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My 20-year companionship with turkey: 2 of 2
Nov 29, 2021
OTHERS
Mari Gau at Momono Consulting
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Mari, a localization specialist of Team TREHA®, is proud of her long relationship with turkey. Mari has been working on pulling out the best of this fantastic bird to be recognized beyond North America.
  • Mission Possible: How do we optimize the smell?

  • Koji: Honored as Japanese national mold

  • A Japanese woman takes on turkey

  • Tips and suggestions

In this blog, we touch on diverse topics about Japanese food cultures, practices together with the culinary secret, TREHA®, and its important role in the Japanese food industry. We hope our blog helps you obtain in-depth knowledge of Japanese cuisine and the science behind it, which is hard to find elsewhere.

Mission Possible: Optimizing the turkey smell.

After learning about how my fellow Japanese perceive the taste profile of turkey, I, as a home chef, have been trying many ingredients and tips to optimize the smell for 20 years. It appears that the gamey flavor of turkey has divided opinions even within the US. I found a lot of tips online about how to reduce the gamey taste of turkey. Even after engaging all the tricks and gimmicks, I do not think it is possible to remove the gamey taste all the way. I, on the contrary, believe it is inappropriate to eliminate the precious turkey-ness.

After trying various methods, I landed on the secret ingredients, "trehalose" and "shio koji."

National bird? National flower? No, koji is a national mold.

Shio koji is a natural cure/marinade made from koji rice and salt. Koji, containing the "Nihon koji" mold, has been indispensable to producing traditional Japanese seasonings such as miso and soy sauce since ancient times. It is so essential that the Scientific Conference of Brewing Society Japan authorized "Koji fungi (Kōji-kin)" as the National Fungi in 2006. The mold took center stage to represent the country in the same fashion with majestic animals or indigent plants.

Koji contains more than 30 enzymes, including protease, lipase, and amylase, which break down proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Therefore, koji becomes a versatile marinade for a variety of ingredients. My two findings are:

  1. Shio koji could spread the mild saltiness evenly within a bird.

  2. Trehalose retains moisture content, which works synergistically with shio koji.

I make shio koji at home by fermenting the mixture of koji, salt, and water for ten days on the kitchen counter. Shio koji paste is available in many Asian markets and is easy to use. There is also convenient shio koji powder.

The application is simple. Coat fresh or thawed turkey with trehalose and shio koji paste at a ratio of 1:1 a few days before roasting the bird. I am confident that this method is as efficient as or better than brine. Not only does savory flavor gets evenly distributed to whole bird, but the meat also maintains ideal moisture content after roasting, which takes care of the dry texture of the cooked turkey.

The nice bonus is that the leftover turkey stays fresh and moist in the refrigerator for up to five days. There is no data for more than five days because the leftover is always quickly flattened in less than five days.

Shio koji, which is gaining recognition in the US.
Shio koji, which is gaining recognition in the US.

My epicurean journey with turkey

For the last 20 years, I have had a variety of taste tasters, starting with my American husband, his family, my bicultural daughter, and then my parents, who did not grow up with having turkey. Though there were some trials and errors, I obtained 5-star reviews for ten consecutive years. Notably, my parents, who often spend the holidays with us in Colorado, address they don't feel like visiting the US until they taste the turkey.

Since I successfully satisfied my family's taste buds utilizing trehalose and shio koji, I have started converting my Japanese friends to turkey fans. After inviting an expatriate from Japan and his family over for Thanksgiving dinner, he emailed, "I have never thought that turkey could be this good." He is a quiet engineer type, but surprisingly, he shared his experience with other business people. Later on, I learned that expatriates share a reminder that goes, "Never decline Mari's invitation to her Thanksgiving dinner," which is flattering and makes me happy.

Tips and suggestions: give them a try!

If you haven't tried my secret ingredients before, please give them a try. Though the duo is so versatile that it has endless applications for chicken, beef, and pork, vegetables, you name it, I think they are the best-suited for turkey among American cuisine applications. The reason behind this is that the optimized gamey taste produces a happy middle ground that pleases anyone. What's more, it is as easy as coating the whole bird a few days before baking. The only tip I can offer is to reduce trehalose in any folded parts, such as under the wings or thighs. The skin in the folded parts loses crispness and tends to be rubbery because of trehalose's water-binding property.

I will continue to cook turkey to show my respect and gratitude to the United States and the generous people supporting me. My gratitude extends to the birds giving up their lives and the people who raised and processed the birds for the feast. It is the spirit of "Itadaki-masu.

I am curious to know what food professionals like you think about the secret ingredients.

Our turkey, which has been well received for many years.
Our turkey, which has been well received for many years.

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