【Reading】づけTuna

【English Name】Zuke Tuna (Soy-Marinated Tuna)

Zuke-maguro (zuke) refers to a traditional Edomae sushi topping made by marinating lean tuna (akami) in a soy-sauce-based seasoning liquid. It was devised as a way to maintain freshness in an era when refrigeration did not exist, and can be called the origin of nigiri sushi.

When soy sauce became widespread in the mid-Edo period, soy-sauce marinating was devised as a preservation method for tuna, which loses freshness easily. During the Tenpo era (1830s), street-stall sushi shops blanched tuna and then marinated it in soy sauce, serving it as nigiri sushi to great acclaim. This established it as a topping symbolizing Edomae sushi.

Cooking styles in modern sushi restaurants are diverse, ranging from long marinating to give the flesh a sticky texture, to short-time zuke where sliced flesh is soaked for just a few minutes, to methods that involve a yushimo (hot-water scalding) treatment before marinating; each shop has its own technique. The umami of soy sauce permeates the lean tuna, giving it a concentrated flavor distinct from raw sashimi.

Note that fatty toro portions are considered unsuitable for zuke because they tend to repel the soy sauce. It has been handed down to this day as a craft unique to lean tuna.