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Fish and seafood from Japan

Kabura-zushiかぶら寿し

Kabura-zushi is a winter narezushi of the Hokuriku coast. Slices of salted yellowtail are tucked into slit rounds of salted turnip and layered with rice koji amazake, carrot, chilli and yuzu under a weight. In one to two weeks of cold fermentation, lactic acid bacteria ferment it.

Fully documentedFish and seafood54 days – 2 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAbout 20–25 pieces, from the MAFF regional recipe for Ishikawa (from a Kanazawa cookbook by Aoki Etsuko). Toyama makers add ginger and may use mackerel, salmon or trout.
Yellowtail (buri or gando)1–1.5 kgCut into blocks and heavily salted[maff-recipe]
Natural saltAs needed[maff-recipe]
Extra-large turnips10–13[maff-recipe]
Carrot1/2Cut into flower shapes and rubbed with salt[maff-recipe]
Yuzu peel, shreddedAs needed[maff-recipe]
Red chillies, seeded and sliced1–2[maff-recipe]
Rice koji1 sheet[maff-recipe]
Cooked rice2 cups[maff-recipe]
Boiling water2 cups[maff-recipe]

Total time across the recorded steps: 54 days – 2 months

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a fish

What changes: Blocks of yellowtail sit buried in salt under a weight for about 40 days

Step 1 of 6
Salt the yellowtail
Time
40 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Leuconostoc
Latilactobacillus sakei
L. gasicomitatum
L. mesenteroides
Lactic acid bacteria
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Kabura-zushi is a winter narezushi of the Hokuriku coast. Slices of salted yellowtail are tucked into slit rounds of salted turnip and layered with rice koji amazake, carrot, chilli and yuzu under a weight. In one to two weeks of cold fermentation, lactic acid bacteria ferment it. Made in 6 steps over 54 days – 2 months. The longest step, salt the yellowtail, takes 40 days (MAFF Japan). Leuconostoc (most isolates), with Latilactobacillus sakei (Lactobacillus sakei), Leuconostoc gasicomitatum and Leuconostoc mesenteroides predominant; all isolates grow at low temperature does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step40 daysReported[maff-recipe]Salt the yellowtail
Temperature50 °CReported[maff-recipe]Make amazake from rice koji and rice

What makes this one different

Kabura-zushi is a narezushi close to a pickle rather than a sushi on vinegared rice (MAFF). It uses sweet amazake koji and a vegetable, and is ready in one to two weeks (7–10 days in the Ishikawa recipe, about two weeks in Toyama).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Daikon-zushi (Ishikawa)Daikon instead of turnip, with herring instead of yellowtail.
  • Toyama kabura-zushiUses Tonami turnips over 1 kg and yellowtail or mackerel from Toyama Bay; salmon or trout in some homes.

Safety

The fermentation is short and relies on cold winter weather, so keep the finished product cold and eat it soon. Cold matters because Japan's farm ministry (MAFF) names home-made izushi and similar fermented fish among the foods most exposed to botulism, and it is eaten as it is, without heating. MAFF says the spores do not grow at pH 4.6 or lower or at 3.3 °C or colder; no source we read gives this product's pH, so the recipe is not a tested safe method. The Ishikawa product standard allows no additives except alcohol (shusei) as a seasoning and preservative.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

An Edo-period ceremonial dish of the Kaga domain, eaten to pray for good catches and safe sea travel. Turnip growing on the Tonami plain begins after the rice harvest, and making starts at the end of November.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [maff-recipe] MAFF Japan, Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, Kaburazushi (Ishikawa), recipe from Aoki Etsuko, Shin jiwamon ōkoku Kanazawa ryōrigov
  2. [maff-toyama] MAFF Japan, Traditional Foods in Japan, Kabura-zushi (Toyama)gov
  3. [ishikawa-std] Ishikawa Prefecture, Ishikawa furusato food certification standard 2-(1), Kaburazushi (1993, revised 2015)spec
  4. [maff-boto] MAFF Japan, hazard profile, Clostridium botulinum (food poisoning cases and control measures)gov
  5. [irisawa2010] Irisawa T., Tanaka N., Takano K., Okada S. 2010, Isolation and identification of lactic acid bacteria inhabited in Kaburazushi, Nippon Shokuhin Hozō Kagakkaishi (日本食品保蔵科学会誌) 36(2):83-87, technical reportpaper