Give BBQ Sauce An Umami Makeover With This Japanese Staple (It's Not Soy Sauce)
Barbecue sauce can be a contentious topic. The regional variations in barbecue sauce are legendary, from vinegar-kissed Carolina barbecue sauce to the sweet and smoky variety found in Texas. However, there's a secret ingredient that can give barbecue sauce a rich burst of umami flavor, and it's not part of any American barbecue must-have list. Miso paste, the Japanese staple that many know from eating (or even cooking) miso soup, is actually a great ingredient to take your homemade barbecue sauce recipe to the next level.
Miso paste is made from fermented soybeans, salt, and koji fungus, and is rich in savory umami flavor, which you can taste in miso soup. By adding miso to barbecue sauce, you can give richness and depth of flavor to both the sauce and the meat you use it on, without making the sauce or dish overly salty the way other umami-rich ingredients, like soy sauce, run the risk of doing. Moreover, the miso pairs well with tomato-based barbecue sauces, due to the umami in cooked tomatoes complementing the umami-rich miso.
Beyond barbecue sauce, miso makeovers are great in savory and sweet dishes
If you've already tried and fallen in love with miso barbecue sauce, or even if you're not much of a barbecue fan, miso has uses that go well beyond prepping meats for grilling and smoking. Not only is it a great ingredient to add to savory sauces and marinades, its high umami content means that it can also be used to give vegetarian dishes a richness that makes them especially satisfying. Miso eggplant is a popular dish for this reason, but it can also be used in salads and miso-based pasta dishes.
Perhaps even more surprising, you can add miso to sweet dishes as well as savory. Adding miso to cookie dough gives a sweet-and-savory, flavor-rich combination that can enliven anything from classic chocolate chip cookies to ultra-sweet caramel cookies. Miso can also round out a bowl of chocolate mousse, or even be used in a breakfast dish when you make miso pancakes. Remember, though, a little miso goes a long way, especially in sweet treats, given that it contains salt, so follow the recipe carefully when it comes to quantity.