dehydrating plastic wrap

[ned]

I brought some striped bass down south recently to be prepared by a local chef in Atlanta. He had been given (by a sushi chef) a roll of the most spectacular plastic wrap. It has two layers and somehow acts to draw water out of watever it wraps and then traps the water between its layers.

We left the bass in it for 18 hours and when it was removed man, what a remarkable thing that filet was.

The package had no English on it. Only Japanese. There was a graph showing, I imagine, water being drawn from fish and meat. White box, green kanji.

I want to buy some of this stuff. Anybody heard of it or what it's called in English or seen it around? I'm in NYC.

[sanrensho]

Did it look like this?

Pichitto Roll (sorry, don't know English name)

[ned]

Did it look like this?

Pichitto Roll (sorry, don't know English name)

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Yeah sanrensho, exactly like that. Just googled it: fifty-five bucks a roll. Yikes. What do you know about the pichitto roll?

[sanrensho]

Yeah sanrensho, exactly like that.  Just googled it: fifty-five bucks a roll.  Yikes.  What do you know about the pichitto roll?

Sorry, I don't know anything about the product, except that I want it now.

[SuzySushi]

Hmmm... maybe post your question in the Japan forum and someone there will know more about it. Sounds like an interesting product!

[ned]

Good idea to go over to Japan forum Suzysushi. Hiroyuki who lives in Shiozawa, Japan came up with all kinds of interesting information about Pichit Sheet. Thanks Hiiroyuki!

Yesterday, I received a detailed reply from Mr. Saito, who is in charge of quality assurance at the Pichit Division, Showa Denko Plastic Products Co., Ltd.

(He says that the English name for Pichitto Roll is Pichit Sheet.)

Here is a summary of his reply:

We do not sell Pichit Sheet ® in the United States because it does not conform to FDA standards.

In Japan, Pichit Sheet is a product conforming to the Food Sanitation Law, but in the United States, the surface material, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film, is specified as a material that cannot be in direct contact with raw meat or raw fish, so that the product cannot be approved unless we submit very expensive animal experiment data.

It has been a longstanding issue of our company to develop FDA-approved Pichit Sheet.  When we successfully develop it, we would like to announce it in the United States.

The surface of Pichit Sheet is made of semipermiable polyvinyl alcohol film, which contains edible sugar.  It also contains a seaweed extract, sodium polyarginate.  This substance is used to enhance the viscosity of mizuame (translator's note:  edible sugar?) and make it uniform.  The product absorbs water by osmosis.  Thus, the generic name for this product is osmotic dehydration sheet.

While Gore-Tex allows water vapor to pass but not liquid water, a semipermiable film allows water to pass but not matters dissolved in water (except small-molecule odor components).

For chef use, we have three roll types, which provide different dehydration capacities.  The high capacity type is for use in making dried and smoked foods, raw ham, and so on, and comes in an orange box of 18 sheets.  The regular, all-round type comes in a green box of 32 sheets.  It is for freezing, thawing, preparations for cooking, and so on, and can also be used to make dried foods if used for a long time.  The low capacity type is for use in storing sashimi, for example, and comes in a blue box of 30 sheets.

For general home use, we have only the regular type.  The regular size comes in a red box of 5 sheets, and the half size comes in a blue box of 6 sheets.

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