Fish Pastes and Fish Paste Products

Fish paste products of Japan are a different matter—big business, which accounts for something like 20 per cent of the huge Japanese fish catch. As a group, these products are called neri-seihin (literally, ‘kneaded products’). They are made of fish meat, usually a combination of two or three species of white fish reduced to a paste, to which salt and other secondary ingredients (various forms of starch, egg whites, flavourings, preservatives, etc.) are added. This paste is then shaped and heated so as to solidify it.