Hot pot & soups
Suttate Jiru
Suttate jiru — a soup of ground boiled soybeans in soy sauce or miso
Boiled soybeans are ground in a mortar and thinned with soy sauce or miso — a soup of Shirakawa village said to have emerged from the process of making tofu, traditionally served at gatherings like the hoonko Buddhist memorial rite, now also reworked into a hot pot with Hida beef added.
- Origin: Gifu Shirakawa
- About 270 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A soup made by grinding boiled soybeans smooth in a mortar and thinning the paste with miso or soy sauce, so the beans, ground until no grain remains, leave a silky texture with the beans' sweetness and depth spreading through it. It's said to be treasured in Shirakawa Village, known for its thatched-roof houses, as a soup for celebrations.
How it's made
Soybeans soaked overnight are boiled until just short of fully soft, ground smooth in a mortar or blender, then moved to a pot, seasoned with soy sauce, and heated just short of boiling. Miso is sometimes used instead, it's said. In recent years, a hot-pot version called 'suttate nabe' is also said to have become popular.
Why it took this shape
In the mountain-locked Shirakawa Village, soybeans — a crop that grows even in poor soil — are said to have been widely cultivated as a valued protein source, and this soup is said to have been born out of the process of making miso and tofu from them. Since it spoils quickly in summer, it's said to have been eaten at celebrations and the Hoonko memorial from autumn through early spring.
Before you go
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.
- Aichi ZoniSquare mochi and mochina, a traditional Owari green, are served in a plain clear broth for New Year — a notably simple zoni. It's speculated that using miso so often in daily cooking is exactly why a clear broth is chosen for this festive occasion, deliberately leaving miso out.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Gifu
- Akadatsu no SubuteThe red-purple leaf stalk of taro, called akadatsu, has its fibers removed and is salt-rubbed before being dressed in a sweetened vinegar — a dish of Yamagata City on land whose lime-poor, thin soil suited taro cultivation, once said to be fed to new mothers to aid recovery.
- Ayu NarezushiAyu heading downriver to spawn in autumn, often carrying roe, are salted and stuffed with freshly cooked rice, then packed in a barrel to ferment for about two months — a narezushi of Gifu City said to have been made from fish caught at the Nagara River's cormorant fishery and once presented to the shogunate.
- Ayu ZosuiAyu, grilled plain until fragrant, is flaked and briefly simmered with dashi and rice into a light porridge — a Gifu river-fish dish said to have begun as a way to use ayu too damaged from fishing to sell whole, often served as the closing course at restaurants specializing in ayu.
- FunamisoCrucian carp, first grilled plain, simmers for hours with rehydrated soybeans, then finishes in soybean miso and coarse sugar — a river-fish dish of the Seino region, where the miso's strong umami is said to soften the fish's characteristic edge, simmered until the flesh falls apart as a winter keeping food.
- Ayu no ShioyakiAyu are salted all over, given a decorative touch of salt on fin and tail, then grilled over charcoal on both sides — a river-fish dish of Gifu, said to draw on fish caught fresh at the 1,300-year-old Nagara River cormorant fishery or at the traditional yana weirs that channel fish into a catch.
- Gohei MochiCrushed rice is skewered and grilled, then glazed with a walnut- or peanut-flecked sauce — a dish of the Tono and Hida areas where soy-based sauce dominates north of the old Nakasendo road and miso-based sauce south of it, traditionally served to celebrate the new rice harvest or to honor a guest.