Even more so than most cuisines, Japanese food relies heavily on a few core seasonings, without which the flavour profile of certain dishes would be completely different, while other dishes simply wouldn’t exist at all. These fundamental ingredients each have their own important role in the balancing act of flavours and when it comes to achieving sweetness, it’s hard to look past mirin. This distinctly sweet rice wine is made by fermenting steamed rice and is used in everything from stir fries to dipping sauces to contrast with the signature umami flavours often associated with Japanese cookery. Mizkan’s mirin-style Honteri seasoning meanwhile, packs all the depth of a traditional mirin but is even more versatile.

Created as an alternative to mirin, Honteri is still produced using fermented rice to give it an amazing depth of flavour but what makes it unique is its low alcohol content (less than 0.5%). This opens up a world of possibilities when cooking with Honteri as, unlike mirin, it doesn’t need to be boiled to evaporate off the alcohol. Not only does this mean that it can be added later on in the cookery process to give dishes a rounded sweetness, but it’s also a time saver. Honteri can also be used as a direct substitute for sugar, when you’re looking to quickly and easily achieve a more complex level of sweetness in certain dishes, with the added benefit of it being much less easy to burn than sugar when caramelising.

Honteri’s unique profile means that the possibilities are endless when it comes to how it can be used. First and foremost, it’s an easy way of adding sweetness and complexity to the likes of soups, stocks and sauces, and its low alcohol content means that Honteri is particularly well suited to deglazing pans as it reduces far quicker than the likes of wine. It can also therefore be easily used in glazes or even as an alternative to caramel in desserts. Equally, Honteri is just as effective when used in marinades and can also be used for curing fish thanks to its high sugar content.

Co-founder of udon restaurant Koya, Shuko Oda recently used Honteri in two newly developed recipes and enjoyed the balanced sweetness it brought to her dishes, ‘its sweetness is obviously the prevailing flavour,’ she explains, ‘but that’s also balanced with a touch of bitterness, so it’s not overpowering. The honteri also has a nice aftertaste, which is important.’ Shuko was also keen to point out, just how important sweet seasonings like mirin and Honteri are with Japanese cookery, ‘everyone knows about soy sauce,’ she smiles, ‘but mirin-style seasonings are just as essential and can be used in everything from dashis and sauces to pickle brines. The low alcohol level of the honteri just adds to the range of possibilities.’

The first of Shuko’s dishes, Hojicha smoked venison served with kabocha kinpira and pickled kumquats, uses Honteri combined with sake and soy sauce to make a dressing for the kinpira element. Shuko felt the sweetness of the dressing was key to the balance of final dish, ‘I really love doing venison this way’, she says, ‘but the smokiness needs to be contrasted with the punch of the Sichuan pepper and the caramelised flavour of the kinpira, created by reducing the Honteri.’

In contrast, in her recipe for slow-roasted Tropea onion with a soft onsen tamago and dulse paper, Shuko uses the Honteri to create a concentrated dashi, which the onions are then left in overnight to marinate. This recipe demonstrates how Honteri can also be used to bring a slightly more subtle sweetness to a dish, ‘dashis are such a big part of our cuisine and mirin is a key part of their flavour,’ explains Shuko, ‘by marinating the onions in the dashi, you’re just giving them added punch, and the Honteri in the dashi provides a subtle sweetness in the background.’

Shuko’s recipes demonstrate just a few of the ways that Honteri can be used in Japanese cookery, but its immense versatility means that its use shouldn’t be limited to Japanese food. The combination of its complex sweet flavour and its low alcohol level make Honteri a highly unique ingredient regardless of what style of food you’re cooking, and only by beginning to experiment with it will you discover its true potential.