Sushi: Difference between revisions

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Sushi variations with Kanji names behind.

In Japanese cuisine, sushi (鮨 or 鮓 or, most commonly, 寿司) is a food made of vinegared rice combined with a topping or filling of fish, seafood, vegetables, or egg. The topping may be raw, cooked, or marinated; and may be served scattered in a bowl of rice, rolled in a strip of seaweed, laid onto hand-formed clumps of rice, or enclosed in a small tofu pouch.

In Japan the word sushi refers to a broad range of food prepared with rice. Outside Japan it is often taken to mean raw fish. Or it refers to just a few kinds of Japanese food, such as maki, or even to sashimi, which is seafood served without the rice.

In Japan, conveyor belt sushi restaurants are a popular way to eat sushi.

Types of sushi

The common ingredient in all the different kinds of sushi is sushi rice. Variety arises in the choice of the fillings and toppings; in the choice of the other condiments; and in the manner in which everything is put together. The same ingredients may be assembled in entirely different ways to different effect. This section lists the different ways to construct sushi, independent of the kinds of fillings and toppings.

• Makizushi (rolled sushi). 巻き寿司. A cylindrical piece, formed with the help of a woven bamboo mat, called a makisu. Makizushi is the form of sushi with which many Westerners are most familiar. Makizushi is generally wrapped in nori, a sheet of dried seaweed that encloses the rice and fillings.
  • Futomaki (large rolls). A large cylindrical piece, with the nori on the outside. Typical futomaki are a couple of centimeters thick and four or five centimeters wide. They are often made with two or three fillings.
  • Hoshimaki (thin rolls). A small cylindrical piece, with the nori on the outside. Typical hoshimaki are about two centimeters thick and two centimeters wide. They are generally made with only one filling, because there is not enough room for more than one.
  • Temaki (hand rolls). 手巻き寿司. A large cone-shaped piece, with the nori on the outside and the ingredients spilling out the wide end. A typical temaki is about ten centimeters long, and is eaten with the fingers since it is too awkward to pick up with chopsticks.
  • Urimaki (inside-out rolls). A medium-sized cylindrical piece, with two or more fillings, but the rice is on the outside and the nori within. From inside out, uramaki have the fillings, a liner of nori, a layer of rice, and a thin outer coating of some other ingredient such as roe or toasted sesame seeds.

• Oshizushi (pressed sushi). 押し寿司. A block-shaped piece formed using a wooden mold, called an oshibako. The chef lines the bottom of the oshibako with the topping, covers it with sushi rice, and presses the lid of the mold down to create a compact, rectilinear block. The block is taken from the mold and cut into bite-sized pieces.

• Nigirizushi (hand-formed sushi). 握り寿司. Small pieces nominally similar to pressed sushi or rolled sushi, but made without using a makisu or oshibako. Assembling nigirizushi is surprisingly difficult to do well. The simplest form is a small block of sushi rice with a spec of wasabi and a thin piece of topping draped over it, possibly tied up with a thin band of nori.
  • Gunkanmaki (battleship roll). A small, oval-shaped piece, similar in size and appearance to hoshimaki. A clump of rice is hand-wrapped in a strip of nori, but instead of a filling in the center, it has some ingredient—such as fish eggs—piled on top.

• Inarizushi (stuffed sushi). 稲荷寿司. A small pouch or pocket filled with sushi rice and other ingredients. The pouch is fashioned from deep-fried tofu (油揚げ or abura age), a thin omlette (fukusazushi), or cabbage leaves.

• Chirashizushi (scattered sushi). 散らし寿司. A bowl of sushi rice with the other ingredients mixed in. Also referred to as barazushi. ばら寿司.
  • Edomae chirashi zushi (Edo-style scattered sushi). Uncooked ingredients artfully arranged on top of the rice in the bowl.
  • Gomoko zushi (Kansai-style sushi). Cooked or uncooked ingredients mixed in the body of the rice in the bowl.

• Narezushi (なれ鮨) is an older form of sushi. A fish is stuffed with salt after its organs and scales are removed. These fish are placed in a wooden barrel doused with salt and weighed with a heavy tsukemonoishi or a pickling stone. They are fermented for ten days to a month. Then these fish are placed in water for 15 minutes to an hour. Fish are then placed in another barrel sandwiched and layered with cooled steamed rice and fish. Then it is again partially sealed with otosibuta and a pickling stone. As days pass, fermented water seeps through and these must be removed. Six months later, these "funazushi" can be eaten but it can be eaten for another six months or more.

References

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Urimaki

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Nigirizushi

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Futomaki

Stylized makizushi

Ingredients

File:SushiIceCloseup.jpg

Various nigiri sushi in an ice sculpture

All sushi has a base of a specially prepared rice, complemented with other ingredients.

Sushi rice

Sushi is made with a short-grained, sweet rice, different in consistency from the long-grain and Indian rice strains eaten in the West. It is seasoned with a sauce made of rice vinegar, sugar, and salt, and cooled before being used to make sushi.

Recipe: Rinse one cup of rice in cold water until the water runs clear. Combine rice, 1 1/4 cup cold water, and a small piece of dashi kombu (a type of seaweed, optional if not available) in a saucepan. Bring the water briefly to a boil, removing kombu just before the water boils. Turn the heat to low, cover the pan tightly, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the covered pan for 10 more minutes. Transfer the rice to a large wooden bowl (hangiri), and gently stir it with a wooden paddle while adding about 2 tbsp. of seasoned rice vinegar (season with just under 2 tbsp sugar and just under 1/2 tsp salt over low heat). Stir until rice has cooled to about body temperature and looks shiny. Cover rice with a damp towel, and use within one day.

Seaweed (nori)

Sushi rice being rolled into nori

Sushi rice being rolled into nori

The seaweed wrappers used in maki and temaki are made of a cultivated sea vegetable known as nori. Originally, this plant was scraped from dock pilings, rolled out into sheets, and dried in the sun. Today, it is farmed and industrially produced, and sold pre-cut in neat, ready-to-use squares.

Toppings and fillings

• Fish

For both sanitary and aesthetic reasons, fish eaten raw must be fresher and higher quality than cooked fish. A professional sushi chef is trained to recognize good fish, which smells clean, has a vivid color, and is free from harmful parasites. Only ocean fish are used raw in sushi; freshwater fish, which are more likely to harbor parasites, are cooked.

Commonly-used fish are tuna, yellowtail, salmon, snapper, bonito and mackerel. The most prized sushi ingredient is known as toro, a fatty, marbled cut of tuna.

• Seafood

Other seafoods are squid, octopus, shrimp, eel, fish roe, sea urchin (uni), and various kinds of shellfish.

• Vegetables

Pickled daikon radish, fermented soybeans (natto), avocado, cucumber, tofu, pickled plum.

• Red meat

Beef and ham.

• Other fillings

Eggs (in the form of a slightly sweet, layered omelet), raw quail eggs.

Condiments

• Shō-yu. しょうゆ, or 醤油, 正油. Soy sauce.
• Wasabi. Green horseradish paste.
• Gari. Sweet, pickled ginger
• Shiso
• Mirin

History

Although sushi is the archetypical food of Japan, it originated in China.

Chinese origins

Sushi is made up of three simple ingredients; rice, rice vinegar, and fish. So one would think that the cultivation of rice was necessary, however, the history of sushi begins before rice. The first "sushi or 鮨" might have been a salt pickled pork.

The first use of "鮨" appeared in the oldest Chinese dictionary "爾雅" believed to be written in 3rd or 4th century BC. It is explained as "魚謂之鮨 肉謂之醢", literally "Those made with fish (are called) 鮨, those made with meat (are called) 醢". "醢" is a sauce made from minced pork and "鮨" is a sauce made from minced fish. The Chinese character "鮨" is believed to have a much earlier origin, but this is the earliest recorded instance of that character being associated with food. "鮨" was not associated with rice.

Five hundred years later, in 2nd century AD, "鮓" appeared in another Chinese dictionary: "鮓滓也 以塩米醸之加葅 熟而食之也", which translates as "鮓滓 is a food where fish is pickled by rice and salt, which is eaten when it is ready". This food is believed to be similar to Narezushi or Funazushi and was eaten after removing the rice.

A century later, the meaning of the two characters had become confused and by the time these two characters arrived in Japan, the Chinese themselves did not distinguish between them. The Chinese had stopped using rice as a part of fermentation process, and then stopped eating pickled fish altogether. By Ming dynasty, "鮨" and "鮓" had disappeared from Chinese cuisine.

Sushi in Japan

The earliest reference to sushi in Japan appeared in 718 in the set of laws called Yororituryo (養老律令). As an example of tax paid by actual items, it is written down as "雑鮨五斗 (about 64 liters of zakonosushi or zatsunosushi?)". However, there is no way to know what this "sushi" was or even how it was pronounced. By the 9th and 10th century "鮨" and "鮓" are read as "sushi" or "sashi". These "sushi" or "sashi" were similar to today's Narezushi.

For almost the next 800 years, until the early 19th century, sushi slowly changed and the Japanese cuisine changed as well. The Japanese started eating three meals a day, rice was boiled instead of steamed, and most important of all, rice vinegar was invented. The time of fermentation gradually decreased and rice could be eaten as well. Soon, Oshizushi was made by using vinegar and skipping the fermentation process. This new process gradually took shape in the Muromachi Period. In the Azuchi-Momoyama Period, namanari was invented. A 1603 Japanese-Portuguese dictionary had an entry of namanrina sushi, literally half-made sushi. The namanari was fermented for a shorter period than the narezushi and possibly marinated with rice vinegar. It still had the distinctive smell of narezushi.

The smell of narezushi was likely one of the reasons for shortening and eventually skipping the fermentation process. It is commonly described as "a cross between blue cheese, fish, and rice vinegar". A story from Konjakumonogatarisyu written in early 12th century makes it clear that it was not an attractive smell, even if it tasted good: A man who had been visiting a friend in Kyoto got on a horse to go home. A drunken female street vendor sleeping nearby woke up startled, became dizzy, and vomited on a bowl of narezushi she had been selling. Instead of throwing it away or trying to scoop out the vomit, she quickly mixed it into the narezushi. Seeing this, the man pointed out that narezushi was like a pile of spit to begin with, and those who bought it often had probably often eaten other unintended ingredients. From this point on, the man would tell any one who would listen to him to not to buy narezushi from anyone or any store.

From oshizushi to sushi

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In the early 18th century, oshizushi was perfected in Osaka and it came to Edo by the middle of 18th century. These sushi were sold to customers, but because they still required a little fermentation time, stores hung a notice and posters to customers on when to come for a sushi. Sushi was also sold near a park during a hanami period and a theater as a type of Bento. Inarizushi was sold along oshizushi. Makizushi and Chirasizushi also became popular in Edo period.

There were three famous sushi restaurants in Edo, Matsugasushi (松が鮓), Koube (興兵衛), and Kenukisushi (毛抜き) but there were thousands more sushi restaurants. They were established in a span of barely twenty years at the start of the 19th century. Nigirizushi was an instant hit and it spread through Edo like wildfire. In the book Morisadamanko (守貞謾稿) published in 1852, the author writes that for a cho(100 by 100 meters or 10,000 square meter) section of Edo there were twelve sushi restaurants, but that only one soba restaurant could be found in 12 cho. This means that there were nearly 150 sushi restaurants for every soba restaurant.

These early nigirizushi were not identical to today's varieties. Fish meat was marinated in soy sauce or vinegar or heavily salted so there was no need to dip into soy sauce. Some fish was cooked before it was put onto a sushi. This was partly out of necessity as there were no refrigerators. Each piece was also larger, almost the size of two pieces of today's sushi.

Guinness World Records

1. January 1992. A 715-lb blue fin tuna sold for $83,500 (almost $117 / lb) in Tokyo, Japan. The tuna was reduced to 2,400 servings of sushi for wealthy diners at $75 per serving. The estimated takings from this one fish were $180,000. That was the first record for "Most Expensive Fish".
2. October 12, 1997: The longest sushi roll. Six hundred members of the Nikopaka Festa Committee made a kappamaki (cucumber roll) that was 3,279 ft. long at Yoshii, Japan.

External links

• Sushi recipes
• The Sushi Chronicles
• How many calories are in sushi?