Add a Few Tablespoons of This “Liquid Gold” to Prime Rib for the Best Flavor of Your Life

Last spring when I was in Japan, my friend Lauralee Garson-Okamoto introduced me to my favorite new ingredient, shio koji. When used as a marinade, shio koji makes everything more tender and tasty, with serious notes of umami. 

When she suggested I try shio koji for my own cooking, I was all ears. Lauralee knows a thing or two about tender meat; she and her husband, Hiro, own five yakiniku restaurants in Kobe, Japan, specializing in grilled A5 Wagyu beef. At home, Lauralee serves thriftier beef from the grocery store and shio koji is her secret to transforming it into meltingly tender meat that is incredibly juicy and flavorful. 

Koji is a naturally occurring mold (Aspergillus oryzae) that has been used for centuries in Japan to ferment foods like sake, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and miso paste. In recent years chefs have discovered that you can make an incredible marinade by mixing koji with rice, salt, and water to create a porridge-like slurry called shio koji. One bite of beef marinated with shio koji and I wanted to ship a whole case home from Japan. 

When I got back stateside, I was able to find small packets of shio koji at a Japanese grocery in a neighboring town. The special trip to that market 30 minutes away, plus the tiny size of the shio koji packets, made it less than ideal — I wanted to use this stuff on everything! That’s why I was thrilled when I came across Hanamaruki Liquid Shio Koji online and at a local gourmet grocery near me in the condiments section. 

Hanamaruki Liquid Shio Koji is a unique patented type of shio koji that is a clear, golden liquid instead of a milky-looking slurry. It comes in large (16.9-ounce) bottles that can be kept in the fridge indefinitely. Just like the refrigerated shio koji packets, this bottled version brings out the umami flavors of meat and seafood, and boy, does it tenderize beautifully!

According to Lauralee, shio koji can be used on just about anything: “I use it at home on lean beef cuts like rump or chuck eye roll. It creates a rich and buttery effect and the subtle flavor of salt without burning the taste buds.” She also uses it on pork and chicken, where it helps keep lean meats from drying out while frying, grilling, or baking. 

But it’s not just for meat. Kei Yamaguchi, a Kyoto-based cooking instructor I know, marinates fish with shio koji to remove any “fishiness” and firm up the flesh so it separates into succulent flakes when cooked. She also uses it wherever she would add salt — in salad dressings, vegetable sautés, and even homemade granola to add a touch of salty savoriness.

• A little shio koji goes a long way. The general rule is a ratio of 10% shio koji to meat or fish by weight as a marinade. (I use the easier-to-remember ratio of 1 tablespoon of shio koji per 5 ounces of meat or fish.) 
• Timing will vary, but should always be less than 24 hours. Strips of chicken, pork, or thin fish fillets need as little as 20 minutes of marination time; larger pieces of meat like chicken breasts, pork chops, and steaks benefit from at least an hour of marinating time to allow the koji to penetrate the meat. For large roasts like prime rib and whole chickens, I opt for an overnight marination in the fridge. Because enzymes are at work here, I would not recommend marinating in shio koji for longer than 24 hours; it can end up making meat and seafood mushy or overly salty.
• The possibilities are practically endless. Liquid shio koji doesn’t have a strong flavor of its own. It’s slightly salty and umami, but it’s not nearly as distinctive as soy sauce, so you can add it to any number of recipes. I recently mixed a tablespoon of the golden liquid into a pound of ground beef for some very memorable hamburgers. I’ve splashed a little into beef gravy and it amped up the flavor to 11. And I’ll never make my favorite Bolognese sauce again without reaching for the savory magic of Hanamaruki shio koji; it really is like magic.

Buy: Hanamaruki Liquid Shio Koji, $9.99 (on sale!) for 16.9 ounces at Amazon

What pantry staple are you adding to absolutely everything right now? Tell us about it in the comments below.