Give BBQ Sauce An Umami Punch With This Staple Japanese Ingredient

Say goodbye to plain old barbecue sauce, because we have a hack that will instantly elevate your sauce with a deep, savory saltiness — and you won't want to go back to the basics. Take a tip out of the traditional Japanese cuisine handbook and transform your run-of-the-mill barbecue sauce with miso paste. Miso paste is a fermented mixture of soybeans, salt, and occasionally other grains like rice and barley. While miso paste is popularly known for being the prime ingredient in miso soup — a Japanese classic that is savored across the globe — its culinary uses extend beyond soups. When stirred into barbecue sauce, the natural notes of umami from the miso enhance the sweet, tangy, and smoky flavors in the sauce, yielding a more balanced flavor. Based on your choice of miso paste, there can be notable differences in the final product. White miso is ideal if you prefer sweeter, milder sauces, while red miso is the way to go for something more earthy and robust. Yellow miso is a happy middle ground that offers a subtle savoriness with a touch of nuttiness.

Miso doesn't just boost flavor — it also adds a layer of nutritional benefits that make for a healthier barbecue sauce. The fermentation process initiated by the mold, Aspergillus oryzae, also known as "koji," yields gut-friendly probiotics that can support digestive health. Miso is also a good source of essential vitamins and minerals. Whether you prefer making your own barbecue sauce or opt for store-bought brands, which we have ranked, a kick of umami from the miso paste adds depths of complexity, a boost of flavor, and a dose of healthy nutrients.

From livening up a humble plate of buttered noodles to being a recommended addition to level up instant ramen, miso paste is a versatile ingredient that you need to have on hand to add depths of complex flavors to an otherwise pedestrian plate. But when it comes to adding miso to sauces that are already bold in flavor, like barbecue sauce, it is especially important to know when and how to properly add miso paste to the recipe. If you're looking for tips to elevate store-bought barbecue sauce, combine the desired amount of miso paste with the barbecue sauce, adjusting to taste. Make sure to whisk until thoroughly combined, or better yet, use a blender so the miso properly incorporates into the sauce instead of settling at the bottom. Because miso is an intense, salty condiment, a little goes a long way. So, when you're adding it to barbecue sauce, start small and gradually build from there to avoid overpowering the other components. However, as with anything that has to do with taste, it ultimately boils down to personal preference.

If you prefer making barbecue sauce from scratch, a process that requires heating the combined ingredients, reserve adding the miso paste until the end of the cooking, making sure to remove the pot from the direct heat before stirring in the miso. Otherwise, all the gut-friendly goodness from the fermentation gets destroyed by the high heat. To avoid clumps of miso in the mixture, dissolve the paste in a small amount of warm water before stirring it into the sauce for a homogenous consistency and flavor. You're now ready to step up your BBQ game with some miso magic.