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Fish and seafood from Japan

Shutō酒盗

Shutō is the stomach and intestines of skipjack tuna, washed, packed in salt and left to ferment and ripen for half a year to more than a year. Kōchi has made it for at least 300 years, and the name, "sake thief", says it makes the sake disappear.

Fully documentedFish and seafood6 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe tradition has no published fixed amounts; makers set their own salt level, and lower-salt products are also sold (MAFF).
Fresh skipjack tuna viscera (stomach, intestines and the organ where they meet)[maff-shuto]
Salt[maff-shuto]

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 months

Start
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What changes: The fresh stomach and intestines of skipjack tuna are washed well

Step 1 of 4
Wash the fresh viscera
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Shutō is the stomach and intestines of skipjack tuna, washed, packed in salt and left to ferment and ripen for half a year to more than a year. Kōchi has made it for at least 300 years, and the name, "sake thief", says it makes the sake disappear. Made in 4 steps over 6 months. The longest step, ferment and ripen, takes at least 6 months (MAFF Japan).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 6 monthsReported[maff-shuto]Ferment and ripen

What makes this one different

Shutō uses the bonito's guts alone, while shiokara uses flesh and guts together. It also ripens far longer, 10 to 13 months against 10 to 20 days (MAFF).

Salt in a commercial katsuo shiokara (1955)
14.0 % salt and 89.3 mg volatile basic nitrogen in one commercial katsuo (skipjack) shiokara analysed in 1955. The paper does not say whether it was made from guts only, so this is not shutō's own figure.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Amakuchi (sweet) shutōA lower-salt kind made for modern tastes (MAFF).
  • Shutō from other fishSome makers use tuna or sea bream guts, or add chilli or yuzu (MAFF).

Safety

Heavy salt and the long ripening preserve shutō. Anisakis larvae can live in skipjack and are not killed by salting as used in ordinary cooking. We read no test of shutō's long salt cure. MHLW advises not eating raw viscera, and freezing at −20 °C for 24 hours or more, or heating to 70 °C or above, to kill them. Shutō is itself raw viscera, and no step on this page freezes or heats it. Skipjack is a tuna, a fish FAO and WHO name for histamine poisoning. Histamine can form during salting and fermenting, and heat does not remove it (FDA). The FDA also says botulism spores live in fish viscera and advises gutting fish before salting or fermenting. This product is made of those viscera, so it depends on heavy salt, and no source here shows a lower-salt home version is safe.

History and sources

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

Thought to have begun around the Enpō era (1673–1681), when katsuobushi making was improved. The name is said to come from the 12th Tosa lord, Yamauchi Toyosuke, who found that with it the sake vanished as if stolen (MAFF).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [maff-shuto] MAFF Japan, Nippon dentōshoku zukan, 酒盗 (Kōchi)gov
  2. [tomiyasu1955] Tomiyasu Y., Toyomizu M., Takahashi K. 1955, On the existence of an antibiotic substance in katsuo- and uni-shiokara, Journal of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University 15(1):47-52paper
  3. [maff-shiokara] MAFF Japan, Nippon dentōshoku zukan, 塩辛 (Miyagi), which compares shiokara and shutōgov
  4. [mhlw-anisakis] MHLW Japan, アニサキスによる食中毒を予防しましょう (Preventing Anisakis food poisoning)gov
  5. [fao-histamine] FAO 2013, Public health risks of histamine and other biogenic amines from fish and fishery products (highlights of the FAO/WHO expert meeting)gov
  6. [fda-ch7] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  7. [fda-ch13] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13: Clostridium botulinum Toxin Formationgov