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Published: April 18th 2024
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From Culinary Backstreets, one of my favorite web pages. Sake is considered Japan’s national drink. Its exact origins lie in the murkiness that accumulates over thousands of years, but it’s believed that rice-derived alcohol production arrived from China alongside rice cultivation at least 2,500 years ago. This rice-derived drink was then developed over the centuries, growing into a flourishing industry by the 17th century. In 1698, for example, government records list 27,251 sake brewers across Japan. Fast-forward to the turn of the 20th century, when the industry was making efforts to improve and regulate quality, leading to the establishment of the National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB) in 1904.
Over the centuries – or indeed, millennia – sake became deeply entwined with Japanese traditions, particularly Shintoism, an animistic religion centered on the respect and worship of nature and ancestors. Sake is
one of the finest offerings for
kami, Shinto gods. It’s drunk at marriages, in which the bride and groom each take three sips from three sake cups, making nine sips in total, an odd number that symbolizes the couple’s unbreakable bond. At New Year’s celebrations, a special spiced sake infused with medicinal herbs is drunk for health and
prosperity for the coming year. Of course, it is also used in cooking a wide range of
washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine) just like wine is used as a marinade or in stews.
Yet, outside of Japan, sake remains relatively mysterious and misunderstood. Often served in small cups called
o-choko, many people mistakenly have the impression that it meant to be consumed in one gulp,
finding that it is incredibly strong. Sake is actually legally required to be under 22 percent ABV, but the vast majority is 15-17 percent ABV, making it only slightly stronger than wine. What’s more, just like wine, it’s meant to be drunk with food. In fact, the science shows it’s actually a better pairing than wine.
“Sake has more amino acids, up to five times that of wine. Sake makes friends with food whereas wine is a sword that cuts through the taste of food. So sake can enhance the flavor of what you’re eating,” says Heady. “And the lack of tannins and low acidity in sake means that the food can also enhance the taste of the sake. It’s a one plus one equals three situation!”
Often referred to as a “rice wine,” this name obscures a unique production process. Sake is made by taking rice and “polishing” it, removing some of the outside layers of each grain that contain proteins, lipids,
and nutrients that can produce off-flavors or result in rough and heavy textures. The brew is then washed and steamed, before being divided into two parts. Around 20 percent is siphoned off to be malted with
koji, a type of fungus also known as
aspergillus oryzae. This is a crucial part of the process that can have a huge impact in the fermentation process going forward. Brewers then build a fermentation starter before adding this, plus more rice, koji and water into a main tank to form the
moromi (mash), which will then turn into sake over a period of three to four weeks.
The process greatly differs from both wine and beer. Rice, unlike grapes, does not contain sugar. This is why koji is needed – it produces enzymes that break down the starch into sugar in a process called saccharification. When making beer, this part is achieved by the malt, and yeast is then added to kickstart the fermentation. In sake production, however, saccharification and fermentation occur at the same time, and it’s up to the skill of the brewer to balance and control the rates of both. The process is called “multiple parallel fermentation,” which sounds a little bit like something a mad scientist would mutter while thinking up a formula to save the world.
I can tell you that I am not a sake drinker, but that may change on this trip! Many better places to dine have sake flights, which may or may not be just the "trick" to get me started.
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