Knife To Slice Salmon/Lox

[Blether]

prasantrin is right about salmon being common in Japan. Hot smoked salmon has a traditional history, but cold-smoked is an import from the West.

A takobiki is a little thinner than a yanagiba, but they are both general sashimi/sushi knives, the former being originally the Kantou version, the latter the Kansai one. I understand that the Kansai yanagiba has in recent times become the standard across the country.

Budrichard - the long, sword-like knife for tuna is usually known as maguro-bouchou or maguro-kiri bouchou.

Fugu of course isn't oily like salmon (and farmed salmon is far oilier than wild), but

is probably the acme of thin-slicing fish in the Japanese tradition - here 削ぎ切り 'sogi-giri'.

[David A. Goldfarb]

This series of four Itasan videos shows the whole process of butchering fugu, slicing sashimi, and cooking the parts that aren't used for sashimi--

The beginning of part 3 shows the thin flexible knife used for the sashimi, and he makes a point of showing the thinness of the spine and demonstrating the flexibility of the blade.

Japanese knives are often hollow ground to prevent sticking (meaning the bevel is slightly concave. Some dimpled knives are currently marketed as "hollow ground," which isn't the traditional meaning of the term), and I suspect that's the case here.

So much work for one fish! Is it that good?

Edited January 30, 2010 by David A. Goldfarb (log)

[Edward J]

Budrichard;

I'm sorry to confuse you, that remark was a bit tongue in cheek. You, I, and other posters have offered a considerable wealth of information on how to slice salmon with such a knife, and yet for all our efforts other readers were motivated to find another alternative--any alternative---, as long as it wasn't a Western style knife.

I openly accept any information on using a Japanese style knife for cutting smoked salmon based on personal experience, yet no one has offered any yet.

David:

I humbly accept your research and am richer in knowldege for it.

[Blether]

The beginning of part 3 shows the thin flexible knife used for the sashimi, and he makes a point of showing the thinness of the spine and demonstrating the flexibility of the blade.

The knife is known as a 鉄刺包丁 'tessa bouchou' or 河豚引き 'fuguhiki'. Tessa as in 'bullet sashimi' - "like shot from the old muskets, fugu doesn't 'hit' you very often but can be deadly when it does".

So much work for one fish! Is it that good?

The sashimi doesn't have much flavour. The soup with a little twist of deep-fried skin is good. It's the frisson of danger that counts, isn't it ?

Edited January 30, 2010 by Blether (log)