TOP＞How mentaiko is made①
How mentaiko is made
01 | Procuring pollock roe
Pollock is caught in the North Pacific.
Processing, sorting and freezing pollack roes are all quickly done on the fishing boat.
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MENTAI TOPIC To make delicious mentaiko, we have to get good raw materials. We have dispatched our employees to pollack fishing many times. They provide technical asistance for processing, sorting and freezing the pollack roes. Then, they check it and select the most suitable raw materials, this is a most important process.  |
02｜Thawing
We thaw frozen pollack roes at the factory under strict sanitary and temperature control not to damage the quality.
03｜Salting
We salt pollack roes. This salted roe is called "tarako".
04｜Tarako
Our unique salting technique produces tarako with soft and popping texture.
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MENTAI TOPIC
People tend to think that mentaiko and tarako are just different names of the same product, but that's not true. "Tarako" is made by salting pollack roes, and "mentaiko" is made by marinating tarako in a seasoning sauce using chili peppers. In other words, the names are used differently depending on the use of chili peppers.
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05｜Grading and sorting
We use AI machines for grading and sorting by color, shape and size.
06｜Marinating
The tarako is marinated in a Yamaya original seasoning, a sake-based sauce with chili pepper, yuzu and kelp. This sauce is called "takumi no tare".
A Yamaya original sauce "takumi no tare" consists of four ingredients.
We use the four best ingregidents to create the best quality sauce.
Chili pepper
We use an original blend of chili peppers to create a unique spicy taste.
Yuzu
A blend of green and yellow yuzu from Kyushu adds an elegant aroma.
Kelp
Laus kelp from Hokkaido brings a deep and mild taste to mentaiko.
Sake
We use sake from Kitaya, Edo-established sake brewery in Fukuoka. We don't use water for our process.
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MENTAI TOPIC We have skilled craftworkers to maintain the taste of Yamaya!
We make our sauce by adding fresh sauce to the original sauce which was created and passed down since the founding of Yamaya. Our well skilled craftworkers (Blenders) are carefully maintaining the quality. |
