Whale Recipes

Shigure-ni (whale meat simmered in soy sauce and sugar)

Hisashi Hamaguchi
Associate Professor
Sonoda Women's College, Japan

Since the 1995/96 academic year, I have been teaching a course on the whaling cultures of various places in the world to students specializing in international food culture at Sonoda Women's College, Japan. Based on my experience in the classroom, Japanese students still consider whales as food while they also regard them as objects of observation and amusement.

The students' favorite whale dish is "tatsuta-age" (fried whale meat): the recipe is already given in this web site. Their second favorite dish is "shigure-ni" (whale meat simmered in soy sauce and sugar). Its recipe is below:

Ingredients (for four persons):
400 g whale meat
40 g ginger
100 ml soy sauce
50 g sugar
100 ml sake
50 ml mirin (sweet sake)

1) Cut 400 g of whale meat into cubes, and boil for 20 minutes.
2) Boil 1000 ml of broth, and add 100 ml of soy sauce, 50 g of sugar, 100 ml of sake and 50 ml of mirin.
3) Bring the mixture to the boil.
4) Add the whale meat cubes and 40 g of sliced ginger, and simmer for an hour.

A student's comment:
"After eating various whale dishes, my impression is that tatsuta-age and shigure-ni suit the Japanese taste. I consider whaling to be an important culture. Now I am not against whaling."

Truly, eating is believing!