Fermented & preserved ── Tsukemono (pickles)
Matsumae-zuke
Matsumae-zuke — squid, kelp, and herring roe steeped in soy sauce, a Hokkaido winter keeper
Shredded dried squid and kelp steeped in a soy-based marinade — a preserve said to trace to Matsumae in southern Hokkaido. It began with herring roe from the region's herring fishery and remains a fixture of New Year's cooking.
- Origin: Hokkaido Matsumae
- About 640 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Dried squid and kelp are cut into thin strips and pickled with herring roe in soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. It was once mostly salted, but tastes shifted and a soy-based version is now more common. Some versions add carrot, daikon, or yuzu peel, and the exact seasoning is said to vary from shop to shop.
How it's made
Squid and kelp are shredded, herring roe is desalted and loosened, and everything steeps for about a week in a mix of soy sauce, mirin, sake, and salt. As herring fishing declined and squid fishing grew into the region's main catch, Matsumae and neighboring Fukushima town became one of Japan's leading squid-landing areas, and squid and kelp became the pickle's core ingredients.
Why it took this shape
It is said to have originated with the Matsumae domain, made in fishing households from whatever local ingredients were on hand, and spread as a winter preserve. From the late Edo period into the Meiji era it relied on herring roe caught in bulk by the local herring fishery; as roe prices rose, squid and kelp came to carry more of the dish. Today it remains a fixture of New Year's cooking and a standard Hokkaido souvenir.
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.
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
Dishes in the same style
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Fukujin-zukeSeven kinds of vegetables — daikon, eggplant, lotus root among them — diced and steeped in a soy-based marinade. Said to have originated in Tokyo, it's best known today as curry rice's standard side.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Harihari-zukeDaikon cut thicker than ordinary kiriboshi strips, dried, then pickled in a soy-based sauce — a Miura Peninsula specialty. Its name is said to echo the crisp "hari-hari" bite, developed in Miura, a daikon-growing region since the Edo period.
- Ika NinjinShredded dried squid and carrot are steeped in a marinade of soy sauce and coarse sugar — a Fukushima City staple. Said to have begun as a keeping food for the region's snowbound winters, the squid's chewy bite and sweet-salty marinade are known for making rice disappear fast.
Also from Hokkaido
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Asahikawa HorumenA local dish that crosses Asahikawa's two soul foods — soy-sauce ramen and grilled pork offal. Pork offal, cleaned and prepped to remove its odor, sits on a soy-based broth. It was devised in Asahikawa in the 2010s.
- Gatatan RamenAshibetsu's local dish gatatan, turned into ramen: a salt broth thickened with potato starch, loaded with vegetables, meat and seafood, and finished with a stream of beaten egg.
- Bibai no TorimeshiChicken and onion are cooked into rice with soy sauce, sugar, and sake — said to trace back to a Meiji-era landowner in Bibai's Nakamura district who had tenant farmers raise chickens, then served them to guests.
- Bibai YakitoriOne skewer carries the whole bird — offal, skin and all.
- Biratori WagyuJapanese Black raised in Biratori, Hidaka, founded on breeding cattle brought from Shimane in 1962 — finished slowly through harsh winters, said to give the meat a notably deep flavor.