How Japanese Dried Bonito Is Made

(kottke.org)

64 points | by bookofjoe 3 days ago

10 comments

  • ggm 5 hours ago
    In the old Tsukiji market you walked past wooden boxes of the flakes wafting gently in the breeze and saw people milling them with green enamelled powered industrial bench planes, while cooking gas powered market trolleys trundled around, with curious drum like round control panels shifting frozen tuna sides and boxes of abalone. I've never seen those motorised carts anywhere else.

    the stuff we buy in packets here in oz must suffer in transit and packaging, they are shattered fragments but they still waft gently in the steam of a bowl of salmon and rice.

    The bonito shavings reminded me of the litter around a wood turners lathe. Waste there, but here the point of the exercise.

    I think I've had them served as a garnish on Oden. They dance.

    • halflife 4 hours ago
      I was at a fish ramen place in Tokyo, they had a bonito block with a hand operated shaver, looked like a giant pencil sharpener.

      Next to the ramen they would serve the bonito flakes contained in a small net, And suggest to soak for 10 seconds, but no more than 30 because the flavor would be too intense.

  • spike021 3 hours ago
    I'm actually very curious about the process.

    I'm allergic to fish (can't eat tuna, salmon, etc.) but I can eat food made with pretty much any type of bonito-based dashi I've ever tried.

    Especially Japanese food like nabe, nikujaga, Aomori-style thick niboshi soup base ramen.

    Never really understood it.

    • rprwhite 3 hours ago
      By the sound of it, you have a protein allergy. That is, you are allergic to a specific, or set of specific, proteins. When the proteins are denatured, you seem to not be allergic. This can happen at high temperature, low pH, or sometimes through oxidation. There’s a substantial amount of research on this if you want to look it up. But, for it to be particularly constructive, first you would need to determine to which protein you are allergic
      • sudo_cowsay 2 hours ago
        I have quite a lot of allergies myself. May I ask, isn't all allergies due to the protein?
        • tux3 1 hour ago
          "Proteins" is not one thing, it's a class of many different things made from amino acids. Same as the "peptide" craze you might have heard of, except proteins are bigger.

          Antibodies don't have to bind only to proteins, it could be some lipid, carbohydrate, any molecule big enough. Most of the time it's some protein, but it's not an allergy proteins in general.

    • graemep 1 hour ago
      There are other types of dried fish from different cuisines. Sri Lankan food uses dried tuna very heavily, and some other types of dried fish in particular dishes. Might be worth trying to see whether you react to that.

      Do you react to other fish products such as south east Asian fish sauce? Salted and/or fermented fish?

    • bell-cot 3 hours ago
      > I'm allergic to fish...

      I'd guess that your allergy is to some class of proteins in the fish - and that the production steps for dried bonito (and maybe the time required) denature or destroy those proteins.

  • mrlonglong 41 minutes ago
    How did they hit upon this method? Was it an accidental discovery hundreds of years ago or was ot carefully arrived at through thinking how to make this kind of food?
  • chanux 2 hours ago
    Maldives fish is probably this but without the Japanese perfectionism.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives_fish

    PS: Still great, BTW

    • graemep 1 hour ago
      Also dried fish dishes. There is a shop near where I live in Britain (and not in a big city) that sells both, and dried shrimp.
  • adrianN 4 hours ago
    This is a very good video on the topic that shows the whole process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzULuj0wU4k (the whole series of videos is good)
  • otherayden 3 hours ago
    I've never tried dried bonito before but now I'll have to
    • nkrisc 39 minutes ago
      It’s very easy to make dashi at home with bonito and kombu (dried kelp). From there you can use it as a base for different soups or to cook with.

      There are different kinds of dashi but those are the two ingredients I use since they’re readily available and non-perishable.

  • aswegs8 3 hours ago
    Japan cultivates those oases of mindful living to the point where it feels like art. Beautiful.
  • akshayrajeshwar 3 hours ago
    Crazy how fish can look like a gem.
  • meerita 3 hours ago
    I really love Dried Bonito. It makes tasty everything.
  • avadodin 3 hours ago
    The Edo period ended in 1868 so that 1888 shop is not making them like in the Edo period any more than a shop that makes them like in the Edo period since 2017.
    • Walf 2 hours ago
      *1882

      Is this supposed to be some insightful criticism? They've been making the same product for 144 years, and managed to retain the technique from an era only 14 years prior. That's an achievement.

      If a place started doing the same in 2017, guess what, they could still make it like they did in the Edo period.

      Apart from a bit of machinery for lifting, and starting with frozen fish (which they thaw first anyway), it's basically all manual labour, including adjusting the fire temperature.

      • avadodin 2 hours ago
        It was 88 when I read it but anyways yes it is different.
        • Walf 1 hour ago
          So everyone promptly forgot how to make bonito that way because the Edo was over? Or you've studied the intricacies of bonito production by hand, and you can see all the mistakes they're making?