Jakoten is the deep-fried fish-cake of Uwajima and the Nanyo (southern) coast of Ehime Prefecture, a member of the satsuma-age family of fried surimi. It is made from small Setouchi fish, above all hotarujako, ground whole — bones, skin and all — into a coarse paste with salt, then shaped into flat ovals and fried. Because the bones are minced in rather than discarded, the cakes carry a deep small-fish savor and a notable load of calcium, and the surface fries to a dark, rough crust. It is eaten as it is while still hot, grilled with grated daikon, or dropped into udon and oden.
Jakoten is tied to the Uwajima Domain and the Date family who ruled it. By tradition it dates to around 1615, when Date Hidemune, the domain's first lord, brought kamaboko craftsmen from his home of Sendai and they began using the small, lesser fish of the local catch that were unsuited to fine white kamaboko. The name is usually read two ways: from zako (雑魚), the assorted small 'rough fish' of the bottom-net haul, or from hotarujako, the fish that became its prized base. The whole-fish, bone-in method made thrifty use of a catch that would otherwise go to waste. Jakoten is widely recognized as a local specialty of Ehime and was chosen among Japan's Hundred Notable Local Dishes (Kyodo Ryori Hyakusen).
Fresh from the oil it is hot, with a dark, crisp, slightly rough crust over a dense, springy interior. The flavor is intensely of the sea — concentrated, faintly bitter-savory small fish rather than the bland sweetness of pale kamaboko — and the finely milled bones give a fine grit and a mineral edge you can sense without ever crunching. A squeeze of nothing more than soy or a little grated ginger is enough; the cake is already complete on its own.
Jakoten works on the same myosin-gel chemistry as all surimi. Salting the ground fish dissolves the muscle proteins actin and myosin into a sticky actomyosin sol; when the cake is heated in the oil, the myosin molecules unfold and cross-link into a three-dimensional network that traps water, setting the paste into a firm, springy gel. Grinding the whole fish bones-and-all is the defining choice: the small, soft bones are pulverized fine enough to stay edible and dissolve calcium and minerals into the cake, while the skin, organs and dark flesh keep the strong, oily small-fish flavor that fine white kamaboko deliberately washes away. Deep frying both sets the gel fast and builds the browned, savory crust through the Maillard reaction.
Variations
The mix of fish varies with the day's catch; hotarujako is the prized base, but other small Setouchi fish go in alongside it, and shops differ in how coarse they grind and how dark they fry. Beyond eating it plain, jakoten is grilled until the edges blister, simmered in oden, sliced into udon as jakoten-udon, or even crumbed and fried as a cutlet. In the production towns it stands in for meat in everyday cooking, including a local jakoten curry. A close cousin, tenpura (the Uwajima word for the same fried fish-paste), is made from the same surimi but with the bones removed for a paler, smoother cake.
On the Palate
Where Jakoten sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Grind the whole small fish — bones, skin and all — then work in salt until the paste turns sticky and elastic; that dissolved-protein tack is what sets into a springy fried cake.
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
6 steps · 30 min
- 115 min
Remove the heads and guts from the small fish to cut bitterness, but keep the bones, skin and dark flesh.
- 210 min
Grind the whole fish, bones and all, into a coarse paste in a suribachi or food processor.
- 38 min
Work in salt and grind further until the paste turns sticky and elastic from the dissolved proteins.
Watch outPaste turns sticky and pulls into strands off the pestle — the proteins are dissolved and ready.
- 48 min
Wet the hands, take portions of paste and shape them into flat ovals about a centimetre thick.
- 56 min
Slide the cakes into oil heated to about 170 degrees Celsius and fry until set and deep golden-brown.
Watch outOil around 170°C — a drop of paste should sizzle up at once, and the cakes fry to deep gold.
- 62 min
Drain briefly and serve hot as they are, or with a little soy sauce and grated ginger.
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