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Corti
Brothers Newsletter for March 2007 Page 4 Japan is one of the wold’s most exigent food producing and consuming countries. It is always a treat to visit Japan because I always find something new and interesting to import. Since 1996, Corti Brothers has imported several special soy sauces, o-shoyu, from Japan. These are never found in the U.S. except at Corti Brothers. Tamari is an all soybean soy sauce. Marumata Owarino Tamari is produced by family owned Marumata Shouten, established in 1834, located in Taketoya, Chita county, Aichi prefecture, just south of Nagoya. Owari is the old name for the northern part of this prefecture. Thus, the name “Owari no tamari” means “the tamari of Owari.” Produced from Japanese grown soybeans and natural sea salt, slowly aged for three years in cedar casks, it is very thick, with a sweetish, smokey, meaty full flavor. Not very salty tasting, with a thick body and its deep flavor, Owarino Tamari is very well balanced. It does not have added alcohol for stability and must be kept refrigerated once opened. The word tamari comes from the verb tamaru, meaning “to accumulate or puddle” which is what the liquid does in its fermentation casks. Originally, it was a by-product of miso production. Tamari is often kept for use with sashimi. A little in western dishes adds a flavor component which is difficult to describe, but deliciously enticing. It gives body to dark sauces and a deeper taste to braised dishes. Tamari deepens flavor in white sauces, especially Béchamel, Mornay and others, providing some of that elusive character called “umami” or savoriness. If you have not yet experienced Marumata Owarino Tamari, you are missing a special flavor treat.
Salt, often called the “fifth element,” is absolutely necessary for life. Wars have been fought over it; national debts and income paid by taxes on it; wages paid with it: salary=(sal)arium=salt. We used to not pay much attention to salt, (except to stay away from it), but now there has been a salt revolution with salts from different origins. Corti Brothers first imported its special Japanese salt in 1996. It was from Oshima Island in Japan, an island about 65 square miles in size, 45 minutes by air off the Japanese coast from Tokyo, in the middle of pristine Pacific ocean waters. It is this sea water which is concentrated by a constant spray sent through pipes that shower the water into collection troughs in the open air. It is re-pumped and showered until its salinity goes up enough to allow it to be evaporated into its crystalline form. Two salts are thus produced: one, Red Label, is pan evaporated using fire; the other, Blue Label, is tray evaporated in a glass house using only solar heat. Nothing is added; nothing is taken away except, in the case of the Red Label, the bitter magnesium chloride, “bittern,” which is used to coagulate soy milk to make tofu. Red Label Oshima Island salt is remarkable. It is salt to be used in salt cellars; to be used in finishing a dish, not for salting pasta cooking water. The Blue Label, one of the rarest salts in Japan, is a crystal salt that is even more wonderful on finished dishes. There is a certain “sweet savor” to it--just as with the Red Label--but the crystal grain is flaky/crunchy. Corti Brothers cannot take credit for the salt revolution taking place in the US, but we were the first to import Japan’s special Oshima Island salts. It is difficult to describe salt, but these are delicious.
Cultivarplus is a radical new concept in olive oil production created by a group of estates and oil technologists headed by a friend, Marco Mugelli, of Florence, the panel head for the Florence Province tasting panel. Not only are these oils the result of 8 years of experimentation with new technology, their presentation is also innovative. What is unique about these oils is that their production with this new vacuum system protects the polyphenol levels. Whereas normal excellent oil production will have oils with polyphenol levels in the hundreds of parts per million, Cultivarplus oils have them in thousands of parts per million, a massive increase. In fact, practically all of the polyphenols and antioxidants available in sound olives are present in their natural form in Cultivarplus oils. In our time, oil production is of two types: one, the romantically appealing, archaic production with stone mills, presses and mats that mean oxidizing oil and bottling it with a great loss of product quality. The other, a more modern system uses centrifugal force, where oil is oxidized less than in the archaic system. (Oxygen leading to oxidization is one of the great detriments to oil quality.) Cultivarplus comes in a box containing four, 250ml stainless steel bottles. Each box includes a bottle of Frantoio, Moraiolo, Pendolino oil with the fourth oil either Correggiolo or Leccio del Corno. In order to get the five varietals, you would have to purchase two boxes. Correggiolo is a cultivar which is not often available and Leccio del Corno is a cultivar selected from a particular property, Fattoria del Corno, in San Casciano Val di Pesa. If you have any interest in what is happening to olive oil at its cutting edge, here is your chance to taste it.
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Corti Brothers
Sacramento CA
