{"product_id":"kombu-shiitake-dashi-set-from-japan","title":"Kombu \u0026 Shiitake Dashi Set","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"cg-pdp\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"cg-lead\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo dried ingredients, one broth — the plant-based dashi that Japanese temple kitchens have made for centuries.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHighlights\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Pair That Multiplies: Kombu carries glutamate; dried shiitake carries guanylate. Put them in the same pot and the savoury depth is not added together but multiplied — the reason a broth of two dried things tastes like far more than either alone.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNothing But the Ingredient: Rishiri kombu, ground fine by Uneno in Kyoto. Log-grown Oita shiitake, selected by Himeno Ichiro Shouten. No salt, no additives, no fish — both are single-ingredient.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSoak It, Drink It, Then Eat It: The shiitake are small-cap donko, about 2cm across, meant to be used whole without cutting. The soaking water is your dashi; the mushrooms that gave it up go into the bowl.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShipped directly from the producers in Kyoto and Oita — not from a US warehouse.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cg-acc\"\u003e\n\u003cdetails open=\"\"\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003eDetails, ingredients \u0026amp; allergens\u003c\/summary\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIn the box:\u003c\/strong\u003e Uneno Rishiri kombu dashi powder, 50g (Kyoto) · Himeno small-cap donko shiitake, 90g in a resealable bag (Oita)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIngredients:\u003c\/strong\u003e Kombu powder — Rishiri kombu (Hokkaido), single ingredient. Shiitake — log-grown shiitake (Oita), single ingredient. Nothing added to either.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAllergens:\u003c\/strong\u003e None. No fish, no animal ingredients, no wheat, no soy — both components are plant-based and naturally gluten-free.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShiitake size:\u003c\/strong\u003e Caps approx. 2cm — the smallest grade Himeno sorts, chosen so they can be cooked whole\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA note on the bag:\u003c\/strong\u003e Himeno is part-way through redesigning the packaging for this range, so the bag that reaches you may not match the one photographed here. The shiitake inside are the same — same house, same forest, same grade.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStorage:\u003c\/strong\u003e Both keep in a cool, dark, dry place unopened. Once opened, seal and refrigerate; for long keeping, freeze the shiitake. \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/guides\/how-to-store-miso-soy-sauce-and-dashi\"\u003eSee our full storage guide\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOrigin:\u003c\/strong\u003e Kyoto (kombu, milled) · Oita (shiitake)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/details\u003e\n\u003cdetails open=\"\"\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003eProducer's story\u003c\/summary\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHimeno Ichiro Shouten\u003c\/strong\u003e has been a shiitake merchant in Taketa, Oita, since 1877 — not a grower, but a grader. For a hundred and forty-nine years the house has done one thing: look at what the forest produced that year and sort it. Oita grows shiitake on felled oak logs, the slow way, over two years; Himeno's work is to know, by eye and by hand, which of them are worth a name. Their sorting is what Isetan and the other department stores in Tokyo have bought for generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUneno\u003c\/strong\u003e has drawn dashi in Kyoto since 1903. Their Rishiri kombu is the one the city's temple and kaiseki kitchens have leaned on for a century, ground here to a powder so that it dissolves rather than needs straining. The full story lives on the \u003ca href=\"\/products\/uneno-rishiri-kombu-dashi-powder-50g\"\u003eUneno Rishiri Kombu Dashi Powder page\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/details\u003e\n\u003cdetails open=\"\"\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003eWhy these two together\u003c\/summary\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1908 a chemist in Tokyo tasted a bowl of kombu broth and found a taste that did not fit sweet, sour, salt or bitter. He called it \u003cem\u003eumami\u003c\/em\u003e. What took longer to understand is that umami has more than one source, and that the sources amplify one another: kombu's glutamate against shiitake's guanylate produces a savouriness several times what either gives on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJapanese cooking arrived at this by palate long before anyone named the compounds. In temple kitchens, where fish was not used, kombu and dried shiitake became the whole foundation — \u003cem\u003eshojin dashi\u003c\/em\u003e. It is not a substitute for anything. It is one of the two original ways. If you would like the longer version, we wrote it out in \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/guides\/what-is-umami\"\u003eWhat Is Umami?\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/guides\/what-is-dashi\"\u003eWhat Is Dashi?\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/details\u003e\n\u003cdetails open=\"\"\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003eCooking ideas\u003c\/summary\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut a small handful of the shiitake in cold water in the refrigerator and leave them overnight; in the morning the water has turned amber and faintly sweet, and that water is your dashi — no heat, no straining, nothing to throw away. Whisk a spoonful of the kombu powder straight into that liquid and you have the full pairing in about four seconds of work, ready for miso soup, for simmered vegetables, for rice cooked in broth instead of water. The rehydrated mushrooms are the second half of the ingredient: at 2cm they need no knife, so drop them whole into the same pot, or slice them into a \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/recipes\/chawanmushi-the-last-of-the-dashi\"\u003echawanmushi\u003c\/a\u003e, or brown them hard in a pan with a little soy sauce and eat them on their own. The soup we make most often with this pair is \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/recipes\/kenchin-jiru-soup-that-starts-the-night-before\"\u003ekenchin-jiru\u003c\/a\u003e — root vegetables and tofu, cooked in the broth that made itself overnight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/details\u003e\n\u003cdetails open=\"\"\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003eShipping from Japan\u003c\/summary\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth components are dried and light — the pair travels as a single parcel of well under half a kilogram, the lowest weight band we ship. Import duties are calculated and collected at checkout, so nothing is billed to you after the box arrives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/details\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"cg-foot\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eShips from Japan · Order more, pay less per item\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"CookGood.JP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49158060769515,"sku":"CG-DASHI-KOMBU-SHIITAKE","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0731\/2520\/0107\/files\/kombu-shiitake-dashi-set_1bf63e88-32b5-41ca-abb7-8c37bb0c54df.png?v=1788754333","url":"https:\/\/cookgood.jp\/products\/kombu-shiitake-dashi-set-from-japan","provider":"CookGood.JP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}