Five Kinds of Hondashi vs. Homemade Bonito-Kelp Dashi: Which Makes the Best Miso Soup, Tasted Blind? Ryuji's No-Holds-Barred Test

The first was the classic "Hondashi." Ryuji explained that among all dishes, Hondashi is used most in miso soup, and said they grew up on it themselves. It is made from bonito, and according to Ryuji, a factory tour video shows it being made from fresh bonito.

The second was "Hondashi Kombu Dashi." It is a kombu-based stock made with kombu powder and kombu extract, and Ryuji described it as an all-rounder with no strong quirks that works in any dish. It shows up often in Ryuji's recipes.

The third was "Katsuo Kombu Awase Dashi" (bonito and kombu blended dashi). Ryuji had never used it and said this was the first time they had even seen it. It apparently isn't simply Hondashi and kombu dashi mixed together but has its own proprietary blend, and since it captures the umami of both bonito and kombu, Ryuji pegged it as the favorite to win.

The fourth was "Iriko Dashi," made from iriko (dried sardines) boiled in large cauldrons and then dried. Ryuji said it is incredibly good in ramen, that they have been using it a lot lately, and that for miso soup it is their favorite. They have also published an iriko dashi miso soup recipe.

The fifth was "Yaki Ago Dashi" (grilled flying fish dashi). It is a stock commonly used in Kyushu, and Ryuji strongly associates it with shio ramen and udon, so they had doubts about whether it would suit miso soup. Even so, they revealed that this whole project was something they themselves had asked to do.

The sixth was the homemade dashi, using 5 g of kombu and 3 g of katsuobushi. The method was the standard one: simmer the kombu and remove it, add the katsuobushi, bring it back to a boil, and strain after a few minutes. Ryuji said, "This one's the biggest pain" and "it's already pretty much lost at this point." For a home-cooking channel, being a hassle is a disadvantage in itself, but Ryuji included it because they felt that to find out just how good Hondashi really is, a dashi made the proper, traditional way was absolutely necessary as a point of comparison.

Each granulated dashi was measured as one level teaspoon. The amounts of water and miso were kept the same, the fillings were tofu and green onion, and the tofu was half a block, 75 g.

Only the amount of water differed between the homemade dashi and the others. For the homemade version, the kombu is brought to a boil and then simmered over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, so water evaporates, and the katsuobushi absorbs more water on top of that. To match the final volumes, the homemade dashi started with 400 cc and the others with 330 cc. Ryuji noted that there are many theories about handling kombu, like "soak it in water first," but testing them all would be endless, so they asked viewers to let them do it their own way.

Ryuji said they don't really like covering dashi, because no matter how correctly you do it, someone will always complain. Even professionals all say different things, so there is no way to satisfy everyone. To anyone who says this isn't a valid test, Ryuji laughed, "Go ask a research lab," stressing that this is simply a test they did themselves. Even while making the homemade dashi, they repeatedly said that anyone who thinks this method is wrong should upload their own video; Ryuji would retweet it to spread it, and if it really tasted better, they would test it again.

Ryuji also compared costs. The kombu was 598 yen for 54 g, so the amount used here came to about 50 yen. The katsuobushi was around 230 yen. Hondashi costs about 200 yen, and Ryuji estimated the amount used this time at around 20 yen. Hondashi does come out cheaper, they added, but this test was purely about taste.

While cooking, Ryuji predicted of the homemade dashi, "For 400 cc, I'm putting in a ton of kombu and bonito, so I think it's going to be pretty serious." On the other hand, they expected the iriko dashi to fall a bit short of a natural dashi.

For the granulated dashi pots, once the water boiled the heat was turned down to low, the dashi was added, and the miso was dissolved after turning off the heat. The miso amount was 4 teaspoons, from a freshly opened container. Ryuji grumbled that if you use miso that's been open a while, people will say something about fermentation, so being a cooking researcher is tough. Since people would point it out if the miso wasn't fully dissolved with chopsticks, they dissolved it carefully.

The rule for serving was to reheat each soup to just below boiling. There was a reason for the choice of fillings too: Ryuji explained that whether or not you add tofu changes how the flavor comes through, so it's better to include at least tofu, but adding wakame brings out wakame's own umami and makes it something different. They also said that if they didn't keep the conditions equal, "if I'm not rigorous, there's no reason for me to exist."

On the difference between iriko and yaki ago, Ryuji said iriko has a slight harshness while yaki ago is clean-tasting. Staff member Takao said they used to use yaki ago dashi.

Along the way, Ryuji also vented about taste-test projects: when doing a promotion, they end up proposing to go this far themselves, and in taste tests people say "you can't tell the flavors because you've been drinking," so they can't drink and it's no fun. They also mentioned that an earlier stir-fried vegetables test video got almost no views at the time, but when they checked recently, it had reached a million views.

What Ryuji worried about most was salt. Hondashi-family granulated dashi products contain salt, and each product is set at roughly the same salt level. But the homemade bonito-kombu dashi has no added salt, so with the same amount of miso it was bound to taste weaker, they explained.

So Ryuji considered adding 2 extra teaspoons of miso to the homemade dashi to even out the salt. But they also hesitated, worried that people would say it only tasted better because it had more miso. In the end, they said that the kombu and katsuobushi release a bit of salt too, so maybe it was fine, and decided, "Let's go with this." However, it isn't clear from what they said whether they ultimately added the miso or kept the same amount.

Ryuji said the kombu, simmered for 20 minutes over low heat, had released plenty of umami, and then added the katsuobushi. The dashi is done about 2 minutes after it comes to a boil. Because katsuobushi is thin, its flavor comes out quickly, but Ryuji personally thinks it tastes better simmered a bit longer. This time, they followed the standard method.

After straining it through paper, Ryuji said the aroma of the homemade dashi was on a whole other level. Then they shared their pet theory: natural dashi smells great, so it's definitely delicious, but Ajinomoto gives more umami. So for them, the ultimate dashi is dashi made from natural ingredients with a little Ajinomoto added. They said they arrived at this theory more than ten years ago, but nobody agreed with them. They recalled that in an earlier peperoncino test, the version made with authentic Italian ingredients was certainly delicious, but in the end the result was that adding Ajinomoto made it taste better.

They said people are also split on whether to squeeze the strained katsuobushi: one camp doesn't squeeze it because it releases harshness, and another says you should use every bit. This time, Ryuji squeezed it lightly. The spent kombu and katsuobushi would apparently be used later in another dish. Ryuji said they'd hate it if the homemade dashi didn't taste good, but declared they would not go easy on it.

Serving was left to the staff, and Ryuji and Takao tasted soups A through F. Before tasting, Ryuji offered an excuse: they'd eaten breakfast at McDonald's, so they weren't sure they'd be able to tell.

For A, they said "It's good," but both reacted that they couldn't tell what it was. After sipping B, Ryuji exclaimed, "This is really good," and said B was their favorite so far. But they also admitted that once miso goes in, it gets pretty hard to tell. For C, the two agreed it had "a classic feel" and was "a familiar taste," and Ryuji said they felt they could identify this one. For D, Ryuji found the flavor strong, but Takao thought it was light, so their opinions split. Ryuji held their head, saying, "This is really hard" and "This might be the end of my career as a cooking researcher today."

Both felt E tasted clearly different from the others. With the last one, F, they struggled, saying the green onion was masking a lot of the flavor, and also remarked that it was a good thing they had cut the tofu small.

Both agreed that B was the most delicious.

A was the homemade bonito-kombu dashi. Ryuji got this one right and laughed that missing it would have been the end. Takao had thought it seemed like the blended dashi. According to Ryuji, bonito and kombu point in the same direction as the blended dashi, but the concentration of umami is different, so A alone was clearly different. Takao said they had never tried the blended dashi, so they had thought that's just what it was like.

B was the iriko dashi. Ryuji was deeply frustrated. They said they had wavered about writing iriko, but since both of them said B was the best and the fish flavor hit hard, they figured it must be the synergy of the blended dashi and answered blended dashi.

C was Hondashi, and whoever got it right drew exclamations of surprise. On the other hand, there was also a comment that C didn't have many distinctive features, so they had thought it was the kombu dashi. D was the kombu dashi; Ryuji admitted they had mixed up C and D, reflecting that the two seemed similar. E was the yaki ago, which they got right. F was the blended dashi.

Ryuji couldn't identify every type, but said that in terms of taste ranking, B and D came out on top. They added that Takao was able to identify Hondashi probably because they eat it regularly. When it was suggested that Takao could have gotten more right if they hadn't gone to McDonald's for breakfast, Takao laughed it off and emphasized that this was a genuine, no-holds-barred test. Ryuji wrapped up by saying that now that they had memorized the flavors, they thought they could get them right if they did it again, but it's too much of a hassle, so they won't.

As the test's conclusion, Ryuji summed up that, including the homemade dashi, the best-tasting miso soup was the one made with "Iriko Dashi."

Finally, they tried adding just a single shake of Ajinomoto to the homemade bonito-kombu miso soup. The two were amazed, saying "One shake changes it this much?" and "This is really good," and both called it magic. Takao also said that Ryuji's iriko miso soup had been the best miso soup they had ever had.

Prefacing it with "Just so you know," Ryuji ended the video by saying that in the end, the best one was dashi made properly with a shake of Ajinomoto added.