Chef Takumi
Buri no Teriyaki (鰤の照り焼き, yellowtail teriyaki)
Winter buri asks for restraint: a dry sear, a small pan of soy, mirin, sake, and sugar, then patient basting until the glaze shines like lacquer and the fish stays tender.
Culinary Explorer
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Buta no Shōgayaki (豚の生姜焼き, ginger pork)
Created by
Thin pork, fresh ginger, and a small pan are enough. Sear the meat before the sauce touches it, then glaze quickly so the ginger stays clean and the pork stays tender.
Main Dishes
Japanese
Weeknight
Quick Meal
Comfort Food
12 min
Active Time
8 min cook•20 min total
Yield2 servings
Shōgayaki looks like a sauce dish, but it is really a slicing dish. Thin pork, two or three millimeters thick, cooks before it has time to toughen, and the ginger-soy glaze only needs to shine on the surface. Buy meat sliced for shōgayaki if your market carries it. If not, ask for pork loin or shoulder sliced thin enough to bend over your finger. That cut is the first secret.
The mistake is to marinate and wait, as if patience were always a virtue. Here it isn't. Soy firms lean pork when it sits, and ginger loses its high, fresh nose if you cook it too long. Sear first, glaze last. The pan gives the pork color, then the sauce reduces around it in less than a minute, just enough to turn glossy and smell bright.
This is the weeknight side of washoku, served with rice and a small mound of shredded cabbage that is not decoration. The cabbage catches the tare, the soy-mirin glaze, and gives you crunch against the soft pork. Leave the plate a little open. Even comfort food needs ma, the space that lets the food breathe. That's honmono, the real thing, in its everyday clothes.
Buta no shōgayaki is a modern home and lunch-counter dish, not an Edo-period form; its shape follows the spread of pork in everyday Japanese cooking after the Meiji period. In 1872 Emperor Meiji publicly ate beef, a symbolic break with older restrictions, and by the twentieth century pork had become common enough for thin-sliced cuts to appear in shops and shokudō set meals. The name is literal: buta is pork, shōga is ginger, and yaki means grilled or pan-seared, so the dish promises exactly what should be clear on the plate.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
thinly sliced pork loin or shoulder
Quantity
250g
2-3mm thick
fresh ginger
Quantity
25g (about 2 tablespoons grated)
peeled and finely grated
soy sauce (shōyu)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
sake
Quantity
1 1/2 tablespoons
mirin
Quantity
1 1/2 tablespoons
sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
katakuriko (potato starch) (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
neutral oil
Quantity
1 teaspoon
cabbage
Quantity
2 cups
finely shredded
small tomato (optional)
Quantity
1
cut into wedges
steamed short-grain rice
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| thinly sliced pork loin or shoulder2-3mm thick | 250g |
| fresh gingerpeeled and finely grated | 25g (about 2 tablespoons grated) |
| soy sauce (shōyu) | 2 tablespoons |
| sake | 1 1/2 tablespoons |
| mirin | 1 1/2 tablespoons |
| sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| katakuriko (potato starch) (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| neutral oil | 1 teaspoon |
| cabbagefinely shredded | 2 cups |
| small tomato (optional)cut into wedges | 1 |
| steamed short-grain rice | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Oroshigane (Japanese grater), or a fine rasp grater
- •Wide frying pan
- •Saibashi (long cooking chopsticks), or tongs
Instructions
- 1
Ready the cabbage
Set the shredded cabbage in cold water for five minutes, then drain and shake it very dry. The water crisps the cut edges, and draining matters because wet cabbage thins the glaze when the pork touches it. Grate the ginger on an oroshigane or fine rasp, reserve 1 teaspoon for the finish, and stir the rest with the soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar.
Grate the ginger just before cooking. Its clean aroma is lively, and it fades when it waits around on the board like a committee. - 2
Prepare the pork
Pat the pork slices dry. If a slice has a firm band of fat along one edge, snip two or three shallow cuts through that fat so the meat lies flat in the pan. Dust with katakuriko only if the pork is very lean, and make the coating almost invisible. A little starch helps the tare cling; too much turns the glaze pasty.
- 3
Sear the slices
Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat. Lay in the pork in a single layer and cook 45-60 seconds per side, just until no pink remains and the edges take on a little color. Work in batches if needed. Crowding the pan makes the pork simmer in its own juices, and then the glaze has nothing good to hold onto.
- 4
Glaze last
Lower the heat to medium and return all the pork to the pan. Pour in the ginger sauce around the meat and turn the slices quickly until the sauce bubbles in small fast beads and coats them with a soy-dark gloss, about 45 seconds. Take the pan off the heat and fold in the reserved ginger. The short cooking keeps the pork tender and the ginger bright.
Don't reduce the sauce to a thick syrup. Shōgayaki should shine, not wear a heavy coat. - 5
Plate and serve
Set a compact mound of shredded cabbage on one side of the plate, with a tomato wedge if using. Lay the pork in overlapping folds beside it and spoon over any tare left in the pan. Serve with hot short-grain rice. The cabbage catches the sauce and keeps the plate fresh, which is why we put it there in the first place.
Chef Tips
- •Ask for shōgayaki-yō pork if you are in a Japanese market: slices cut for ginger pork. Shabu-shabu slices are usually too thin and tear; tonkatsu cuts are too thick and belong to another dish.
- •Use fresh ginger with taut skin and a clean, sharp smell. Tube ginger is a convenience, but when ginger is the point, convenience has taken the chair that flavor needed.
- •A long marinade is not kindness here. Thin pork needs the pan more than it needs waiting, and soy left too long will tighten the meat.
- •If shin-shōga, young ginger, is at its prime in early summer, use it. It is gentler than mature ginger, so add a little more and let its pale freshness show.
Advance Preparation
- •The soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar can be mixed a day ahead and refrigerated. Add the grated ginger just before cooking.
- •The cabbage can be shredded up to four hours ahead. Keep it in cold water, then drain very well before serving.
- •Cook the pork just before eating. Leftovers keep two days refrigerated, but reheat gently with a spoonful of water or sake so the glaze loosens without hardening the meat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 415g)
Calories
600 calories
Total Fat
23 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
16 g
Cholesterol
90 mg
Sodium
1000 mg
Total Carbohydrates
59 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
32 g
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