.
For a less-sweet sauce, reduce the granulated sugar to 35–40 g while leaving the other ingredients unchanged. A small amount of sweetness should remain to balance the soy sauce.
For a sweeter restaurant-style sauce, increase the granulated sugar by 10–15 g. Dissolve the extra sugar completely before adding the soy sauce.
For an alcohol-free variation, replace the sake with kombu dashi or water and choose an alcohol-free mirin-style seasoning. Check the label carefully because products marketed as mirin seasoning can differ.
When no suitable mirin substitute is available, replace the mirin with water and add additional sugar gradually. The flavour will differ from traditional warishita but can still produce a pleasant sweet-soy hot pot base.
Replace ordinary soy sauce with certified gluten-free tamari. Confirm that the mirin, sake and all hot pot additions meet the required gluten-free standard.
Shirataki noodles are commonly gluten-free, but labels and manufacturing conditions should still be checked when cross-contact is a concern.
Dark soy sauce can make the warishita unusually thick, dark and heavy. Japanese koikuchi soy sauce is a more suitable choice.
Added salt can make the final sauce difficult to balance. Choose unsalted sake or reduce the soy sauce after checking the product label.
Aggressive reduction concentrates salt and can make the soy flavour harsh. Warm the completed sauce gently.
Vegetables release moisture during cooking. Begin with a concentrated sauce and dilute it gradually at the table.
Sukiyaki ingredients cook in batches. Pouring in the entire quantity immediately can create an unnecessarily deep, soup-like pot.
Warishita is a thin cooking sauce. It should not contain cornstarch or reduce into a glaze before being added to the hot pot.
Cool the sauce completely and transfer it to a clean airtight bottle or jar. Refrigerate it rather than leaving it at room temperature.
Use a clean spoon whenever removing sauce from the container. Discard it if it develops mould, unusual cloudiness, gas, an unpleasant smell or another sign of spoilage.
A concentrated sauce without added dashi generally stores better than ready-diluted hot pot broth. Once dashi, meat juices or cooked food have been introduced, treat the mixture as a perishable leftover.
The concentrate can be frozen in a suitable airtight container or divided into an ice-cube tray for smaller portions. Leave expansion space when freezing it in a jar.
Thaw in the refrigerator and stir before using. Salt and sugar may prevent the sauce from freezing completely solid, which is normal.
No. Both can contain soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar, but sukiyaki sauce remains thin and functions as a cooking broth. Teriyaki sauce is often reduced or thickened into a glaze.
No. Soy sauce is one component of warishita. Mirin, sake and sugar soften its saltiness and create the characteristic sweet-savoury balance.
Yes. Replace it with kombu dashi or water. The sauce will have less rice aroma but can still work well in a hot pot.
Yes, but additional sugar and liquid will be needed. Mirin contributes more than sweetness, so the finished flavour will be simpler.
Yes. Brown sugar gives the sauce a deeper caramel note. Use it moderately so it does not dominate the soy and mirin.
The soy sauce or cooking sake may contain more salt than expected, or the cooking liquid may have reduced excessively. Add unsalted dashi or water gradually.
Water-rich vegetables may have diluted the pan. Add more concentrated warishita in small amounts and allow it to simmer briefly.
No. Traditional-style warishita is a thin cooking sauce rather than a thick glaze.
Yes, but dilute it and marinate meat only briefly because the soy sauce is salty. Discard marinade that has contacted raw meat unless it is boiled safely before another use.
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