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Fish and seafood from Japan

Etari no shiokaraエタリの塩辛

Etari no shiokara is whole Japanese anchovy salted and ripened with its guts, a winter food of the Shimabara peninsula. Fishing households mix the fish quickly with salt around the autumn equinox, pack it in a barrel under rice straw and a stone, and eat it after about a month.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Etari no shiokara itself.

Short entryFish and seafood30 days – 3 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe ratio of 5–7 parts anchovy to 1 part salt is from a fishing household interviewed by a marine-science researcher; it is not given as weight or volume.
Fresh large anchovy, washed in seawater5–7 parts[osako2013a]
Salt1 part[osako2013a]

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 3 months

Start
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What changes: The fresh anchovies are washed in seawater

Step 1 of 4
Wash the anchovy in seawater
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: washed whole anchovy.

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

Etari no shiokara is whole Japanese anchovy salted and ripened with its guts, a winter food of the Shimabara peninsula. Fishing households mix the fish quickly with salt around the autumn equinox, pack it in a barrel under rice straw and a stone, and eat it after about a month. Made in 4 steps over 30 days – 3 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days – 3 months (Osako K. (Tokyo University of Marine Science…). Probably yeasts, seen as a white powder on the fish at ripeness (the author's guess); proteases from the fish's own guts also drive the ripening does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[osako2013a]Ripen

What makes this one different

The anchovies ripen whole, guts and all, so, the author suggests, their gut enzymes speed the ripening to about a month.

Fat
About 7 % fat, yet the author found no rancid smell.
Amino acids
Free amino acids were on average 5 times those of the raw fish; glutamic acid rose about 10-fold.

Related ferments

Safety

The author's newspaper column gives about 15 % salt and a plate count of at most 800 bacteria per gram in the 10 products he tested. It gives no histamine figure. Anchovy can form histamine (scombrotoxin) if the fish spoils. The FDA says cooking does not remove it and the fish may look and smell normal.

History and sources

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

Made by fishing households of the Tachibana Bay coast. Output has fallen as large anchovies have become scarce and buyers prefer less salt.

  1. [osako2013a] Osako K. (Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology) 2013, Etari no shiokara (1), column in Minato Shimbun, 28 June 2013, posted on the author's university pagesother
  2. [osako2013b] Osako K. 2013, Etari no shiokara (2), column in Minato Shimbun, 11 July 2013, posted on the author's university pagesother
  3. [wiki-shiokara] Wikipedia (Japanese), 塩辛 (lists etari no shiokara as a local dish of Unzen, Nagasaki; outline only)wiki
  4. [fda-bbb] US FDA 2012, Bad Bug Book, Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins, 2nd ed., scombrotoxin chapter (used for safety only)gov