{"id":32928,"title":"What Is Tamari Sauce?","modified":"2025-06-10T14:54:30+02:00","plain":"Tamari (also called tamari shoyu) is a Japanese sauce made from fermented soybeans. It has a thicker consistency and a more balanced flavor than Chinese soy sauce, which makes it perfect for dipping. It is also vegan and naturally gluten-free. Pour tamari straight from the bottle to add salt, umami, and extra nutrients to your dishes.\n\n\n\nWhat is tamari sauce?\n\n\n\nYou might think soy sauce is a single condiment, but there are dozens of soy-based sauces across Asia, each with its own flavor, color, and texture.\n\n\n\nTamari is one of them and has a distinctive taste, largely because it is produced differently from other soy sauces. It is pressed from the liquid that seeps out of aging miso paste (fermented soybeans). Soy sauce, by contrast, is brewed from a fermented blend of soybeans, wheat, and other grains. For that reason, tamari is usually a little more expensive than soy sauce.\n\n\n\nSoybeans\n\n\n\nThe difference between soy sauce and tamari\n\n\n\nWhile the many varieties of soy sauce are found throughout Asia, tamari is distinctly Japanese. The biggest difference is that tamari is usually made without wheat, whereas soy sauce often contains wheat (sometimes up to 50 percent of the recipe).\n\n\n\nTamari is made with only water, soybeans, and salt. A typical bottle of soy sauce, on the other hand, lists wheat and a preservative such as sodium benzoate. This shorter ingredient list gives tamari a richer flavor, thicker body, and darker color than most Chinese soy sauces.\n\n\n\nYou can swap tamari and soy sauce in most recipes, but keep in mind that each will bring its own subtle flavor difference.\n\n\n\nHow to use tamari?\n\n\n\nThanks to its viscosity and balanced flavor, tamari is ideal as a dipping sauce. In fact, it pairs better with sushi than soy sauce because it will not overpower the fish with saltiness.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYou can also stir tamari into soups, stews, marinades, stir-fries, and other Asian sauces, or drizzle it straight from the bottle over noodles, dumplings, fish (especially raw fish such as sashimi), or tofu.\n\n\n\nTry it, for example, in my yakitori sauce or the teriyaki chicken skewer marinade\n\n\n\nTamari mixed with a little sugar is also a popular glaze for roasted nuts, especially almonds.\n\n\n\nWhat does tamari taste like?\n\n\n\nTamari tastes like a less salty, more nuanced soy sauce because it is made from 100% soybeans. The wheat in traditional soy sauce can lend a sharp, almost vinegary note that is absent from tamari.\n\n\n\nInstead, tamari is packed with umami - a rich, savory, \"mouth-watering\" quality found in beef, cooked mushrooms, tomato paste, aged cheese, and dried fish. It can add a \"meaty\" depth to vegetarian and vegan dishes.\n\n\n\nUse tamari in this soba dipping sauce for even more flavor!\n\n\n\nWhere to buy tamari?\n\n\n\nWith the growing popularity of Asian cuisine, finding ingredients such as tamari has become much easier.\n\n\n\nYou should be able to pick up tamari in glass bottles (or large plastic jugs) in the Asian\/international aisle of a well-stocked supermarket, right next to the soy sauce. If your store doesn't carry it, look in an Asian, international, or health-food shop, or order it on Amazon.\n\n\n\nAlmost all tamari sold in Europe is labeled gluten-free, though it may still contain traces of wheat. If the bottle is marked gluten-free, it is considered safe for anyone following a gluten-free diet.\n\n\n\nKeep in mind that regular Kikkoman brand tamari is not gluten-free.\n\n\n\nHow to store tamari?\n\n\n\nStore tamari in its original bottle in a cool, dry, dark cupboard. Refrigeration is not required, but the flavor will not suffer if you chill it. Once opened, tamari keeps indefinitely as long as the cap is tightly closed.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}