Tachiuo Maki (Spiral-Grilled Cutlassfish on Bamboo)
Quick answer
- Total time
- 60 min
- Level
- Hard
- Servings
- 4 servings
- Ingredients
- 8
About this dish
Long fillets of cutlassfish are wound in a spiral around bamboo sticks and turned over charcoal, brushed again and again with a soy, sugar, sake and ginger glaze until it builds into a dark lacquer.
Read more
The strips are trimmed to an even width and wound with their edges slightly overlapping so they do not loosen as the stick turns. Uwajima in Ehime credits the dish to an old fishmonger who came up with it in 1987; because it is so fiddly, people mostly eat it at izakaya and local fish-cake shops rather than at home. A last brush of mirin gives the final shine. To eat, the fish is slid off the hot bamboo and looked over for any stray bones.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Wash the culinary bamboo sticks thoroughly and soak them in the measured water.
Let the sections exposed to heat absorb water so the bamboo is less likely to scorch quickly during grilling.
- 2
Remove the cutlassfish heads and innards and fillet them while preserving their length.
Trim the main bones and fin edges, feel along the flesh for pin bones, and divide into four long strips.
- 3
Mix the soy sauce, sugar, sake, and ginger juice in a bowl until the sugar dissolves to make the brushing sauce.
Reserve the mirin separately for the final glaze.
- 4
Wipe excess water from the bamboo and wind one fish strip tightly in a spiral from the lower end.
Overlap the edges slightly and secure one strip around each of the four sticks.
- 5
Grill the sticks over medium charcoal, rotating continuously.
When the fish surface begins to turn opaque, brush on a thin layer of sauce and repeat whenever the surface dries. Keep direct flames away so the sugar does not burn.
- 6
When the fish is opaque through the center and reaches at least 63°C, brush lightly with mirin and rotate once more for a brief final grilling. Rest shortly, hold the hot bamboo with a cloth, slide off the fish, and serve on four plates.
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
Checked: 2026-08-11
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