Narazuke ✦

Narazuke

What it is

Wooden tablets dug from Nara's eighth-century capital already record kasuzuke uri, melon put down in sake lees, more than 1,300 years ago. The melon passes through fresh lees several times over one to three years, darkening from pale green to amber and picking up enough alcohol to be genuinely heady.

In the kitchen

Do not wash the lees off under the tap; scrape it back with the flat of a knife and keep it to marinate fish. Slice thin — a thick piece is too sweet and too alcoholic to eat, and this is not a children's pickle.

Goes with

Sake kasu Rice Sencha Butter Mascarpone Junmai sake

Same species

Cantaloupe melon Cornichon Cucumber Honeydew melon Salt-fermented dill cucumber

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