Sake kasu ✦

Lie de saké (sake kasu)

What it is

What comes off the press at the end of a sake brew is a pale cake still holding around eight percent alcohol and the enzymes that made the sake. Breweries sold it cheap to their neighbours through the cold months, which is how kasujiru soup and narazuke pickles came to exist at all.

In the kitchen

Loosen it in warm water or sake before it goes near a pan; dropped in as a lump it stays a lump. For fish, salt the fillet, pat it dry, bury it in thinned lees for a day or two, and cook it knowing the alcohol has not entirely gone.

Goes with

Cod Salmon Daikon Carrot Negi Rice koji Butter

Same species

Akazu Arborio rice Rice paper (bánh tráng) Basmati rice Black glutinous rice Black rice

Also used with

Narazuke Wasabizuke

In season alongside

Northern sweet shrimp American lobster Nantucket bay scallop Brill Brocciu Butternut squash

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us