Building Blocks: The Basic Ingredients Behind Japan’s Flavors

Shiokara: Japan’s Salty, Fermented Seafood

Food and Drink Culture Lifestyle Aug 16, 2025

The rich umami flavor of shiokara (most commonly salted, fermented squid) is an acquired taste, but devotees say that it goes perfectly with either rice or an alcoholic beverage.

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The Wisdom of Preserving Food Through Fermentation

Shiokara is a fermented food, made by salting raw seafood and then letting it ferment naturally through the action of enzymes and microorganisms. While some say this way of preserving seafood was introduced into Japan from China during the Nara period (710–94), it is also possible it was developed independently.

A surreal story included in the Konjaku monogatari, a collection of tales from the late Heian period (794–1185), tells of a man who, wanting to scare away tax collectors, feeds them especially salty shiokara and when they become thirsty, he serves them spoiled sake, which gives them diarrhea. From this, it would appear that preserving food through salting and fermenting was already a widespread method by this time.

If it’s Shiokara, it Must Be Squid!

Shiokara, in its broadest sense, is the “salted, fermented flesh and viscera of fish and seafood”, but as squid is the most popular type of seafood preserved using this method, it tends to be what people think of first.

Akazukuri (“red” shiokara) is the most common and is made by salting and fermenting the body and liver of the squid together. The rich flavor of the liver gives it a tantalizing taste.

When the liver is omitted and only the body of the squid salted and fermented, it is called shirozukuri (“white” shiokara), and has a refreshingly refined taste.

One more type of squid shiokara is kurozukuri (“black” shiokara), a local delicacy of Toyama Prefecture, in which squid ink is added to create a striking pitch-black appearance. Squid ink is full of umami compounds, giving it both a rich appearance and flavor.

Some people who love alcohol say that if they have good quality shiokara they can drink to their heart’s content, but it is delicious served on freshly cooked rice too. Others use it in the same way as anchovies, another salted, fermented seafood, by adding it to pasta and stir-fries.

A standard dish at Hokkaidō izakaya is shiokara jagabatā, a rather unusual combination of shiokara with buttered, steamed potatoes. The salty shiokara and creamy butter go well with the hot, fluffy potato.

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