【Reading】づけ

【English Name】Zuke / pickled in soy sauce

Soaking the flesh of seafood in a sauce based mainly on soy sauce—this is the basis of zuke. It is a technique created as a preservation method to protect freshness in an era when the means of refrigeration and freezing were not sufficiently developed.

Before the appearance of nigiri-zushi, the marinating of fish centered on a lineage represented by "narezushi," which used salt and rice. With the spread of nigiri-zushi, soaking in dashi soy sauce became widely established.

The components of the sauce are soy sauce, kelp, sake, mirin, and so on. As one example of the procedure, thinly sliced fish and kelp are layered within soy sauce blended with sake and left to rest for about 10–15 minutes to finish. If you want to draw out the umami of the kelp even more, it is effective to soak kelp in the soy sauce beforehand to infuse the aroma.

Tuna is the most familiar topping, but it can also be applied to red-fleshed fish in general, such as bonito, Pacific saury, and horse mackerel. For fish with a distinctive odor, it is also good to adjust the aroma with condiments such as ginger and garlic.

Famous as a local specialty is the "shima-zushi" of the Izu Islands, a fine example of sushi that makes use of zuke. Looking overseas, Hawaii's "poke" is a style that dresses fish with sesame oil and soy sauce, and is enjoyed as a dish akin to zuke.

Today it has become established mainly as a seasoning technique to spread umami throughout the ingredient, and is hardly ever used for the purpose of preservation. Marinated fish is said to be best eaten within a day—preferably within a few hours.