【Reading】みそづけ

【English Name】Misozuke (miso marinade)

Miso-zuke is an age-old Japanese technique that combines seasoning and preservation by immersing ingredients such as vegetables, fish, and meat in miso. In the realm of sushi, "saikyo-zuke," in which fish is prepared with Saikyo miso, is widely cherished as the representative example.

In the old days it was a simple method of merely burying ingredients directly in miso, but this had the drawback of excessive saltiness; in today's commercial products, a low-salt specification keeping salt to about 5% has become standard. In the manufacturing process, salt-cured vegetables are first desalted, then immersed in a sweet pickling bed to which amino acid solution and the like have been added to miso, soy sauce, and sugar.

Ingredients suited to home use include daikon, carrot, burdock, cucumber, and ginger, and the basic procedure is to drive off moisture by sun-drying or shade-drying before pickling.

At sushi restaurants, preparation that imparts the flavor of miso to white-fleshed fish or salmon is sometimes carried out. Also, tofu or egg yolk sunk into a miso bed is highly popular as a standard accompaniment to sake.