Koji is a specific mold grown on a starch medium that can make food extraordinarily tasty if you simply mix a few ingredients together and wait. Alchemy is a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way.

You may not know what koji is, but you’re intrigued by what you’ve heard it can do. Maybe you’ve been told that it smells like the most intoxicating combination of grapefruit, chestnuts, honeysuckle, and mushrooms. It may sound hard to believe, and you want to taste what’s actually possible. Well, it’s likely you already have. You probably even have a bottle of it in your pantry right now. We’re talking about soy sauce, a widely enjoyed condiment that is part of the common culinary language practically everywhere in the world, a familiar friend and a known tasty quantity that you’ve been dipping dumplings and sushi in longer than you can remember. Let’s not forget the countless splashes you’ve added to marinades as a tried-and-true accent to make whatever you grill, sauté, or roast shine. As delicious as soy sauce is, it only scratches the surface of what can be done with koji.

To help make it easier to understand in application, we like to describe koji as a seasoning. Consider salt—the most basic seasoning that makes everything taste better. We’ve all experienced food that lacks the right amount—and we also quickly understand when there’s too much. Think about a tomato at peak ripeness to be sliced and eaten. Now remember when you tasted the mind-blowing flavor of that tomato when you sprinkled a touch of salt over it; it’s possible you can’t imagine eating it any other way. The same goes for the primary driver of koji, umami (flavor body). Have you ever tried making a sauce without the bits of meat stuck to the pan after searing, aged cheese, mushrooms, tomato, seaweed, miso, or the like? The results will be missing depth of flavor, one that cannot be realized without amino acids, the fundamental components of proteins.