{"id":2383,"date":"2023-07-21T11:01:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T11:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kikkomanusa.com\/foodservice\/?page_id=2383"},"modified":"2024-11-11T13:49:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T13:49:59","slug":"fat-washing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kikkomanusa.com\/foodservice\/fat-washing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Washing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Technique: Fat\u2013Washing Kikkoman Sauces<\/h1>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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What is Fat Washing?<\/h2>\n

It all began with bacon. Back in the mid-2000s, when bacon-infused everything was the flavor trend of the moment, mixologists began experimenting with ways to make bacon-flavored cocktails.<\/p>\n

At the New York craft cocktail bar Please Don\u2019t Tell, bartender Don Lee created the Benton\u2019s Old Fashioned, a Bourbon Old-Fashioned, flavored with maple syrup and infused with the flavor of bacon. To make it, Lee drew inspiration from an old perfume-making technique known as enfleurage<\/i>, in which delicate aromatic components are extracted from flowers and plants by first steeping them in rendered animal fat, and then \u201cwashing\u201d the fat with alcohol, so that the aromas would be transferred to the alcohol.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Lee\u2019s version of the technique involved steeping rendered \u200b\u200bbacon fat with Bourbon, chilling the mixture, and then straining off the fat, leaving the spirit infused with the flavor of bacon and a richer, silkier mouthfeel from the residual fat. The Benton\u2019s Old-Fashioned quickly became the bar\u2019s most popular cocktail, and the technique, known as \u201cfat-washing,\u201d took off in mixology circles. Soon, creative bartenders were coming up with cocktails infused with the flavors of other fats, like butter, brown butter, sesame oil, coconut oil, duck fat, chorizo, and peanut butter. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n

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From the bar to the Kitchen<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, some chefs were beginning to explore creative ways to fat-wash flavor and richness into culinary applications.<\/p>\n

At Jimoto Ya, an artisan ramen shop in Singapore, owner Sean McCully came up with a version of the restaurant\u2019s signature Ebi (shrimp) Ramen that\u2019s served with a shot of premium Japanese single-malt whiskey that has been fat-washed with shrimp oil. Stirred into the broth at the table, the whiskey doesn\u2019t simply intensify the shrimp flavor of the dish, it also adds a mouthcoating richness and smoky finish to the dish. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Butter softens soy sauce’s mouthfeel and flavor<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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FAT\u2013WASHING SOY SAUCE<\/h2>\n

Kikkoman Sales USA Executive Chef and culinology guru Andrew Hunter has also been working on culinary applications for fat-washing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was inspired by a mixologist friend who blends melted butter into bourbon, then freezes it so the butter rises to the top,\u201d says Chef Hunter. \u201cAfter he removes the butter cap, the resulting bourbon is silkier in flavor and mouthfeel. I wondered if fat washing our soy sauce and ponzu with butter would have a similar effect. And what I discovered was that, just like it does to bourbon, the butter softens soy sauce\u2019s mouthfeel and flavor. The more butter you add the silkier the soy sauce.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chef Hunter began experimenting with ways to infuse Soy Sauce and Ponzu (a citrus-infused soy sauce) with flavorful fats. He devised a method that involves melting and infusing fat with flavorful ingredients, then warming and steeping the fat with Kikkoman\u00ae Soy Sauce or Ponzu to meld the flavors. He uses a blender to fuse the flavors together, then chills the mixture to solidify the fat, and strains off the fat-washed sauce. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Chef Hunter explains that \u201can added benefit of fat-washing soy sauce is that you end up with three ingredients: the fat-washed soy, soy infused butter, and a combination of both for a really delicious soy-butter sauce. In addition to acting as the flavor foundation,\u201d he explains, \u201cthe butter also contributes a savory note and velvety mouthfeel. Infusing fresh herbs and spices, like fresh ginger and garlic in the toasted butter can help build layers of flavor into a dish.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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FAT\u2013WASHED PONZU, STEP BY STEP <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here is Chef Hunter’s method for making a brown-butter,ginger and garlic fat-washed ponzu.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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