All Things Sushi

All Things Sushi — Part 2

July 31, 2018

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In this article, we will further explore the history of sushi as it developed and spread around the world. The following is and excerpt from wikipedia that gives a general idea of its progression through time.

Sushi in Japan:
The earliest reference to sushi in Japan appeared in 718 in the Yōrō Code (養老律令 Yōrō-ritsuryō). As an example of tax paid by actual items, it is written down as "雑鮨五斗 (about 64 liters of zakonosushi or zatsunosushi?)". However, there is no way to know what this "sushi" was or even how it was pronounced. By the 9th and 10th century "鮨" and "鮓" are read as "sushi". This "sushi" was similar to today's narezushi.

For almost the next 800 years, until the early 19th century, sushi slowly changed and the Japanese cuisine changed as well. The Japanese started eating three meals a day, rice was boiled instead of steamed, and of large importance, was the development of rice vinegar.[7] While sushi continued to be produced by fermentation of fish with rice, the addition of rice vinegar greatly reduced the time of fermentation[8] and the rice used began to be eaten along with the fish. In the Muromachi Period (1336 to 1573), the process of producing oshizushi was gradually developed where in the fermentation process was abandoned and vinegar was used. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1603), namanare was invented. A 1603 Japanese-Portuguese dictionary has an entry for namanrina sushi, literally half-made sushi. The namanare was fermented for a shorter period than the narezushi and possibly marinated with rice vinegar. It still had the distinctive smell of narezushi.

The smell of narezushi was likely one of the reasons for shortening and eventually skipping the fermentation process. It is commonly described as "a cross between blue cheese, fish, and rice vinegar".[8] A story from Konjaku Monogatarishū written in early 12th century makes it clear that it was not an attractive smell, even if it tasted good: In the early 18th century, oshizushi was perfected in Osaka and it came to Edo by the middle of 18th century. These sushi were sold to customers, but because they still required a little fermentation time, stores hung a notice and posters to customers on when to come for a sushi. Sushi was also sold near a park during a hanami period and a theater as a type of Bento. Inarizushi was sold along oshizushi. Makizushi and chirashizushi also became popular in Edo period.

There were three famous sushi restaurants in Edo, Matsunozushi (松之鮨), Yoheizushi (興兵衛鮓), and Kenukizushi (けぬき寿し) but there were thousands more sushi restaurants. They were established in a span of barely twenty years at the start of the 19th century. Nigirizushi was an instant hit and it spread through Edo like wildfire. In the book Morisadamanko (守貞謾稿) published in 1852, the author writes that for a cho (100 meters by 100 meters or 10,000 square meters) section of Edo there were one or two sushi restaurants, but that only one soba restaurant could be found in 1 or 2 cho. This means that there were nearly 2 sushi restaurants for every soba restaurant.

These early nigirizushi were not identical to today's varieties. Fish meat was marinated in soy sauce or vinegar or heavily salted so there was no need to dip into soy sauce. Some fish was cooked before it was put onto a sushi. This was partly out of necessity as there were no refrigerators. Each piece was also larger, almost the size of two pieces of today's sushi.

The advent of modern refrigeration allowed sushi made of raw fish to reach more consumers than ever before. The late 20th century saw sushi gaining in popularity all over the world.

Funazushi:
Funazushi is a rare type of narezushi still prepared near Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture.[9] Eighteen generations of the Kitamura family have been preparing the dish at Kitashina since 1619.[10]

Fresh funa are scaled and gutted through their gills keeping the body (and always the roe) of the fish intact. The fish are then packed with salt and aged for a year before being repacked annually in rice for up to four years. The resulting fermented dish may be served sliced thin or used as an ingredient in other dishes.[11]

Authentic funazushi is made from a wild subspecies of goldfish called nigorobuna (a wild type of Carassius auratus) endemic to the lake. It is actually technically misleading to say that "crucian carp" is used, as though any funa type carp in the genus may be substituted, especially since the true crucian carp is a distinct species altogether, C. carassius, and is not indigenous to Lake Biwa.[12] However, due to reduced catch of nigorobuna in recent years, it is true that, by necessity, certain other native species are starting to be substituted.

Makizushi:
Called Futo-maki(太巻き) or Eho-maki(恵方巻き)
After the invention of the sheet form of nori seaweed around 1750, makizushi or norimaki, rice and various ingredients rolled with nori appeared.[13][14] The term makizushi was first used in a book Ryōri Sankaikyō (料理山海郷, 1749). However this dish is not current day makizushi but seafood rolled with bamboo mat (makisu).[15][16][17] Current day makizushi first appeared in a book Shinsen Kondate buruishū (新撰献立部類集, 1776) which describes makizushi as "Place a sheet of asakusa-nori, pufferfish or paper on the makisu and spread the cooked rice then arrange fishes on it. Roll the makisu tightly from one side ..."[15][16][13][18] In 1778, a food shop guide book Shichijyūgonichi (七十五日, 1778) listed a shop whose famous menu is "norimaki-zushi".[13] A later book Meihan Burui (名飯部類, 1802) describes makizushi as "Spread asakusa-nori on the board, place the sushi rice on it. Ingredients are sea bream, abalone, shiitake, mitsuba and shiso. Roll them firmly...."[19][14][16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sushi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In part 3 of our 4 part examination of the history of sushi from conception to modern representation, we will be looking at the introduction of sushi into Western culture. Stay tuned!

History Author: Kinja