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Tonkotsu
Tonkotsu — spare ribs seared, doused in shochu, then simmered in miso and black sugar
Bone-in spare ribs are seared, doused with sweet-potato shochu, then slow-simmered in barley miso and black sugar. Said to have started as an outdoor dish cooked by Satsuma samurai — and a favorite of Saigo Takamori's — the shochu is said to cut any gaminess and soften the meat.
- Origin: Kagoshima City, Kagoshima
- About 970 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Bone-in pork ribs are seared and simmered in sweet potato shochu, then cooked slowly with konjac and daikon in miso and brown sugar for this hearty local dish. The shochu strips away any gaminess from the pork, leaving meat tender enough to pull apart with chopsticks, and the brown sugar's sweetness layers with the miso's richness into a deeply flavored dish. It is said to trace back to a field meal Satsuma samurai once cooked at hunting grounds and battle camps.
How it's made
Pork bones are seared until browned, then splashed with shochu and cooked over high heat to burn off the alcohol before water is added for a simmer. Daikon, burdock, and konjac go in next, followed by brown sugar and miso, and the dish simmers slowly with careful skimming until the flavor has soaked through, then it's plated. Splashing the pork with shochu is also said to strip away any gamy smell while tenderizing the meat.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have begun as a field meal Satsuma samurai cooked at hunting grounds and battle camps, and Saigo Takamori is said to have been fond of it. It calls for ingredients distinctly tied to Kagoshima, pork, barley miso, brown sugar, and sweet potato shochu, and is said to draw together in one dish the region's history of miso-making, sugar production, and pig-raising, all shaped by its own mild climate.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Kagoshima
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
- AkumakiMochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.