We remove the heads and viscera of the mackerel, auxis, and Japanese scad with a special hook.
The decapitated and gutted fish are neatly lined up in boiling crates.
The fish in their crates are put into a special stewpot and boiled.
The length of time they are boiled varies by their size. After
cooking, they are taken out to cool, and clouds of steam billow up.
The fish are dried in a special Yaizu-style dryer to further remove
their moisture.
After a process of repeatedly drying and cooling, the fish are
done.
This is the last stage of making arabushi.
The arabushi are packed based on fish quality and size.
After packing and running a metal detector over the boxes, they are stacked on special bushi pallets.
This completes the process of making hadakabushi (“naked bushi”
which is only smoked, not yet matured with mold). The moisture
content by this stage is about 15%.
This hadakabushi is mainly shipped to the Kansai region.
・Wood ash
The ash from the wood burning during the smoking process is used to make Satsuma’s famous akumaki confectionary.
・Saba namaribushi (once-smoked dried mackerel)
・Shin-Satsumabushi (New Satsumabushi)
We remove the heads and viscera of the mackerel, auxis, and Japanese scad with a special hook.
The decapitated and gutted fish are neatly lined up in boiling crates.
The fish in their crates are put into a special stewpot and boiled.
The length of time they are boiled varies by their size. After
cooking, they are taken out to cool, and clouds of steam billow up.
The fish are dried in a special Yaizu-style dryer to further remove
their moisture.
After a process of repeatedly drying and cooling, the fish are
done.
This is the last stage of making arabushi.
Karebushi (matured with mold) is made in different ways based on the
fish size, and is divided into wari (split) and maru (whole) bushi.
If a fish is more than about 500 g, it is deboned manually
after boiling (filleting it), and used for waribushi, whereas if it
is under that weight, it is made into marubushi.
These are
placed in a special basket with mold and stacked on a special pallet
in preparation for being placed inside a special warehouse for
growing mold.
High quality mold spores are dusted over the arabushi, and they are
then put in a special temperature-controlled warehouse for growing
mold.
During this growing process, the bushi are checked visually
and sorted based on how much mold they have. The process is
completed in about two weeks.
The mold-coated bushi are then left to dry in the sun.
During this process, they are turned about three or four times
(generally with about a month between turns).
The arabushi are packed based on fish quality and size.
After packing and running a metal detector over the boxes, they are stacked on special bushi pallets.
This completes the process of making karebushi (“naked bushi” which
is only smoked, not yet matured with mold). The moisture content by
this stage is about 3% to 5%.
This karebushi is mainly shipped to the Kanto region.
Generally known as blue mold, it is harmless to humans. This mold
is used due to its ability to season the bushi.
Why is mold cultivated? There are two reasons.
1. Removing moisture
As the outside temperature increases, mold will develop on the surface of hadakabushi, using the tiny amount of moisture there to grow. Using this principle, bushi is stored in a high-temperature warehouse to accelerate mold growth. The mold stretches out its roots over the surface of the bushi, covering it entirely and becoming dense. At this point, the moisture content is down to 8 - 10%, and after repeated sun-drying and room-temperature storage, it goes down to 3 - 5%.
2. Concentrating flavor
As the mold absorbs the moisture from the bushi, it converts the delicate fat within the bushi into flavor. And by repeatedly sun-drying then storing the bushi at room temperature, the excess moisture can be removed and the flavor within can be concentrated.
