Make The Most Delicious Ponzu Sauce With One Secret Ingredient

Japanese sauces are famously flavorful, instantly transforming even the blandest dishes into tastebud explosions. Sure, you can buy premade varieties like ponzu from supermarkets or specialty Asian grocers, but making this Japanese favorite yourself is satisfying and reaps the best results. That's why Tasting Table recipe developer Miriam Hahn came up with the perfect blend of ingredients for creating ponzu sauce with daikon. It just so happens that one component in her recipe is the real game changer. 

"The secret ingredient is the shoyu sauce," reveals Hahn. She describes it as similar to soy sauce while being a little thinner and sweeter. But don't worry, there's no need to make shoyu sauce itself from scratch. There are some very good bottled versions (like this Kikkoman shoyu, available online) which are ready for mixing into your evolving homemade ponzu sauce. Shoyu easily blends with other contributing flavors, including lemon and lime juices, rice vinegar, mirin, kombu, and daikon radish. 

Regarding the shoyu sauce's contribution to ponzu, Hahn notes that she "likes the subtle sweetness it adds as a complement to the lime and lemon juice." That said, it helps to understand what shoyu actually is. In the broadest sense, it's a soy sauce — shoyu is the Japanese word for soy. But the term shoyu refers to the Japanese style of making soy sauce, which differs considerably from Chinese and other versions. It ultimately comes down to the ingredients, the texture, the sweetness, and the nuanced complexity. All of that profoundly impacts the final outcome of your ponzu sauce.

All standard soy sauces, per the name, have fermented soybeans as the primary ingredient. But Japanese shoyu sauces differ in that they also contain wheat, often in nearly equal amounts, along with salt and water. This results in sweeter, richer, and sharper flavors, especially in authentic versions that limit additives, thickeners, or preservatives. It also means a thinner consistency and a pure, umami-centric taste with multiple flavor profiles. By comparison, some mainstream supermarket soy sauces can carry 10 or more ingredients. 

In our recipe for ponzu sauce, the liquids, including the shoyu sauce, get stirred together and added to a dried seaweed kombu. This is then soaked for at least three hours, or preferably overnight, before being infused with finely grated daikon radish. As you can imagine, the shoyu sauce uniquely deepens the overall profile of any dish the ponzu accompanies. Miriam Hahn recommends pairing it with rice- or noodle-based meals as well as serving it with dumplings or wantons. 

It's worth noting that shoyu sauce comes in several varieties, including at least six prevalent in Japanese cooking. Of these, the two most readily available ones are koikuchi shoyu, which is a general-purpose dark soy sauce, and usukuchi shoyu, a lighter, saltier, and sometimes more acidic sauce with a sweet finish. When using shoyu to make homemade ponzu sauce, it really comes down to preference. Experiment with different versions to put your own signature twist on Japanese sauces and dishes.