"Gen-tare" is Aomori's do-everything seasoning | the apple-and-garlic yakiniku sauce brewed by Kamikita Nosan Kako, founded in 1952

Open a refrigerator in Aomori and this bottle is usually in there. The yellow label reads "Stamina Gen-tare." Locally, with some affection, it is just "gen-tare," the seasoning the prefecture grew up on.

To someone from another prefecture it may look like one yakiniku sauce among many. In Aomori it does not fit inside that label at all. It holds up home cooking itself.

One bottle where two of Aomori's crops meet

Gen-tare is made by Kamikita Nosan Kako in Towada City, Aomori Prefecture, a company set up in 1952.

Underneath the seasoning is shoyu (soy sauce) brewed with soybeans and wheat grown in Aomori. Into that goes a generous amount of grated fresh produce: the apples Aomori is known for nationwide, and garlic, onion and ginger with them.

The sweetness of apple, the force of garlic. Two tastes that stand for Aomori meet inside one bottle of sauce. Because the produce goes in grated and raw, the sweetness is not the sharp-edged kind common in bottled sauces, but rounded, with body.

"When in doubt, gen-tare"

Gen-tare was born as a yakiniku sauce. How it gets used in Aomori kitchens goes far past that name.

To season a vegetable stir-fry. To finish fried rice. To marinate karaage. Because the savory depth of fruit and vegetables is dissolved into a shoyu base, one bottle lands the seasoning exactly. It goes with pork in particular, turning an ordinary stir-fry a step deeper.

"When in doubt, gen-tare." That is the Aomori way. When you cannot decide what to cook, having this bottle means dinner will work out. That reassurance is why the prefecture has stayed loyal to it.

What it means to be the seasoning a place grew up on

Some places have a seasoning that generation after generation simply keeps using. It is not only a product; it is that region's memory of eating.

For anyone raised in Aomori, the taste of gen-tare is the taste of the family home, and the taste of an ordinary day. This is not some rarity you stumble on while travelling. It is a taste that has sat beside people's lives for a long time. Bringing a seasoning like that to your table is a way of borrowing an ordinary day in Aomori.

How to use gen-tare

• Yakiniku: as a dipping sauce or a marinade. Start with what it was made for
• Vegetable stir-fry and fried rice: poured in at the finish, it settles the seasoning on its own
• Marinade for karaage: soak the meat and it takes on a garlicky base note
• Pork dishes: with pork belly or thin-cut pork it is in a class of its own

If you see it in the yakiniku sauce aisle, pick it up once as the taste of an Aomori kitchen. How far it stretches will probably surprise you.

Frequently asked questions

What kind of seasoning is Stamina Gen-tare?

A yakiniku sauce made by Kamikita Nosan Kako in Towada City, Aomori Prefecture. Locally it is called "gen-tare," and it is kept on hand in a great many households - the seasoning the prefecture grew up on. The base is shoyu brewed with soybeans and wheat grown in Aomori, into which a generous amount of grated fresh produce goes: apple, garlic, onion and ginger.

Can gen-tare be used for anything besides yakiniku?

Yes. Households in Aomori use it widely, in stir-fries, in fried rice, as a marinade for karaage. Because the shoyu base carries the savory depth of both vegetables and fruit, one bottle settles the seasoning. It is said to go especially well with pork.

Where does the sweetness in gen-tare come from?

Mainly from apple, the crop Aomori is proud of. Alongside the grated apple, the onion, ginger and garlic that go in raw produce a natural sweetness with no hard edge, and body with it. Having apple sweetness and garlic force in the same bottle is what marks it out.