Dashi powder? Use sparingly, if at all
posted on 16 Aug 2007 by maki ::
12 comments
I was recently sent a book about Japanese cooking for review. I wasn’t too impressed by the book for a variety of reasons, but one thing that really bothered me was that it used dashi stock powder for practically every recipe. (What made it worse is that the book’s title proclaimed the recipes therein to be “Healthy”.)
Dashi stock powder is akin to soup stock cubes in Western cooking. Like soup stock cubes, they are a very convenient way to add a concentrated dose of umami to a dish. I do have a box of the stuff in my kitchen which I use on occasion.
But keep in mind that dashi stock powder contains quite a lot of MSG. The good or bad of MSG may be a debatable subject, but when it comes to food additives I always like to be on the cautious side. Besides, with the right ingredients making dashi stock from real ingredients, even a vegan version, doesn’t take that much time - and tastes a whole lot better too. This is different from the time and effort, not to mention the mess, needed to make a good chicken stock, for example. On my list of Japanese pantry essentials, I have put MSG or Ajinomoto as something that’s optional, and I regard dashi powder in the same light.
In Japan, more and more households are turning away from dashi stock powder for health reasons, especially in families with small children. I don’t see any reason for people new to Japanese cooking to start out on the wrong leg by relying on an iffy convenience product.
[Edit:] I just realized I’ve addressed the same subject previously, but I think it bears repeating. Any book that proclaims that it’s ‘healthy’ while using MSG or dashi powder for every recipe, obviously isn’t up on the healthy-eating trends in Japan at least…
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Dashi Stock Powder
I agree with you that it’s best to go for the real homemade thing whenever possible. But there are Dashi powders that are MSG-free, have decent ingredients and aren’t too bad taste-wise.
Thanks for the tip
Hmmm…good to know. It’s hard to know who to trust when you see the word “healthy.”
Dashi Powder
I totally agree with your post. It took me a long while to work up to making other stocks (and a relatively easy recipe for Chinese chicken stock is what got me started on that). But I’ve never had a problem making dashi from scratch. I have dashi powder in the cupboard, but I never use it, because the instructions on how to use it aren’t clear. It’s much easier to get water, konbu and bonito flakes and just do it for real.
It's time for the paranoid MSG urban legend to die
“I always like to be on the cautious side”: This would have made sense 15 years ago, but how much proof do we need that MSG is harmless? It’s been studied to death. It’s simple reality-based science. Doubts about MSG are akin to doubts about the theory of evolution at this point.
“In Japan, more and more households are turning away from dashi stock powder”: I don’t think it’s accruate to say that there is any widespread concern about MSG in Japan. There are many cooks who make dashi from scratch, but they do it for the same reason that people everywhere make things from scratch: because they like to cook and they enjoy the taste of scratch cooking. But it’s a dying skill: who wants to make dashi on a two-burner konro when you have other dishes to make?
I dis agree with the
I dis agree with the previous comment. There is a concern about food additives and artificial flavourings in Japan. I have lived here for about 10 years and read some Japanese, and my husband is Japanese. I first learned of this when my daughter developped an allergic skin rash. I was advised to eliminate food additives including ajinomoto and dashi powder, as well as processed foods like sausages. It has been very effective. Most Japanese food magazines do not use dashi power in their recipes.
all the hogwash...
It’s sad how everything is turning into big business pushing down products on us folks.
MSG is not natural and those claiming it’s in nature might not understand what ‘nature’ means. Ads by Ajinomoto claims that their products is made to taste LIKE the real thing.Power of words.
Real dashi stock is sea weed…kombu…hijiki …in my humble opinion.
is it not the truth that MSG
is it not the truth that MSG is a compound that the japanese first isolated from konbu? is it also true that to make good dashi one puts konbu in hot water? in doing so, is it true that MSG from the konbu is transferred to the water?
is MSG as an additive any way unhealthy as compared to MSG extracted from konbu?
MSG is highly concentrated
MSG is a very highly concentrated form of umami, and I believe it is no longer made from kombu (the Ajinomoto site says it is made from soybeans now).
I realize from the comments here and on other posts here (and on other sites) that the choice of whether or not to use MSG is a personal one. I prefer not to use it…and someone else’s preferences may differ.
The main reason I would rather not use it though is that it’s so relatively easy to make a proper dashi from natural ingredients. The taste difference more than makes up for the few extra minutes it take to make dashi. It’s a worthwhile payoff for me.
out of curiosity...
Maki, you say that you have dashi powder in your pantry and you use it occasionally… In what situations do you bust out the hondashi rather than make your own? Just wondering…
dashi powder
Meg, I use dashi powder sometimes for a dish where it’s not the primary or only flavor - as a sort of ‘hidden flavor’ or flavor booster. I make dashi from kombu and katsuobushi etc when I’m making a soup, but if it’s like a big pot of stewed vegetables or something sometimes I’ll use the hondashi. Though recently I’ve been using powdered anago (sea eel) instead of hondashi…something my mom send to me from Japan (mom I love you) and it’s pretty good! I wonder if they will start selling stuff like that now more widely….I hope so!
DASHI POWDER
I have a question.
I found a recipe in which dashi broth is one of the ingredients; however, I could find only dashi powder (grains..)in the Asian store of my city in a big bag. It seems that it is used to make dash soup or something. My question may seem stupid but I just want to make sure since I am new in japanese cousine, can I use this powder with boiled water to make that dashi broth of the recipe?
Thanks
Ruth
yes you can
Hi Ruth, yes you can. It’s just like instant soup cubes or granules used in Western cooking. (A lot of recipes do call for the instant granules because they are so convenient.)
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