Local specialties
Shimotsukare
- 09Tochigi
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- 09Tochigi
Dish log
A Tochigi local dish in which daikon grated with an oni-oroshi (coarse grater), soybeans, salted salmon heads, and other ingredients are simmered with sake lees.
Dish profile
About this dish
- Main ingredients
- daikon radish, soybeans (roasted soybeans), salted salmon head (shiobiki-zake), sake lees, carrot, aburaage (fried tofu)
- History and origin
- A dish that uses the head of the salted salmon from New Year and the leftover fukumame (lucky beans) from Setsubun, it was once made as an offering to Inari shrines on Hatsuuma, the first Day of the Horse in the second month of the old lunar calendar, and there was a taboo against making it at any other time. Sake lees is said to have come into use around the mid-Edo period, when sake lees began to be distributed.
- When it is eaten
- It used to be made the day before Hatsuuma, offered, and eaten, but in recent years it is no longer limited to that; it is made at home when winter comes and enjoyed as an everyday accompaniment to rice.
- How it is eaten
- The ingredients are simmered for about an hour, and once the flavors have melded, sake lees is added and the seasoning adjusted. Cold Shimotsukare is said to go well with warm sekihan (red bean rice).
Sources
- しもつかれ／シモツカレ 栃木県 | うちの郷土料理：農林水産省 · Ministry of Agriculture · Source checked 2026-10-12
Recipes vary by region and household. This is not ingredient, allergy, or dietary guidance for a specific restaurant.
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- VegetarianNo direct clue found (this does not mean suitable)
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- HalalClues to confirm: alcohol
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- Gluten-freeNo direct clue found (this does not mean suitable)
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- PorkPork: no direct clue found (absence is not confirmed)
- Alcohol (mirin / sake)Alcohol (mirin / sake): clue found in dish information
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