Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Japan

Mefun (salted salmon kidney)めふん

Mefun is a Hokkaido shiokara made from the blood kidney that runs along the backbone of male salmon. The kidney is salted and left to mature into a black, thick paste, prized as a snack with drinks.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Mefun itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Ika no shiokara, the closest documented fish and seafood ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Mefun.

Short entryFish and seafood

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives amounts.
Blood kidney (血腸) of male salmon[s1][okazaki-hiroshima]
Salt[s1][fujii1997]

Total time across the steps of Ika no shiokara: 10 days – 30 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Squid is cut into strips and the liver is taken out

Step 1 of 4 · steps of Ika no shiokara
Cut the squid and take out the liver
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

Mefun is a Hokkaido shiokara made from the blood kidney that runs along the backbone of male salmon. The kidney is salted and left to mature into a black, thick paste, prized as a snack with drinks.

What makes this one different

Mefun is a shiokara of one organ, the salmon's blood kidney, not squid flesh and liver like ika-shiokara. It turns black and thick as it matures.

Related ferments

Safety

Mefun is raw salmon kidney that is salted and not cooked. The US FDA says brining and pickling may reduce the parasite hazard in raw fish but do not eliminate it. Its control for fish eaten without thorough cooking is freezing at −20 °C or below for 7 days. No source we found gives a salt level or curing time, so this is not a tested home method.

History and sources

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

  1. [s1] Japanese Wikipedia, めふん (fetched 2026-10-23)wiki
  2. [fujii1997] Fujii T. 1997, Suisan no hakkō shokuhin, shiokara, kusaya, funazushi, nukazuke (fermented fishery foods), Kagaku Kōgyō, February 1997 issue (mefun named as salmon-kidney shiokara)paper
  3. [okazaki-hiroshima] Okazaki H., Suisan kakō series 3, suisan kakōhin no seizō (2) (making fishery products, part 2), Hiroshima Prefecture fisheries research newsletter No. 21 (mefun named as a salmon kidney shiokara)gov
  4. [fda-guide] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 5, Parasitesgov