【Reading】きりかけづくり

【English Name】Kirikake-zukuri

Kirikake-zukuri is one of the knife techniques that applies hira-zukuri (flat cut) of sashimi. When slicing a fish with skin attached from a saku (block), it refers to a method of first making a shallow incision into the flesh, then inserting the knife at the adjacent position to cut the slice free.

There are two main reasons this technique is used. One is that, because the skin left intact repels soy sauce, making an incision allows the soy sauce to blend more easily into the flesh. The other is that it softens the unpleasant mouthfeel caused by the toughness of the skin, making it easier to eat.

It is mainly used for fish with tough skin and soft flesh, such as mackerel (saba) and bonito (katsuo). It is also suited to ingredients that are hard to bite through, such as squid (ika), and to sashimi finished with the silver skin left on, such as striped jack (shima-aji) and amberjack (kanpachi). It is also widely known as a standard technique when cutting shime-saba (vinegar-cured mackerel).

Usually a single incision is made, but for fish with many small bones or particularly tough skin, three to five incisions may be made. The same way of cutting is used for sashimi with treated skin, such as yakishimo-zukuri and yushimo-zukuri.