Salted products

Japanese: 塩蔵品 - えんぞうひん

Meat, fish, shellfish, vegetables, etc. are salted to give them a shelf life. This is the oldest type of preserved food. It is said to have been started by the Phoenicians and Greeks before Christ. It has been made in Japan for over 1,000 years, and salted fish was used as tribute to the imperial court.

[Kaneda Hisashi]

Storage Principle

Although salt does not have bactericidal properties, bacteria undergo plasmolysis in a concentrated salt solution, making it difficult for bacteria to multiply. Also, when the moisture in food is removed by salt, the moisture required for bacterial growth is insufficient, and spoilage is suppressed.

[Kaneda Hisashi]

Salting method

There are two methods: sprinkled salting and standing salting, and a combination of both. The sprinkled salting method is mainly used on fish, where a wooden slatted mat is laid on a concrete floor, the fish are lined up, and salt is sprinkled on top. The fish are then lined up on top of this, piled up, covered with straw mats, and left for a few days. The standing salting method involves filling a tank with salt water and immersing the fish. This method allows the salt solution to penetrate the fish evenly. It also has the advantage that the salt concentration can be freely adjusted. However, compared to the sprinkled salting method, it requires a larger container and uses more salt, which is a disadvantage. On the other hand, the salt penetration is more likely to be uneven with the sprinkled salting method, and it is prone to "oily burn" due to the deterioration of the oils and fats contained in the fish. The combined method involves placing fish in a tank, sprinkling salt on it, and leaving it, which then becomes the standing salting method due to the leachate from the fish.

[Kaneda Hisashi]

Food Type

Fish, shellfish and algae are commonly used, but especially salmon, trout, cod, herring, sardines, mackerel, pacific saury, fish eggs, jellyfish and mozuku seaweed are used. Livestock meat is mainly salted as a preliminary treatment for ham and bacon, but in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures, pork is also salted. Vegetables are salted for use in pickles, as well as for storage as processed ingredients. That is, eggplant, cucumber, radish, sword beans, white cucumber and other vegetables are stored in a concentrated salt solution and used as ingredients for fukujin-zuke, narazuke and karashi-zuke. They are desalted in running water just before use.

Since excessive salt intake is believed to raise blood pressure, salty salted foods are no longer to the liking of consumers. Therefore, all recent salted foods use less salt and cannot be stored with salt alone, so they need to be stored in the refrigerator. Therefore, it can even be said that modern salted foods are not preserved foods, and salt is added to enhance their taste.

[Kaneda Hisashi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

畜肉、魚貝類、野菜などに食塩を加え、貯蔵性をもたせたもの。もっとも古くから行われている貯蔵食品。紀元前、フェニキア人やギリシア人により始められたという。日本でも1000年以上前からつくられており、朝廷への貢物に塩蔵魚が使われた。

［金田尚志］

貯蔵原理

食塩には殺菌力はないが、濃厚な食塩水中で細菌は原形質分離をおこし、繁殖しにくくなる。また、食品中の水分が食塩により除去されると、細菌の繁殖に必要な水分が不足するため、腐敗が抑えられる。

［金田尚志］

塩蔵方法

散塩(ふりしお)法と立塩(たてしお)法および両者の併用法がある。散塩法は主として魚に対して行い、コンクリートのたたきの上に簀子(すのこ)を敷き、魚を並べて、塩をふりかける。この上にまた魚を並べ、山積みにし、莚(むしろ)で被い、数日置く。立塩法はタンクに食塩水を張り、魚を漬け込む。この方法は食塩溶液が均等に魚体へ浸透する。またこの際、食塩濃度を自由に調節できる利点がある。しかし、散塩法に比べ容器が要り、食塩も多く使うのが欠点である。一方、散塩法は食塩の浸透が不均一になりやすく、また含有油脂の劣化に起因する「油焼け」をおこしやすい。なお併用法は、タンクに魚を入れ散塩し放置すると、魚体からの浸出液により、立塩法となるものである。

［金田尚志］

食品の種類

魚貝藻類が多いが、とくにサケ、マス、タラ、ニシン、イワシ、サバ、サンマ、魚卵、クラゲ、モズクなどを用いる。畜肉は主としてハム、ベーコンの予備処理として行われるが、沖縄、鹿児島県では豚肉を塩蔵する。野菜類は漬物用のほか、加工原料用の貯蔵漬けのための塩蔵を行う。すなわち、ナス、キュウリ、ダイコン、ナタマメ、シロウリなどを濃厚食塩水中に貯蔵し、福神漬け、奈良漬け、からし漬けなどの原料とする。使用直前に流水中で脱塩する。

　食塩の過剰摂取は血圧を上昇させるとされているため、塩辛い塩蔵品は消費者の好みにあわなくなっている。そのため、最近の塩蔵品はいずれも用塩量が少なく、食塩のみでは貯蔵できず、冷蔵庫に入れる必要がある。したがって現在の塩蔵品は貯蔵食品ではなく、食塩は嗜好を増すため加えてあるとさえいえる。

［金田尚志］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

<<: Chlorination IIR - Ensoc IIR

>>: Salted skin - Enzouhi