The Basic Recipe : Mentsuyu and Tentsuyu Sauce

As “Mentsuyu (めんつゆ)” has the literal meaning of “broth for noodles”, the liquid seasoning is used mainly for making the soup broth of Japanese noodle dishes, such as Soba, Udon, Hiyamugi and Somen.

Actually, Mentsuyu is not only for making the soup broth of Japanese noodle dishes, but it can also be used for making “Tentsuyu (天つゆ)” and the soup base for “Nimono (煮物)” simmered dishes.

The Basic Recipe for Mentsuyu

As for the making method, Mentsuyu is traditionally made combining “Dashi (出汁)” and “Kaeshi (かえし)”.

Dashi is Japanese soup stock taken from Kombu seaweed, “Katsuobushi (鰹節)” (Amazon.com) dried bonito flakes, Shiitake mushrooms and so on, while Kaeshi is made by simmering a mixture of sugar and dark soy sauce, and then adding boiled Mirin sweet cooking rice wine.

The basic mixing ratio of Dashi, Dark Soy Sauce, and Mirin for Mentsuyu is 5 : 1 : 1, and Mentsuyu can be easily made at home by bringing a mixture of dark soy sauce and Mirin to the boil, and then adding Dashi soup stock.

Tentsuyu Sauce

Tentsuyu is the dipping sauce for Tempura, and can be basically made with Dashi soup stock, dark soy sauce, and Mirin sweet cooking rice wine.

The Basic Recipe 

The basic way to make Tentsuyu sauce is the same as Mentsuyu, but the basic mixing ratio of Dashi, Dark Soy Sauce, and Mirin for Tentsuyu is 4 : 1 : 1.

If you have Kikkoman’s Hon Tsuyu at home, you can easily make a Tentsuyu sauce by boiling Hon Tsuyu soup base (Amazon.com) and water at a ratio of 1 : 2. This is because Kikkoman’s Hon Tsuyu is a kind of concentrated Mentsuyu.

(Reference pages : Wikipedia めんつゆ, Kotobank 天つゆ, Travelingfoodlab, Kikkoman )