Abura-kasu ✦

Abura-kasu

What it is

Beef intestine cooked for hours in its own rendered fat until the water is gone, leaving a crisp shell around a gelatinous middle — a preserving method, not a frying one. It belongs to southern Osaka, where the butchery trades were concentrated, and it stayed local until kasu udon carried it into the city’s noodle shops over the last thirty years.

In the kitchen

Two spoonfuls are enough for a bowl: dropped in at the last second it stays crisp, given two minutes it surrenders its fat to the broth and goes soft. Decide which you want before you add it, because you only get one go.

Goes with

Soba noodles Kombu Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Koikuchi shoyu Negi Egg Cabbage

Same species

Amourettes (spinal marrow) Spider steak Bastourma Flank steak Beef Beef cheek

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