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Fish and seafood from Japan

Narezushi (Mie, nama-nare)なれずし

Mie's narezushi is fish salted for about a month, washed free of most salt and packed with soft cooked rice in a weighted, water-sealed barrel. Lactic bacteria sour the fish and rice in a few weeks to a few months. Every Mie narezushi is the short nama-nare type, eaten rice and all.

Fully documentedFish and seafood50 days – 4 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne barrel, from the East Kishu recipe supplied by the Mie Food Culture Research Group (Mie Shokubunka Kenkyūkai) to MAFF; each area of Mie makes it differently.
Fish (ayu, saury or mackerel in East Kishu)50[maff-recipe]
Rice, cooked with kombu to a firm porridge2.5 shōAbout twice the usual water[maff-recipe]
Salt for the first saltingAs needed[maff-recipe]
Urajiro and shukusha leavesAs neededWashed and wiped with sake; urajiro lines each layer[maff-recipe]
Sake, sprinkled on each layer and used to wipe the barrelAs needed[maff-recipe]

Total time across the recorded steps: 50 days – 4 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a fishSalt 23.2 %

What changes: Packed in plenty of salt, the fish lose water for about a month

Step 1 of 6
Salt the fish heavily
Time
30 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
23.2 %
Measured
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Latilactobacillus sakei
Pediococcus pentosaceus
Lactococcus piscium
Leuconostoc gelidum
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: salted fish.

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

Mie's narezushi is fish salted for about a month, washed free of most salt and packed with soft cooked rice in a weighted, water-sealed barrel. Lactic bacteria sour the fish and rice in a few weeks to a few months. Every Mie narezushi is the short nama-nare type, eaten rice and all. Made in 6 steps over 50 days – 4 months. The longest step, ferment, takes 20 days – 3 months (MAFF Japan). Salt is 23.2 % (Mizutani R 1998). Latilactobacillus sakei, 61 % of bacterial clones in Mie konoshiro narezushi and Latilactobacillus sakei, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Lactococcus piscium and Leuconostoc gelidum, the main lactic bacteria in mackerel narezushi from Kihō, East Kishu do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step20 days – 3 monthsReported[maff-recipe][maff-narezushi]Ferment
Salt23.2 %Measured[mizutani1998]Salt the fish heavily
AciditypH 5.1 → 4.1Measured[mizutani1998]Ferment

What makes this one different

Mie narezushi is all nama-nare, fermented for weeks to a few months so the rice is eaten too, unlike the year-long hon-nare of Shiga funazushi. Each area uses its own fish and extras.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ise styleKoji mixed into the cooked rice; ayu, sea bream or horse mackerel.
  • Tsu and Iga styleYuzu added when packing; konoshiro in Iga.
  • Kuwana styleGinger added; konoshiro.
  • East Kishu sanma narezushiSaury packed from early December; household batches after New Year take about three weeks.

Safety

Japan's farm ministry (MAFF) names izushi and similar home-fermented fish as a main source of botulism in Japan, and izushi is a kind of narezushi. Here the salt is largely washed out before the fish goes in, and the water seal keeps air out. Ise ayu-zushi packed in winter and kept at room temperature measured pH 5.10 after 38 days and 4.10 after 65 days, while Clostridium botulinum needs about pH 4.6 or lower to stop growing. Normal cooking does not kill its spores; MAFF gives 120 °C for 4 minutes. MAFF tells people making izushi at home to take care, so read this page as a record of the tradition, not as tested instructions for making it at home. Once the barrel is opened the sourness rises day by day, so it is eaten quickly.

History and sources

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

Narezushi is thought to have come to Japan with rice farming. The rice was first thrown away; in the Muromachi period the shorter nama-nare, eaten with its rice, appeared and led to today's sushi. East Kishu households pack batches in early January, February and March and open the last around 20 March.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [maff-narezushi] MAFF Japan, Narezushi (Mie Prefecture), Nippon dentōshoku zukan (Traditional Foods in Japan)gov
  2. [maff-recipe] MAFF Japan, Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, Narezushi (Mie), East Kishu recipe supplied by the Mie Food Culture Research Groupgov
  3. [mizutani1998] Mizutani R., Kubo S., Matsumoto A., Narita M. 1998, Ayuzushi no jukusei-chū no seibun henka (changes in components of ayu-zushi during maturation), Journal of Cookery Science of Japan 31(3):192–197, doi:10.11402/cookeryscience1995.31.3_192 (abstract)paper
  4. [isobe2011] Isobe Y., Saka E., Matsui H., Narita M. 2011, 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis of the bacterial community in konoshiro narezushi from Mie Prefecture (title translated), Journal of Home Economics of Japan 62(10):633–637, doi:10.11428/jhej.62.633 (abstract)paper
  5. [isobe2006] Isobe Y., Tsuchiya R., Saka E., Matsui H., Narita M. 2006, Microbial flora of narezushi in Mie Prefecture, Japan Society of Home Economics annual meeting abstracts 58:210, doi:10.11428/kasei.58.0.210.0 (abstract)paper
  6. [maff-boto] MAFF Japan, hazard profile, Clostridium botulinum (food poisoning cases and control measures)gov
  7. [maff-izushi] MAFF Japan, Nippon traditional food guide, izushi (飯寿司)gov