What sauce goes with Wagyu?

Which Japanese sauces go with Wagyu?

Three soy-based dipping sauces, matched to how fatty the cut is. A Japanese guide to yakiniku pairs each cut with a seasoning: a sweet sauce for the fatty ones like karubi and sankaku-bara, salt or a salt-based sauce for lean ones like the knuckle and tenderloin, and soy sauce with wasabi for cuts like the rump and outside round ^[1].

At home those become nikiri-shoyu, ponzu and yakiniku tare. Each starts from soy sauce, adds two to five simple ingredients, and takes about ten minutes.

How do you make nikiri-shoyu?

Boil sake and mirin for a minute to cook off the alcohol, add soy sauce, and let it cool. Nikiri-shoyu is the seasoning sushi chefs brush over nigiri. Heating it gives a mellower flavor than raw soy sauce and keeps the salt from tasting too strong ^[2].

Makes about ⅓ cup (80 ml):

• ¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) sake
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) mirin

1. Bring the sake and mirin to a boil in a small pan over medium heat, and let it bubble for about a minute ^[3].
2. Turn the heat to low and add the soy sauce. Take it off the heat once it bubbles again ^[4].
3. Let it cool before you use it. Store it in a clean jar in the fridge: one Japanese food magazine's version keeps about six months ^[5].

That's 4 parts soy sauce to 1 sake and 1 mirin. Published versions run from 3:1:1 ^[3][4] to 4:1:1 ^[5], so ours sits at the saltier end of the range. Orange Page adds a pinch of bonito flakes and strains them out ^[5]. We leave them out to keep the pantry short.

On Wagyu, nikiri-shoyu seasons the beef the way plain soy sauce would, with less bite. Pair it with a dab of wasabi. The tsunagu Japan guide suggests soy sauce and wasabi for the rump and the outside round, and soy sauce with a little garlic for the top round ^[1]. From our shop, that's the rump slices, the rump steak, the bottom round steak (the US name for the outside round) and the top round slices.

It works on a whole steak, too, once it's sliced. One recipe serves a seared Wagyu sirloin sliced on a warm plate, with fresh wasabi, grated daikon and a cooked soy dipping sauce on the side: tosa joyu, a nikiri-style soy sauce steeped with kombu and bonito ^[6]. Sear a 1″ steak for about 90 seconds a side, rest it 2–3 minutes, then slice it thin against the grain (pan searing).

How do you make ponzu?

Stir equal parts soy sauce and fresh lemon juice together with a little boiled mirin. Ponzu is soy sauce sharpened with citrus.

Makes about ½ cup (120 ml):

• ¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce
• ¼ cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice, or lemon with some orange
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) mirin

1. Boil the mirin for about a minute to cook off the alcohol. Just One Cookbook calls for boiled, alcohol-free mirin in its ponzu ^[7].
2. Let it cool, then stir it into the soy sauce and lemon juice.
3. Use it the day you make it.

That's 1 part soy sauce to 1 part citrus, with a quarter as much mirin as soy sauce. Just One Cookbook uses ½ cup each of soy sauce and citrus juice (lemon, orange or grapefruit) with 2 tbsp of mirin, the same proportions as ours ^[7]. Japanese Cooking 101 uses ½ cup soy sauce to ¼ cup each of rice vinegar and citrus juice, with no mirin ^[8]. Both come out at equal parts soy sauce and sour.

Ours is a simplification. Just One Cookbook steeps its ponzu overnight with kombu, bonito flakes and lemon zest, then strains it ^[7]. Japanese Cooking 101 skips those and mixes theirs in minutes ^[8]. That steeped ponzu keeps up to a month ^[7]. Japanese Cooking 101 likes that a quick ponzu lets you make just enough for dinner ^[8], and we make ours fresh.

On Wagyu, the acid cuts the richness of marbled beef. Japanese Cooking 101 calls ponzu "especially great alongside rich, heavy dishes" and calls ponzu and grated daikon "a golden duo" ^[8]. RecipeTin Japan notes that sautéed beef can be fatty and heavy, "especially if you use marbled wagyu beef," and that grated daikon and ponzu make it lighter. It suggests tenderloin, sirloin, strip loin or rib-eye, or a steak, with the caution that the topping won't coat a steak as well as thin slices ^[9]. So slice the steak first. From our shop, try the ribeye or the NY strip.

How do you make yakiniku tare?

Warm soy sauce, sugar, mirin, garlic and sesame seeds until just boiling, then stir in sesame oil off the heat. Tare is the sweet dipping sauce of a yakiniku table.

Makes about ½ cup (120 ml):

• ¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce
• 2 tbsp (25 g) sugar
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) mirin
• 1 garlic clove, grated (about 1 tsp)
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tsp (5 ml) toasted sesame oil

1. Put everything except the sesame oil in a small pan and heat it until it just starts to boil ^[10].
2. Take it off the heat and stir in the sesame oil ^[10]. Let it cool.
3. Keep it in the fridge and use it within two weeks ^[11].

Against the two recipes we checked, for every ¼ cup of soy sauce:

The simplification is in the last row. We drop the chili, ginger, onion and gochujang to keep the shopping list to things most kitchens already have. Add any of them back if you like more heat or body.

On Wagyu, a sweet tare stands up to the fattiest slices. The tsunagu Japan guide says the fatty flavor of sankaku-bara "matches well with a sweet sauce," and that boneless short rib karubi from the short plate goes with "a thick, sweet sauce" ^[1]. From our shop, that's the sankaku-bara karubi, short rib karubi, plate karubi and chuck karubi.

Cook the ¼″ slices on a dry pan or griddle at 450–500ºF for 5–15 seconds a side, a couple at a time, and dip them straight off the heat (pan searing). The whole method is in how to make Wagyu yakiniku at home.

What else goes on the table?

Salt, wasabi, grated daikon and yuzu kosho. Each one has a place with Wagyu:

• Salt. For lean, tender cuts, the tsunagu Japan guide recommends just salt and pepper: tenderloin, top sirloin cap and the knuckle, with a mild salt-based sauce for the shank ^[1]. Ours are the filet mignon, ichibo steak, knuckle slices and shank slices. Salt yakiniku slices after cooking or at the table, and steaks just before or an hour before (pan searing).
• Wasabi. A small dab on each slice, then a dip in nikiri-shoyu ^[1][6]. Tubes of prepared wasabi are easy to find.
• Grated daikon. Grate it fine, squeeze out a little of the liquid ^[6], and serve it with ponzu ^[8][9]. Daikon oroshi lightens marbled beef ^[9].
• Yuzu kosho. A paste of yuzu zest, chili and salt, sold in jars at Japanese grocery stores. Just One Cookbook suggests eating it with steak and says its spicy, citrusy taste "cuts through the richness and fat of meat" ^[12]. It's potent, so start with a very small dab. Opened, it keeps up to two months in the fridge ^[12].

How much Wagyu do you need per person?

Plan on about 4–8 oz of Japanese Wagyu per person, against the 8–12 oz of a typical Angus steak. Takemitsu-chan is A4 with BMS 6, less rich per bite than A5, so she eats well at the top of that range or beyond. More in how much Wagyu per person.

Shop the current drop →