【Reading】ほねぎり

【English Name】Honegiri (bone scoring)

Honekiri (bone cutting) is a unique preparatory technique for handling fish with dense intermuscular bones, foremost the pike conger (hamo).

Fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes have, in addition to ribs, fine bones such as epipleural bones, epineural bones, and blood-line bones distributed radially within the muscle. The small bones of the hamo in particular are outstanding in both quantity and hardness and cannot be fully dealt with by bone tweezers. For this reason, a technique was devised in which, on the flesh opened from the belly with only a single layer of skin left, an extremely fine series of cuts is made with the knife to sever the bones.

It requires advanced skill, and a failure in the force applied turns the flesh into small fragments, becoming a cause of loss to its characteristic flavor and texture. There is an old saying that 'one is fully fledged if one can pass 26 cuts of the knife within a width of about 3 cm (one sun).' Using a specialized blade called a 'hamo-kiri bocho,' it is regarded as a representative scene in which a craftsman demonstrates his skill in the kitchen of Kyoto cuisine.

With the spread of the bone-cutting technique, the consumption of hamo in Kyoto increased greatly. Regarding its origin, there is a view that it originated in Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture, and a tradition remains that craftsmen from there brought it to Kyoto. When bone-cut hamo is passed through boiling water, the flesh curls open into a form reminiscent of peony petals, and it appears on the table under the names 'yubiki' (hot-water dipped) and 'botan hamo' (peony hamo).