【Reading】さいきょうづけ

【English Name】Saikyo-zuke (Saikyo miso marinade)

Saikyo-zuke is a type of miso pickling, widely known as a cooking method in which fish is marinated in miso. While miso-zuke refers broadly to anything—vegetables, meat, fish, and so on—pickled in miso, saikyo-zuke is a method used specifically for seafood.

The "Saikyo" in the name means Kyoto, and Kyoto-produced white sweet miso (Saikyo miso) is used as the pickling bed. Compared with ordinary miso, Saikyo miso has a lower salt content and stronger sweetness, and is said to impart an elegant flavor to the fish.

Representative ingredients commonly used include sablefish (gindara), Japanese Spanish mackerel (sawara), and salmon (sake). The basic way to eat the marinated fish is to remove it from the miso bed and grill it; because miso scorches easily, a key culinary point is to wipe it off carefully before grilling.

At sushi restaurants, fish prepared as saikyo-zuke is sometimes seared and formed into nigiri, allowing one to enjoy a distinctive flavor combining the sweetness of the miso with the fragrance of the searing.