【Reading】せびらき

【English Name】Slicing a fish down its back

Sebiraki (back-opening) refers to a technique of passing the blade in from the dorsal side of the fish and spreading it open so that the left and right fillets remain connected by the single layer of belly skin. The basic motion is to slide the blade tip along both sides of the backbone, cutting and spreading from the head end toward the tail.

It is widely used in the field of seafood processing, such as for dried walleye pollock and Pacific saury products, and salt-cured mackerel products. In grilled eel (unagi kabayaki), there is a regional difference in which the Kanto style uses back-opening and the Kansai style uses belly-opening—a good example symbolizing differences in food culture.

There are several variations of the back-opening procedure.

• Suzume-biraki: a method of splitting the whole fish, including the head, into two
• Katasode-biraki: a method of spreading the fish while leaving the head on one of the fillets
• a method of processing after first cutting off the head
• a method of splitting only the back without applying the blade to the head

In contrast, "hara-biraki" (belly-opening), which cuts in from the belly side, is frequently used when making mirin-dried sardines or drying horse mackerel and mackerel. It is also a method suited to processing small fish with relatively thin belly skin. When preparing whole-fish sushi (sugata-zushi), the work of removing the backbone is incorporated into the belly-opening process.