List of Japanese ingredients


The following is a list of ingredients used in Japanese cuisine. While some basic cooking ingredients such as rice and soy sauce have become widely available outside Japan, other specialty ingredients are only available in stores that import foods from Asia.

Plant sources

Cereal grain

  • Rice
  • *Short or medium grain white rice. Regular rice is called.
  • *Mochi rice -sticky rice, sweet rice
  • *
  • *Rice bran – not usually eaten itself, but used for pickling, and also added to boiling water to parboil tart vegetables
  • * – toasted brown rice grains in and
  • * – Aspergillus cultures
  • *
  • *
*

Flour

  • starch – an alternative ingredient for potato starch
  • – soybean flour/meal
  • – flour
  • – starch powder
  • starch
  • Rice flour
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • * – semi-cooked rice dried and coarsely pulverized; used as alternate breading in deep-fried dish, also used in Kansai-style confection. Medium fine ground types are called and used as breaded crust or for confection. Fine ground are
  • *, – powdery starch made from sticky rice.
  • * flour
  • Soba flour
  • starch – substitutes are sold under this name, though authentic starch derives from fern roots. See
  • Wheat flour
  • *Tempura flour
  • *,, – descending grades of protein content; all purpose, udon flour, cake flour
  • * – name for the starch of rice or wheat. Apparently used for to some extent. In Chinese cuisine, it is used to make the translucent skin of the shrimp.

Noodles

Vegetables

Botanic fruits as vegetables

  • Cucumber
  • Eggplant
  • – mild peppers
  • *
  • * – The leaves of the made into are.
  • – pumpkins, squash
  • – type of squash/melon.

Cabbage family

*

Other leafy vegetables

Onion family

Vegetables in the onion family are called in Japanese.
  • – type of chives
  • – Chinese chives or garlic chive
  • – formerly thought a variety of scallion, but geneticists discover it to be a cross with the bulb onion.
  • Green onions or scallions
  • * – Often used to denote the types as thick as leeks used in Kantō region, but is not a proper name of a cultivar, and merely taken from the production area of Fukaya, Saitama. In the east, the white part of the onion near the base like to be used.
  • * – young plants.
  • * – Kyoto cultivar of green onion.
  • * – Cultivar named after Shimonita, Gunma.
  • * Other varieties with articles are , ,
  • – Allium macrostemon, collected from the wild much like field garlic.
  • – Allium victorialis, much like ramps.

Root vegetables

  • – Chinese artichoke, Stachys affinis
  • – Japanese radish
  • – Arctium lappa
  • Lotus root
  • Potato
  • Sweet potato
  • Taro and stalk
  • * – Kyoto variety
  • * – stems available fresh or dried; their tartness must be boiled off before use.
  • – bamboo shoots
  • *,, – Slender bamboo shoots of , so-called "baby bamboo shoots".
  • * – vital condiment to ramen, made from the Taiwanese giant bamboo and not from the typical bamboo shoot.
  • – vague name that can denote either Dioscorea spp. below. The root is often grated into a sort of starchy puree. The correct way is to grate the yam against the grains of the. Also the tubercle used whole.
  • * or – considered the true Japanese yam. The name refers to roots dug from the wild.
  • * – In a strict sense, refers to the long truncheon-like form.
  • * – A fan-shaped variety, more viscous than the long form.
  • * – A round variety even more viscous and highly prized.
  • * – edible tubercles
  • – lily bulbs

Sprouts

Specialty vegetables

  • Aralia cordata – "Japanese spikenard"
  • –a type of butterbur, both stalk and young flower shoots
  • – dried gourd strips
  • –
  • – a term for wild-picked vegetables in general, including fernbrake, bamboo shoots, tree shoots

Pickled vegetables

  • – term for Japanese pickles.
*

Nuts

Seeds

Mushrooms

Seaweed

  • – Campylaephora hypnaeoides
  • – Petalonia binghamiae
  • – kombu, kelp
  • * or – thin shavings of kelp
  • * – a thin sheet of kelp created as a byproduct
  • * – the thick, pleated portion near the attached base of the seaweed
  • Nori
  • * – refers to seaweed harvested from sea-rock.
  • – Aphanothece sacrum, a Kyushu specialty
  • – also known as and ; agar
*

Fruits

Citrus

  • – a new hybrid
  • Yuzu

Other

Soy products

  • Soy sauce
  • – soy sprouts
  • – soy meal
  • – dry-roasted soy beans and black soy beans

Vegetable proteins

  • – wheat gluten
  • * – fresh usually sold in sticks
  • * Dry – variously shaped and colored. is one variety
  • * – somewhat more doughy
  • Tofu
  • *Soft: ,,
  • *Firm:
  • *Freeze-dried:
  • *Fried:,,,
  • *Residue:
  • *Soy milk
  • *

Animal sources

Eggs

Meats

Finned fish

Marine fishes

[Blue-backed fish]

These fish are collectively called ao zakana in Japanese.

White-fleshed fish

These fish are collectively called shiromi zakana in Japanese.
  • flatfish - ribbons of flesh around the fins called engawa are also used. Roe is often stewed.
  • pike conger - in Kyoto-style cuisine, also as high-end surimi.
  • pufferfish - flesh, skin, soft roe eaten as sashimi and hot pot ; organs, etc. poisonous; roe also contain tetrodotoxin but a regional specialty food cures it in nuka until safe to eat.
  • tilefish - in a Kyoto-style preparation, it is roasted to be eaten scales and all; used in high-end surimi.
  • red sea bream - used widely. the head stewed as kabuto-ni.

Freshwater fish

  • ayu - the shiokara made from this fish is called.
  • Japanese eel
  • - refers regionally to different fish, but often the goby type, some are high-end fish.
  • salmon - shiojake or salted salmon are often very salty fillets, so lighter salted amajio types may be sought. is salt-cured whole fish. uses snout cartilage.
  • suzukinigoro buna - vital source of funazushi for Shiga-kennians

[Marine mammal]s

[Mollusks]

Squid">Squid as food">Squid and [cuttlefish]

These fish are collectively called ika in Japanese.
*

Octopus">Octopus as food">Octopus

Octopus is called tako in Japanese.

Bivalves

*

Single shelled gastropods and conches

  • horned turban
  • abalone

[Crustaceans]

These foods are collectively called ebikani-rui or kokaku rui in Japanese.

Crab">Crab meat">Crab

Crab is called kani in Japanese.

Lobsters, shrimps, and prawns

These shellfish are collectively called ebi in Japanese.

[Echinoderms]

[Tunicates]

[Roe]

Liver

  • ankimo, or monkfish liver.
  • and abalone livers are used as is, or as kimo-ae, i.e., blended with the fish flesh or other ingredients as a type of aemono.
  • squid and katsuo livers and guts, used to make shiokara.

Processed seafood

Insects

Some insects have been considered regional delicacies, though often categorized as or bizarre food.