Dried Squid Koji Pickle
Quick answer
- Total time
- 100 min
- Level
- Hard
- Servings
- 24 servings
- Ingredients
- 7
About this dish
Dried squid koji pickle is a preserved food from Tottori, made by curing finely cut squid and salt-pickled vegetables with rice koji.
Read more
Families prepared it from autumn through winter as a rice accompaniment or drink snack, and each household developed its own flavor through salted shiso leaves and seeds, eggplant, cucumber, and myoga. Traditional crocks were weighted and aged for more than twenty days in cold weather. This conservative home version uses only commercial food-grade koji, ready-to-eat fully dried squid, and commercially salt-pickled vegetables. The seasoning is boiled and cooled before mixing, then the pickle is held at 4°C or colder for ten days rather than left at room temperature.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Heat
Sanitize a heatproof glass container, lid, tongs, and spatula with boiling water and dry completely.
Check the dates and chilled storage of the koji and pickled vegetables.
- 2Prep
Cut 5 fully dried squid into strips 3mm wide and 3cm long.
Take 15ml from the measured sake, toss it with the squid, and rest 10 minutes.
- 3Season
Rinse 300g commercial salt-pickled vegetables in cold water as directed on the package, squeeze very dry in clean cloth, and chop to 5mm. Break 900g rice koji into separate grains with clean hands.
- 4Season
Bring 600ml soy sauce, the remaining 385ml sake, 200ml mirin, and 100g sugar to a full boil and hold 5 minutes.
Stir the pan over an ice bath and cool below 10°C within 2 hours.
- 5Season
Combine squid, koji, and vegetables in the sanitized container and mix with cold seasoning.
Fit a sanitized weight against the surface and refrigerate immediately at 4°C or colder for 10 days. Turn once daily with a sanitized spatula and return promptly to the refrigerator.
- 6Finish
On day 10, discard the entire batch without tasting if there is mold, putrid odor, slimy growth, or abnormal gas.
If sound, serve with clean tongs, keep at 4°C or colder, and consume by day 14. Freeze any longer-held portions immediately.
Practical Cooking Checks
The cues that matter most while cooking.
- Key technique
- Fully dried squid cured with rice koji
- Finish cue
- On day 10, discard the entire batch without tasting if there is mold, putrid odor, slimy growth, or abnormal gas.
- Avoid this
- Do not reproduce traditional long room-temperature aging at home.
- Storage and reheating
- Use commercial food-grade ingredients and a refrigerator thermometer, maintaining 4°C or colder throughout.
Cooking decision evidence
Calculated Charim data and applicable official food safety guidance.
This recipe
100min, 7 ingredients
Category median
33min, 8 ingredients
Based on 152 recipes
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