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Maguro (Tuna) Sushi II- Everyday Edition

Maguro (Tuna)

Red Fish

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Order Perciformes, Family Scombridae, Genus Thunnus

The eight species of the genus Thunnus are divided into five species of the bluefin group and three species of the yellowfin group. Five of them—the bigeye and albacore of the bluefin group, and the yellowfin, longtail, and Atlantic tuna of the yellowfin group—are known as everyday tuna.

In Japan, "maguro" usually means bigeye tuna. A medium-sized fish of about 2 m, it is the foremost of the everyday tuna. It is abundant in warm seas worldwide and is characterized by a stocky body, large eyes, and long fins. It is mostly lean, but chutoro can also be taken, and the fatty part surrounding the internal organs is sometimes called otoro. The tuna at conveyor-belt sushi is mainly bigeye, but most of it is frozen; fresh bigeye is a premium product on par with bluefin. Albacore was once used for canning and was rarely used as a sushi topping or sashimi—the most everyday of the everyday tuna. A small fish of about 1 m called "bincho," it is cheap even in its winter season, but its fatty belly meat is called "bintoro" and is now a popular item at conveyor-belt sushi. The flesh is a whitish pink, sweet from the soaked-in fat. Because it is somewhat watery, it is often served half-thawed at conveyor-belt sushi and the like. The yellowfin tuna, foremost of the yellowfin group, is a medium-sized species that prefers tropical waters, with yellow stripes on its sides and, as its name suggests, yellow fins as well. Its flesh has no part equivalent to toro and little fat. Its color is a pale pink, and for its well-balanced acidity and light, refined flavor with little fat, it was prized in western Japan under the name "honhatsu" (meaning honmaguro). Along with albacore, it is a raw material for canned tuna; it is the most consumed in the world, and is the world's everyday tuna. The longtail tuna, which has a more slender body than other species and prefers tropical waters, is a small species of about 60 cm to 1 m. It is mainly used for processing, but with its refined flavor of light sweetness and acidity, some sushi chefs use it as a sushi topping. The Atlantic tuna, the most obscure of the eight species in Japan, lives, as its name suggests, in the western Atlantic and is the smallest species in the genus Thunnus, at about 1 m. Its back and fins are black, and it has yellow stripes on the sides of its body. It is popular among anglers in Europe and America, and is called kurohire (blackfin) in Japan.

Bintoro and chutoro at conveyor-belt sushi

What Are Nakaochi and Sukimi?

Nakaochi is the lean meat scraped off the largest bone (the central bone) left after a tuna is broken down, while sukimi is the fatty or sinewy meat scraped from the underside of the skin. Because scraping the flesh off with a spoon or a clam shell is called "negitoru," these came to be called negitoro.
Nowadays, minced tuna pounded into a paste is often called negitoro, and nakaochi and negitoro are sometimes thought to be different things, but originally negitoro referred to nakaochi and sukimi.
Fresh nakaochi is exquisite! Some stylish restaurants serve it together with the central bone, so if you find one, be sure to give it a try.