Main course · Korean roots

Yakiniku

Yakiniku, Japanese for “grilled meat”, is the style of grilling bite-sized beef and offal at the table over charcoal or gas, seasoned with a sweet soy tare or with salt and lemon; Korean residents in Japan shaped it after 1945. Each piece takes seconds to minutes and goes from the grill straight into the sauce.

Also known as: Thịt nướng yakiniku · 焼肉Last reviewed 25 Oct 20265 sources

Karubi, harami, rōsu, tan

At a yakiniku table, raw meat arrives cut into thin slices or small pieces and the diners grill it themselves, a few pieces at a time, on a grate or plate set into the table over charcoal, gas or an electric element. Each piece takes seconds to a few minutes and is eaten straight from the grill, dipped in sauce, with rice, lettuce, kimchi and beer.

The cuts carry their own vocabulary. Karubi (from the Korean galbi, rib) is fatty rib and belly meat, usually boneless short rib or short plate. Harami is the diaphragm, the skirt, sold as offal in Japan. Rōsu (from the English "roast") is lean-to-marbled loin or shoulder meat, such as chuck roll, ribeye or sirloin. Tan is tongue, sliced thin and grilled with salt. Horumon covers the intestines and other offal.

Osaka's black markets, after 1945

Yakiniku grew out of the food of Korean residents in Japan (Zainichi), many of whom had come during the colonial period (1910–1945). After the Second World War, in the black markets of Osaka, Tokyo and other cities, Korean-run eateries grilled offal and cheap cuts, seasoned with garlic, soy sauce and chili in the Korean manner; several restaurants in Osaka and Tokyo claim to have opened the first yakiniku house in the late 1940s, and the claim is disputed.

The word horumon is often explained as Osaka dialect for "things thrown away" (hōru mon); others derive it from the German-English "hormone", in the sense of food that gives vitality. Both stories are told; neither is settled. As incomes rose from the 1960s, yakiniku moved from offal toward beef cuts and became a family and office restaurant meal. Downdraft "smokeless" roasters, spreading from the 1980s, took it into city centres, and the 1991 liberalization of beef imports made imported short plate and skirt cheaper and common.

Yakiniku is related to, but distinct from, Korean barbecue: the cuts are smaller, the meat is usually not marinated for long, and each piece is dipped in tare after grilling. Korean dishes such as bulgogi and galbi are its relatives.

Ingredients

Method

1. Make the tare: bring the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar to a simmer, add the grated fruit and garlic, simmer 2–3 minutes, cool and add the sesame. It keeps a week in the refrigerator.
2. Slice the beef against the grain while it is cold. Score the harami lightly and the tongue on one side to stop it curling.
3. For momidare style, massage half the karubi and rōsu with 2–3 tbsp of tare and a few drops of sesame oil 10–15 minutes before grilling; leave the rest plain for dipping.
4. Heat the grill well, to a surface hot enough to sizzle at once (a gas or charcoal grate typically reaches 250–300 °C / 480–570 °F), and oil it lightly with a piece of fat.
5. Grill in the traditional order, from light to rich: salted tongue first, 10–20 seconds per side, served with lemon and spring onion; then rōsu and harami; then the fattier karubi; then marinated cuts and offal, which drip and smoke more and soil the grate.
6. Cook thin slices 20–40 seconds per side, turning once, until the surface browns and the inside is pink; harami pieces 1–2 minutes in total. Dip in tare and eat at once, with rice.
7. Grill vegetables at the cooler edges throughout, and change the grate when it is blackened with sugar and fat.

Tare or salt

Seasoning splits into two schools: tare, the sweet soy sauce, and shio, salt, sesame oil and lemon, used for tongue and for high-grade cuts whose flavour the restaurant wants to show. Sendai, in north-eastern Japan, is known for thick grilled tongue (gyūtan), a postwar specialty. Premium restaurants serve wagyu cuts sold by name, such as zabuton (chuck flap), misuji (top blade) and sagari (hanging tender, close to the hanger). Hokkaido's Jingisukan grills mutton on a domed pan; at home, an electric hot plate replaces the grill.

Rice, lettuce, kimchi, reimen

Yakiniku is eaten with rice, lettuce leaves for wrapping, kimchi and namul (seasoned vegetables), and often finished with cold noodles (reimen) or bibimbap. Common mistakes: putting too much meat on the grill at once, which cools it and stews the meat; leaving thin slices on too long; grilling sweet marinated cuts before the salted ones; using the same chopsticks for raw and cooked meat; and undercooking offal, which should be cooked through.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

5

1. Japan Meat Grading Association. Beef Carcass Grading Standard. Tokyo, 1988 (rev. 2014). www.jmga.or.jp
2. McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. New York: Scribner, 2004.
3. Cwiertka, Katarzyna J. Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity. London: Reaktion Books, 2006.
4. Ishige, Naomichi. The History and Culture of Japanese Food. London: Kegan Paul, 2001.
5. Hosking, Richard. A Dictionary of Japanese Food: Ingredients and Culture. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1996.

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