Akumaki (Lye-Cooked Glutinous Rice Cake)
Quick answer
- Active time
- 220 min
- Waiting
- See the steps
- Level
- Hard
- Servings
- 15 servings
- Ingredients
- 4
About this dish
Glutinous rice soaked a full day in food-grade lye water, wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for about three hours, ends up with no grain left to see, just a glossy, amber, jelly-like block.
Read more
The cake itself is unsweetened, so it is sliced and served with kinako. Use only lye water sold for cooking, and keep it off bare skin.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Wash 1.5kg glutinous rice and soak it in 1.8L food-grade lye water for 24 hours.
Separately soak 15 bamboo sheaths in water for 2 to 3 days, then scrub away their fine surface hairs.
- 2
Drain the soaked rice thoroughly in a sieve.
Tear three 1cm-wide strips from the base of each bamboo sheath to use as ties for the packets.
- 3
Place about 100g drained rice lengthwise in the center of each bamboo sheath.
Roll the top and bottom toward the center, then fold both sides tightly to make a long sealed packet.
- 4
Tie both ends and the center of every packet firmly with the bamboo strips.
Leave slight room for the rice to expand, but no gap through which the sheath can open or rice can escape.
- 5
Submerge the packets completely in a large pot of water and hold them down with a drop lid.
Simmer over medium-low heat for about 3 hours, adding hot water whenever needed to keep them submerged.
- 6
Open one packet and check that the grains have disappeared into a glossy amber gel.
Cool fully, remove the bamboo sheath, slice, and serve with 150g roasted soybean flour.
References checked
These references were consulted when this page was prepared or corrected. A source check does not mean the recipe was independently kitchen-tested.
- 일본 농림수산성 うちの郷土料理
NPO法人霧島食育研究会 · Checked: 2026-08-11
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