Sukiyaki: The Meiji-Era Beef Dish and Japan's Western Encounter

Ingredients

• For the warishita
• 100 ml soy sauce
• 100 ml mirin
• 100 ml sake
• 2–3 tbsp white sugar, Kanto style uses the greater quantity; Kansai the lesser
• 600 g Wagyu beef, A4–A5 grade, sliced 2–3 mm; high marbling essential
• 30 g gyūshi (beef tallow), for Kansai method; authentic tallow preferred over neutral oil
• 200 g momen (firm) tofu, cut into large cubes
• 200 g napa cabbage, cores separated from leaves; cores first into the pan
• 100 g gobo (burdock root), scrubbed and sliced on the diagonal
• 100 g shirataki or konnyaku noodles, rinsed
• 4 stalks negi (Japanese long onion), cut into 4 cm lengths
• 50 g mitsuba, added last; rough sprigs
• 50 g fu (wheat gluten), added last
• For the dipping bowl
• 4 eggs, pasture-raised; vivid-yolk Japanese-style preferred; beaten lightly per diner
• For the shime
• 200 g udon noodles, cooked in the concentrated residual warishita at the meal's end

Method

1. 1
   Combine soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar fully dissolves and the liquid just begins to simmer. Remove from heat. The warishita should smell of warm caramel and salt in equal measure — done when the sugar is wholly absorbed and no granules remain visible.
2. 2
   Set a cast-iron nabemono pan over the portable table burner. For the Kansai method: place the tallow in the dry pan over medium-high heat and allow it to melt and coat the surface. Lay the first few slices of Wagyu flat in the pan without crowding. Sear for 20–30 seconds per side until a pale caramelized crust forms on each face. Add warishita to the seared beef. For the Kanto method: pour the warishita into the pan first, bring to a gentle simmer, then add beef and vegetables together. The dish lives or dies at this stage — too many ingredients added at once drop the pan temperature, the sauce fails to concentrate, and the caramelized sweet-soy character that defines sukiyaki never develops; work in small batches, maintaining an active simmer throughout.
3. 3
   Add firmer vegetables first: gobo and napa cabbage cores. Allow them to cook in the simmering warishita until the gobo loses its raw resistance, 3–4 minutes. Negi follows. The broth should be visibly reducing and darkening at the pan's edges — done when the negi softens and takes on color at its cut ends.
4. 4
   Add tofu cubes and allow them to absorb the warishita undisturbed. The cubes develop a lacquered soy crust on their outer surfaces while remaining soft within — done when the exterior is visibly darkened and firm to a light press with chopsticks.
5. 5
   Add delicate elements — mitsuba and fu — in the final minutes. They require only enough time to warm through and take on the colour of the broth. Remove from heat the moment the mitsuba wilts.
6. 6
   Each diner beats one raw egg lightly in a small bowl to a loose, liquid consistency — not fully homogenized. Each piece of hot beef or tofu lifted from the pan is dipped briefly into the raw egg before eating. The egg cools the ingredient slightly and rounds the sweet-salty intensity of the warishita. Done when the egg coats the ingredient in a thin, just-set film on contact.
7. 7
   As the meal progresses, taste the warishita periodically. The sauce concentrates as Wagyu fat renders into it and liquid evaporates; adjust with additional sake and mirin to maintain balance, preventing the soy-sugar matrix from becoming over-reduced. Done when the broth tastes of deep, rounded umami rather than sharp salt.
8. 8
   For the shime: add udon noodles to the residual warishita remaining in the pan after all beef and vegetables are consumed. The noodles absorb the accumulated Wagyu fat and concentrated sauce. Done when the noodles are heated through and the liquid in the pan is nearly entirely absorbed.