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125 Years Of Activity: Department of Enology and Viticulture
At U.C. (Davis)
In the spring of 1880, with the enactment of Assembly Bill 374, the California Legislature created the beginning of the University of California’s renown Department of Enology and Viticulture which is now at Davis, California. Originally it was at the U.C. Berkeley campus. This department dealing with special instruction in “[V]iticulture and the theory and practice of fermentation, distillation and rectification, and the management of cellars” is unique in having been created by an act of the State Legislature. The scourge of phylloxera had begun and the University School of Agriculture became the leader in combating it.
Grape growing and wine making and everything pertaining to these efforts were seen as a source of income for the State and the Legislature thought these activities should be promoted in proper scientific fashion. How forward thinking those gentlemen were! Davis became the site of the University Farm in 1908, though not yet a campus of the University, and started instruction with short courses and practical courses in both viticulture and enology. Perfecting Grapes and Wine, the history of the department is being finished. Watch for it.
To the Department of Viticulture and Enology at Davis: AD MULTOS ANNOS!
Three New Products from Japan: White Tamari, White Golden Tamari, and Yakashio
These three products are very new on the American market and represent very traditional, yet modern tastes in what are otherwise very traditional Japanese flavors. Tamari is a style of soy sauce or shoyu. It is generally black in color, but if made differently from the traditional way using only soybeans, its color changes. So does its flavor profile: it is less dominating and more enhancing. Also, the color of food does not change as with traditional dark tamari. This is a new concept in presenting a traditional flavor with exciting potential.
Geographically specific to central Japan, white shoyu is made with a predominance of wheat rather than soy, hence its lighter color and delicate flavor. The Ninagawa family in the Mikawa region of central Japan began producing WHITE TAMARI and WHITE GOLDEN TAMARI in 1938 under the brand name of Nitto Jyozo.
The specific differences in these tamari productions are numerous. There is a higher percentage of soybeans used in white tamari than in white golden. The salt used in white golden is Oshima Island high mineral salt and in white tamari just regular salt. Fermentation is 90 days in wood fermenters for the white golden as opposed to 75 days in fiberglass for the white. In both processes, the wheat is steamed and the soy beans roasted. In making normal shoyu, the ratio is 50:50 or more soy to wheat, but the wheat is roasted and the soy steamed.
With White Tamari and White Golden Tamari, the bottles must be kept cold once opened. Color will darken slightly and the product should be used up within nine months. These are exciting products to use. They blend easily with western flavors and you only need to do some experimenting. Not changing the color of foods with which it is used, enhances the usefulness of this condiment.
A novel method of using the WHITE and WHITE GOLDEN TAMARI is to spray it on food. To this end the Ninagawa family has had made an ingenious ceramic sprayer made of world famous Arita porcelain, artfully decorated, that is used to spray the tamari on to foods. Instead of using just salt, you might consider this tamari as another addition to your condiment repertoire.
Yakashio is roasted salt. You are probably thinking everyone has gone salt crazy, but no, this is a very traditional salt, in fact a religious salt. Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, uses roasted salt as a symbol of purification and protection from evil. Called kyome-no-shio, three little mounds of this roasted salt are put outside traditional restaurants to welcome guests.
Spirit of the Sea Yakashio is excellent as a table salt since it has a tasty mineral balance; there are no additives to prevent caking, just heat to dessicate the salt. The nigari (bittern or magnesium chloride) found in all salt is left in YAKISHIO rather than removed. The traditional production technology used is that of the Ise Shrine where this type of salt has been made for millennia. It is a different salt that has uses like being blended with powdered green tea to make a green tea flavored salt, or grinding roasted sesame seeds with Yakishio for sesame salt.
