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Fish and seafood from Japan

Kurozukuri黒作り

Kurozukuri is Toyama's black shiokara. Skinned Japanese flying squid is sliced thin and mixed with its salted liver and its ink, then stirred once a day while it ages in the refrigerator. It once aged for about a month with more salt; today's milder kind is ready in one to two weeks.

Fully documentedFish and seafood24 h – 30 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe MAFF regional recipe for Toyama, for 4 people. It is a quick home version that is ready after two nights in the refrigerator.
Japanese flying squid (surume-ika)1Skinned; liver and ink sac kept[maff-recipe]
Salt100 g or moreMostly for the liver; a little on the body[maff-recipe]

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 30 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a fish

What changes: Salt draws water from the squid liver overnight in the cold

Step 1 of 4
Skin the squid; salt the body lightly and the liver heavily, chill overnight
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Salting the liver draws out its water, which keeps the shiokara from smelling fishy.

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

Kurozukuri is Toyama's black shiokara. Skinned Japanese flying squid is sliced thin and mixed with its salted liver and its ink, then stirred once a day while it ages in the refrigerator. It once aged for about a month with more salt; today's milder kind is ready in one to two weeks. Made in 4 steps over 24 h – 30 days. The longest step, age in the refrigerator, stirring once a day, takes 24 h – 30 days (MAFF Japan) and runs at 10 °C (Yokoi K 2013). Salt is 6 % (Yokoi K 2013). Staphylococcus saprophyticus dominant in a sample thought close to the traditional type, with Latilactobacillus sakei and Weissella paramesenteroides dominant in a lactic-type sample, with Tetragenococcus halophilus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 30 daysReported[maff-tf][maff-recipe]Age in the refrigerator, stirring once a day
Temperature10 °CReported[yokoi2013]Age in the refrigerator, stirring once a day
Salt6 %Reported[yokoi2013]Age in the refrigerator, stirring once a day

What makes this one different

Ordinary red shiokara (akazukuri) is squid ripened with its liver. Kurozukuri adds the ink, which turns it black and gives it a milder smell.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Hotaruika kurozukuriFirefly squid from Toyama Bay.

Safety

The ink is said to help preserve it, but the modern product is less salty than the old style, so keep it refrigerated and eat it soon.

History and sources

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

Said to date from the Genroku era; by the Kyōhō era it was made as it is today. A Kaga lord offered it to the shogunate as a Toyama specialty, and a letter of 1808 (Bunka 5) in the Kirisawa library at Namerikawa names it. In the 1990s most of the 300 tons of shiokara made each year in Toyama was kurozukuri.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [maff-tf] MAFF Japan, Traditional Foods in Japan, Kurozukuri (Toyama)gov
  2. [maff-recipe] MAFF Japan, Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, Kurozukuri (Toyama), recipegov
  3. [toyama-fri] Toyama Prefectural Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Research Center, Food Research Institute, Idenshi kaiseki ni yoru ika kurozukuri no kinsō no kaimei (microbiota of squid kurozukuri by 16S clone library analysis), research summary sheetgov
  4. [yokoi2013] Yokoi K., Taketo A., Kodaira K. 2013, The microflora of modern ika-kurozukuri, salted squid with ink and liver, Food Science and Technology Research 19(4):711-715 (abstract)paper
  5. [ishikawa-std] Ishikawa Prefecture, Ishikawa furusato food certification standard 1-(8), Ika no shiokara (defines kurozukuri as squid body with salt, liver and ink, fermented and ripened)spec