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Fish and seafood from Japan

Nishin no sushi (herring narezushi, Wakasa)にしんのすし

Nishin no sushi is Fukui's herring narezushi. Dried herring is softened in rice-washing water, then layered with salted dried daikon, carrot, rice koji and chilli and pressed under a weight for two to four weeks. Lactic fermentation sours the daikon, which takes up the herring's flavour.

Fully documentedFish and seafood14 days – 28 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFour servings, from the MAFF regional recipe adapted from "Saihakken! Fukui no shoku" (Rediscover Fukui's food); recipes vary by area and household.
Daikon, thin ones, dried until they bend2[maff-recipe]
Carrots2[maff-recipe]
Dried herring (migaki nishin)500 g[maff-recipe]
Rice koji300 g (500 g also fine)[maff-recipe]
Mirin1/2 cup[maff-recipe]
Soy sauce4 tsp[maff-recipe]
Sake1/2 cup[maff-recipe]
Taka-no-tsume chilliTo taste[maff-recipe]
Salt for the daikon3 % of the daikon[maff-recipe]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (rice koji)

Total time across the recorded steps: 14 days – 28 days

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 3 %

What changes: Dried daikon is salted under a weight and gives up water

Step 1 of 5
Dry and salt the daikon under a weight
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
3 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented

Output: salted dried daikon.

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

Nishin no sushi is Fukui's herring narezushi. Dried herring is softened in rice-washing water, then layered with salted dried daikon, carrot, rice koji and chilli and pressed under a weight for two to four weeks. Lactic fermentation sours the daikon, which takes up the herring's flavour. Made in 5 steps over 14 days – 28 days. The longest step, press under a weight and ferment, takes 14–28 days (MAFF Japan). Salt is 3 % (MAFF Japan).

Key numbers
Main step14–28 daysReported[maff-recipe][maff-herring]Press under a weight and ferment
Salt3 %Reported[maff-recipe]Dry and salt the daikon under a weight

What makes this one different

Nishin no sushi is a narezushi pickled with rice koji and vegetables, and it ferments for two to four weeks. The daikon takes up the herring's flavour and grows more sour the longer it ages.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Summer nishin-zushiMade in summer with eggplant, cucumber or gourd and eaten during the autumn harvest.

Safety

The recipe keeps the layers pressed under a heavy weight. When serving, the pickling liquid is poured off into another container and returned to the tub afterwards, so the rest stays covered. Keeping air out does not stop botulism, because the bacterium grows without air. Japan's farm ministry (MAFF) names home-made izushi and similar fermented fish among the foods most exposed to it, and says the spores do not grow at pH 4.6 or lower or at 3.3 °C or colder. No source we read gives the pH of this product, so sourness alone does not show a batch is safe, and the recipe is not a tested safe method.

History and sources

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

Dried herring came to Fukui from Hokkaido on Kitamae-bune ships (mid-Edo to Meiji) through ports such as Mikuni, Kōno, Tsuruga and Obama. The Agency for Cultural Affairs listed "Wakasa region's herring narezushi" as a Hyakunen Food in 2021.

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
  1. [maff-herring] MAFF Japan, Herring narezushi (Fukui Prefecture), Traditional Foods in Japangov
  2. [maff-recipe] MAFF Japan, Uchi no kyōdo ryōri, Nishin no sushi (Fukui), recipe adapted from "Saihakken! Fukui no shoku"gov
  3. [maff-boto] MAFF Japan, hazard profile, Clostridium botulinum (food poisoning cases and control measures)gov
  4. [sato2018] Sato M., Mori E., Kishimatsu S., Tani Y. 2018, Fukui-ken no katei ryōri, shusai no tokuchō (main dishes of Fukui home cooking), Japan Society of Cookery Science annual meeting abstracts 30:226, doi:10.11402/ajscs.30.0_226 (abstract)paper