Tare (Makes about 2 ½ cups)

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2 to 3 chicken backs, or the bones and their immediately attendant flesh and skin reserved from butchering 1 chicken

1 cup sake

1 cup mirin

2 cups usukuchi (light soy sauce)

Freshly ground black pepper

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1. Heat the oven to 450°F.

2. Cut chicken back into 3 pieces, split rib cages in half, and separate thigh from leg bones. (More surface area = more browning area = deeper better flavor, as long as you don't burn the bones.)

3. Spread the bones out in a wide (12- to 14-inch) ovenproof sauté pan or skillet and put it in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour: check on the bones after about 40 minutes to make sure they're just browning, not burning. You want deeply browned bones, and you want the fond the fatty liquid caramelizing on the bottom of the pan-to be very dark but not blackened. (A fleck of black here and there, or at the edges of the pool, is fine, but charred fond is useless; it will only add bitterness and should be dis-carded.) Watch as the bones color, and pull them out when they're perfectly browned.

4. When the bones are browned, remove the pan from the oven and put it on a stove- top. Pour a splash of the sake onto the pan and put the pan over a burner and turn the heat to medium-high. Once the sake starts to bubble, scrape the fond up off the bottom of the pan.

5. Once the fond is free from the bottom of the pan, add the remaining sake, mirin, and soy to the pan and turn the heat under it to high. Bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat so that it barely simmers. Cook for 1 hour. It will reduce somewhat, the flavors will meld, and the taré will thicken ever so slightly.

6. Strain the bones out of the taré and season the liquid with 5 or 6 turns of black pepper. The taré can be used right away or cooled and then stored, covered, in the re- refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.

   Traditional Dashi MAKES 2 QUARTS

   Stir ¼ cup miso into this, throw in some tofu and/or mushrooms or shredded nori or whatever you've got around, and you've got miso soup. Katsuo-bushi is dried smoked bonito; it's available shredded in bags at every Japanese market on the planet.

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One 3-by-6-inch piece konbu

8 cups water

2 handfuls of katsuo-bushi (see head-note)

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1. Rinse the konbu under running water, then combine it with the water in a medium saucepan. Bring the water to a simmer over medium heat and turn off the stove. Let steep for 10 minutes.

2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the katsuo-bushi. Cover and let steep for 7 minutes.

3. Strain the dashi (discard the katsuo-bushi; if you like, keep the konbu to use as directed here) and use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to a couple days