Bonito - Dried, Fermented and Smoke fish flakes
This is how bonito flakes look like. yummy 😍😍
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| Bonito fish source https://iplayallsports.com /australian-bonito/ |
Bonito is the pelagic fish that live in the middle of the sea in the open water. This fish shares the same family with tuna, mackerel, Spanish mackerel and also butterfly kingfish. It is synonyms with striped bonito, skipjack, and short-finned tuna. This type of fish is tasty, scaleless and dark meat with thick bones fish. It also has dark blue stripes run along the upper half of the body whiles the sides and its belly is silvery and its back is steel-blue. Bonito had a moderate to high-fat content and a flavor that is more pronounced than other members of the tuna family. It is origin from Warm waters worldwide, including Atlantic coasts, Mediterranean and Black Seas, Pacific and Indo-Pacific coasts. The preferred food of bonito appears to be small fishes, such as anchovies, menhaden, and sardines. Bonito is usually sold as whole fish, fillets, and steaks. In Japan, bonito is used to produce dried bonito which known as Katsuobushi. This katsuobushi is the popular ingredient used in many Japanese dishes such as dashi. Katsuobushi is known as the hardest food in the world.
So, how do they produce katsuobushi? Actually, there are four steps in dried bonito production which are cutting, simmering, smoking and drying. In the first step, bonito is beheaded, gutted and filleted. The lipid from the fillet is removed to reduce lipid oxidation because lipid oxidation can cause toughening to the flesh due to the reaction of intermediate lipid oxidation compound with proteins. Then, the fillets are arranged in the metallic basket and simmered for about one to two hours at 85 °C to 95 °C. The purpose of this step is not only for sterilizing the fillets but also to coagulate the protein which prevents inosinic acid from breaking during smoking. This acid gives savor of katsuobushi. After boiling, the lipid content of raw muscle is sharply decreased. In the katsuobushi manufacturing, the preferable lipid content of bonito is about 2 - 3%. If the lipid content is high, the catalytic effect of ferric hemes on the oxidation of unsaturated lipid will produce peroxide that can decompose heme. This will cause the loss of color which decreases the quality of the product. After being cooled, the rib bones are removed by using hand.The bones are removed manually to avoid damage to the flesh by mechanical means, thus affecting the product quality. If even one bone remains when the fish is dried, the flesh will shrink and left the bone wrapped to the flesh.
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| Removing of bones process. |
The next step is smoking as to introduce flavor and further preserve the dried fish. The shrinkage of the bonito’s skin during smoking serves as an indicator of how well the fillets have been dried and smoked. The fillets are smoked by using oak, pasania or Castanopsis wood that contains sweet resin compound when burnt into the smoke and imparts distinctive aroma. The smoke also contains phenols that deposited on the surface of the flesh and impacting the aroma. As the fish dried, the phenols will seep down into the flesh to produce a combination of wonderful smell. The fish is kept over 60 °C which hot enough to prevent the growth of bacteria. The smoke also contains component that inhibits bacteria. Hence, smoking fish prevents it from spoiling. After a day, the fish are cooled down to allow the moisture trapped inside the fish to come to the surface. The fish are then undergo smoking process again. This process is repeated many times for a duration of a month until the fillets turn into the arabushi stage. The built-up tar is cleaned by using a grinder. As the fillet surface is trimmed and the shape is adjusted, the fillets become hadakabushi
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| Arabushi |
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| Trimming process using the grinder source http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/topics/ japanese-traditional-foods/vol.-15-dried-bonito |
In the last step, the hadakabushi is dried by using the sun-drying method with the assistance of Aspergillus glaucus mold culture sprayed on the fillet surface. The coating of mold on the fillet keeps off from the other microorganisms. After spraying of mold, the fillets are left for 2 weeks in a closed cultivation room to allow the fermentation by the mold and also chiffon out any residual moisture. The mold penetrates inside the flesh to absorb additional moisture and break down fat into amino acid that boosts the umami flavor. The further sun-drying of the fillets increase the hardness and dryness until it appears like a wood and reduces its original weight to less than 20%. The process takes about 6 months. During the early stage of the fermentation, “first mold” is faintly blue. Further along, the fermentation turns the surface color into yellow, known as karebushi or dried fillet. After third fermentation by the mold, then the filled can be called as honkarebushi or true dried fillet. The application of mold for several times reduces the water content to about 18 to 20% of the dried fillet. Hence, it appears like a deadwood, which is the ultimate form of katsuobushi.
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| katsuobushi |
As the katsuobushi is cut or shave, it is called kezuri-bushi or bonito flakes. katsuobushi is shaved by using katsuobushi kezuriki. The kezuriki is the traditional device for producing the flakes by hand, a wooden box with a sharp blade on top and drawers to catch the shavings. In Malaysia, the flakes are eaten with takoyaki as a garnish. At first, I thought it is a dried squid. The flavor is intense and delicious. Fun fact, the dried bonito not only can be used as food but also as a hammer and blade! If the dried bonito is sharpened enough, it can punch through an aluminum can.
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| The kezuriki device used to produce bonito flakes. |
Dried bonito is packed with a lot of umami (savory taste), it is perfect for making Dashi (fish broth) with which is a crucial component for Japanese cooking. This video shows the use of dried bonito in food preparation and production.
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| 💓Delicious takoyaki with takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise and dried bonito flakes on it.💓 |
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| Shiv from dried bonito source https://boingboing.net/2017/12/27/ how-to-make-a-shiv-with-hard.html |
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| 💓💓💓💓💓💓 |
