Name: Mackerel Loaves (Saba-zushi )
Yield: Serves 6–8 as a main dish.
Cuisine: Japan
Ingredients: About 25–30 inches shirata konbu (pale green kelp), optional since availability is limited; 3–4 tablespoons coarse sea salt; 2 whole mackerel, each weighing about 1¼-1½ pounds; ⅔ cup rice vinegar; 5–6 tablespoons sugar; 2 cups raw rice, cooked according to the master recipe; 1½–2 tablespoons usu kuchi shōyu (light soy sauce); Generous ¼ cup sushi su (seasoned vinegar); 8–12 sticks hajikami su-zuké (whole young ginger pickled in sweet and sour sauce)

Preparation info

Serves
6–8
as a main dish.

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

At Home with Japanese Cooking

By Elizabeth Andoh

Published 1986

About

Here seasoned rice is topped with silver-and-blue-streaked marinated mackerel to make an impressive luncheon or dinner main course. The fish must be salted or marinated overnight; instructions for both methods are included.

Though uncooked, the final dish keeps quite well for a day at room temperature. In fact, this mackerel loaf is the refined version of a very primitive method of food preservation, namely salting, and is probably the oldest known kind of sushi there is. It