Japanese Nabe Hot Pot Culture Varieties and Winter Table Ritual

Ingredients

• For yudofu (Kyoto silken tofu nabe)
• 1 piece dried kombu, wiped clean with damp cloth
• 1.2 litres cold water
• 800 g silken tofu (kinugoshi), cut into large cubes
• For sukiyaki (Kansai format)
• 600 g wagyu or well-marbled beef, sliced very thin
• 100 ml Japanese soy sauce
• 100 ml mirin
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 block firm tofu, cut into cubes
• 200 g shirataki noodles, rinsed and cut to length
• 1 bunch negi (Japanese leek), sliced diagonally
• 100 g shungiku (chrysanthemum greens), stems trimmed
• 4 eggs, raw, one per diner for dipping
• 1 small piece beef fat or suet, for seasoning the pan
• For mizutaki (Hakata chicken collagen nabe)
• 1 kg chicken pieces, bone-in, including carcass or wings for collagen
• 1.5 litres water
• 200 g hakusai (napa cabbage), cut into large pieces
• 150 ml ponzu, citrus-soy dipping sauce
• 100 g daikon, grated
• 2 dried red chillies, blended into grated daikon for momiji-oroshi
• For the shime (closing carbohydrate)
• 300 g udon noodles (for protein-forward nabe) or cooked rice (for dashi-forward nabe), added to the remaining broth after all proteins are eaten

Method

1. 1
   Select the donabe (earthenware pot) appropriate to the nabe format. Place it over a portable burner at the table, or prepare it on the stove for transfer. Wipe the interior if using donabe for the first time in the season — the clay vessel retains heat gently and imparts a mineral character the dish depends upon.
2. 2
   For yudofu: place the kombu in cold water in the donabe and bring slowly to just below a simmer. For sukiyaki (Kansai): combine soy sauce, mirin, and sugar into tare and set aside. Wipe the cast-iron pan with beef fat over medium heat until a light fond forms — this is the foundation of the sukiyaki's depth. For mizutaki: cover chicken pieces with cold water, bring to a boil, discard the first water, then cover with fresh water and simmer until the broth turns opaque and rich with collagen.
3. 3
   Establish the cooking order without deviation: firm vegetables — negi, hakusai stems, shirataki — enter the pot first and cook until just yielding. Delicate proteins and silken tofu enter last, only when the communal meal has begun. This sequence is not preference but protocol; tofu and thin-sliced beef added at the start will be overcooked before the first diner lifts their chopsticks — this is where the dish lives or dies.
4. 4
   For sukiyaki (Kansai): once the fond is set, add all ingredients together — beef, tofu, vegetables, shirataki — and pour the tare over. The ingredients simmer together in the sweet-soy liquid until the beef is just cooked through but still tender. Each diner dips each piece into a bowl of raw beaten egg before eating — the egg coats and tempers the sweetness. For mizutaki: diners take pieces from the communal pot and dip into ponzu with momiji-oroshi (grated daikon and dried chilli) alongside. For yudofu: the tofu is lifted from the barely-simmering kombu dashi when it trembles at the edges and is served with a simple dipping sauce of soy and dashi.
5. 5
   When the proteins are finished, do not discard the remaining broth. The shime is obligatory: the concentrated end-broth is the most complex and layered part of the nabe experience. For heavy, protein-forward nabe (sukiyaki, mizutaki), add udon and simmer until just softened. For delicate dashi-forward nabe (yudofu), stir in cooked rice to make a soft porridge. The shime is done when the starch has absorbed the broth and the liquid is nearly entirely taken up.