|
Post by kazuyama on Jan 3, 2011 21:28:37 GMT -5
Silly question, had a debate with a few friends and a question got raised that I have no clue about. Did they ever smoke fish in period Japan? My guess is no, but I could see it being used for preserving.
|
|
laurentk
New Member
The smallest things can be surprising.
Posts: 59
|
Post by laurentk on Jan 4, 2011 8:00:26 GMT -5
Maybe.
According to the Tokyo Foundation (http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/topics/japanese-traditional-foods/vol.-15-dried-bonito) bonito, or katsuobushi, first used smoke drying in 1674.
I wonder if smoking was an imported technique.
|
|
|
Post by kazuyama on Jan 4, 2011 14:16:09 GMT -5
Interesting. A pretty far cry from my persona which is early Kamakura era, but still pretty interesting. I found a great recipe, but it calls for smoked fish, so I may end up making a substitute, or digging further to find out if smoking fish was period. My frustration with these kinds of things is that my searches for traditional or feudal era food always comes up with sushi and tempera items. Any suggestions for finding more period recipes?
|
|
laurentk
New Member
The smallest things can be surprising.
Posts: 59
|
Post by laurentk on Jan 4, 2011 14:30:42 GMT -5
The funny thing about tempera--according to Alton Brown--is that it was brought in by the Portugese missionaries. They promoted it as a way of handling certain Catholic diet/fasting restrictions.
Based on the extremely few websites I've found that talk about smoking, it *appears* to come into culinary play after the Portugese show up, and that leads me to the assumption that it is an imported technique.
I did find one brief reference that something like a non-smoked katsuobushi (dried, salted fish) shows up in the Muromachi period.
|
|
Saionji Shonagon
New Member
One dreamed of becoming somebody. Another remained awake and became. (Found in a fortune cookie.)
Posts: 7,240
|
Post by Saionji Shonagon on Jan 4, 2011 14:50:29 GMT -5
Any suggestions for finding more period recipes? Leave the internet, where article parrots article, frequently without indicating sources? There's a newish book out by Eric Rath called Japanese Foodways, Past and Present, and another titled Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan, both of which sound interesting. (I wishlisted both of them before the holidays, but my family opted to heap Kurosawa movies upon me instead.) Smoking as a preservation method may simply not have occurred to the Japanese until it was introduced from outside. They did, however, use a method also found in Southeast Asia, which is the forerunner of what we now call sushi. Narezushi involves salting fish and packing it in rice to ferment for a few months. The rice would be discarded once the fish was needed. Evidently a form of this this is still done in Shiga prefecture in which the fish may ferment for several years before consumption. (Andrew Zimmern pronounced it pretty foul, so I suspect it's an acquired taste.) Sushi (which actually refers to the rice) substituted rice vinegar and a shorter fermentation time. Eventually the fermentation part of the process fell by the wayside.
|
|
|
Post by kazuyama on Jan 4, 2011 18:08:05 GMT -5
I knew that about Tempura, but had no clue it was to help with the Catholic diet. Now that is interesting! Thanks for the reference, I'm going to search out those books and see about grabbing one or both. One of the things I enjoy the most about camping with the SCA is the cooking, and I'd like to work on making my cooking a bit more period.
|
|
|
Post by Please Delete on Jan 6, 2011 1:54:34 GMT -5
I'm currently in the "probably not" camp regarding smoking. They dried a lot of fish, but I don't recall reading much about smoking. Fresh, grilled, simmered, steamed, fermented, rendered... but not smoked.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2013 15:36:32 GMT -5
Dried, salted, cured, yes. Smoked? Absolutley, altough, not eaten straight! Here's how Katsuo-bushi is made : take S. Scombrinae (typical bonito) then slice it "Sanmai Oroshi." Then, boil it for a couple of hours. After the boiling, rapidly cool it! The next couple of days, smoke it, and then dry it, until rock-hard. Shave off the fat, dry in the sun, and then let mold grow on it (no joke; white mold is ideal, green mold means the bonito id too watery, and yellow means it is too acidic.) So smoking fish IS very Japanese! They just dont really eat it srait, and when they do, they shave it very fine to stuff in Onigiri, or top Aemono/Sunomono salads!
|
|
|
Post by Sō Haruko on Jan 18, 2013 17:40:04 GMT -5
Smoked katsuo-bushi is not period. I refer you to _The History and Culture of Japanese Food_ by Naomichi Ishige, page 221:
"Katsuo-bushi has long been used as an ingredient of dashi. In olden times, it was made by boning the bonito, boiling it, and then drying it first over a fire of rice straw and then in the sun. Around 1670 the process was improved by adding the steps of wood-smoking to impart fragrance, and finally the cultivation of mould on the surface of the dried fish."
I believe the smoking technique actually originated in the Caribbean, and was disseminated world-wide through the Portuguese.
That said: katsuo-bushi is delicious, and it's a lot of effort to make that at home. If you like it, use it. I'm no stickler for a period bento lunch myself (says she who makes bacon onigiri), unless you're planning on entering it in an A&S competition or somesuch.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2013 20:52:25 GMT -5
Haruko San,
So that's how they did it in the bygone era, eh? Interesting.
But I must ask, bacon in onigiri? ...not as wierd as anchovies and cream cheese. (I've heard of someone doing that)
|
|
|
Post by Yawata Saburou Tadamori on Feb 11, 2013 4:34:32 GMT -5
Oh no, I could totally see anchovies and cream cheese, the saltiness of the anchovies would very much enhance the cream cheese.
|
|
|
Post by Sō Haruko on Feb 11, 2013 18:22:48 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by yamashita on Aug 18, 2014 0:26:50 GMT -5
Holy CRAP....
|
|