Shuto

What is Shuto?

Shuto

Shuto (Shu-tou・酒盗・しゅとう) is salted fish entrails.

It is made by adding salt to fish entrails and allowing them to ferment and mature for about a year, stirring them occasionally. One of the fermented foods of Japan.

Because of its rich fish flavour and salty taste, it goes very well with Japanese Sake, and is therefore one of the most popular “Shuko” (Sake snacks / accompaniment to Sake) for sake.

Shuto is particularly well known as a salted bonito fish entrails (stomach and intestines), and is a speciality of Kochi and Kagoshima prefectures with large catches of bonito.

Bonito Shuto, Salted bonito offal – Kochi prefecture

Tuna Shuto – Kanagawa prefecture

It is mainly eaten as a snack with sake, as a side dish with rice or in Ochazuke (rice with green tea), etc.

Shu-tou (酒盗) literally means ‘to steal sake’ in Japanese, and it is said that the name came about because it has a rich and salty flavour derived from amino acids and goes particularly well with sake, so that when you drink sake with it, it is as if the sake is being ‘stolen’ and you keep on drinking more and more of it.

Another theory is that the origin of the word comes from ‘even if you steal the sake, you will want to drink more’.

Kamasu shuto （salted and fermented barracuda）

It is said to have originated as a fisherman’s dish made and eaten by bonito fishermen, and manufacturers now produce and sell versions flavoured with yuzu, chilli and other spices, or with spring onions.

It is available at roadside stations, antenna shops and souvenir shops in Kochi and Kagoshima, as well as at supermarkets in urban areas. They are also sold via internet mail order.

In addition to bonito, other fish entrails such as tuna, sea bream, barracuda, salmon and saury are also used to make Shuto, Shiokara (salted fish guts), mainly in coastal areas, and are marketed as ‘Tuna Shuto (salted tuna)’, ‘Thai Shuto (salted sea bream)’, ‘Kamasu Shuto (salted barracuda)’, ‘Sanma Shuto (salted saury)’, ‘Salmon Shuto (salted salmon). They are also served in Izakaya and are well-known as local delicacies / local Foods.

Sanma Shuto（salted and fermented saury）