【Reading】しんまい

【English Name】New Crop Rice

Shinmai (new rice) refers to that year's rice that reaches the market after the autumn harvest. Rice for which one year has passed since harvest is called komai (old rice), and from the second year onward it is distinguished by stacking the character for "old," as in ko-komai.

There is no official line dividing the two. Taking the rice crop year (November to the following October) as the standard, November 1 each year becomes the boundary. Also, under the quality labeling standards of the JAS Law, only products whose milling and packaging are completed by the last day of December of the harvest year are permitted to be sold labeled "new rice." As a result, products bearing this label appear on store shelves only until around the following spring.

Freshly harvested rice contains abundant moisture, producing a distinctive stickiness and luster when cooked. On the other hand, not a few artisans deliberately choose old rice for sushi shari. Making use of old rice's property of excellent vinegar penetration, many restaurants also prepare shari by blending it with new rice.

If low-temperature management is thoroughly maintained, even old rice tends not to show a large difference in quality for about one year after harvest. However, once two years are exceeded, decomposition of fatty acids progresses, and a distinctive smell called "komai-shu" (old-rice odor) arises, leading to a decline in taste.

As an aside, there is also an idiom that expresses inexperienced people or newcomers as "shinmai." The origin is said to be that the new apron worn by an apprentice in an Edo-period merchant house was called "shinmaekake," which after being abbreviated to "shinmae" later shifted in sound to "shinmai." The general view is that it is not a word derived from the grain rice, but rather has a separate origin.