A juicy piece of teriyaki meat or vegetable often leaves diners licking the sticky amber sauce off their fingertips, pondering the ingredients of that sweet, salty, umami-rich sauce.

Teriyaki sauce contains three key ingredients: sugar, mirin, and soy sauce. These are added to a saucepan and simmered until the sauce thickens.

Soy sauce provides a savory, umami quality, while caramelized sugar and mirin, a sweet Japanese rice wine similar to sake, gives

the sauce its signature sweetness.