Is the top tuna belly for cats? What did the generals in the edo period eat?

Japanese people like sashimi very much. However, in the time drama, it is almost impossible to see the scene of eating sashimi. This is because the studio where shooting is carried out will be very hot due to the heat of lighting. If sashimi is placed in a place where it is directly exposed to light, it will immediately change color and be dried. Of course, this can't be eaten by actors, so try to avoid sashimi.

so, what kind of fish did people eat in the edo period?

General will surely enjoy the fat tuna belly, won't he?

In fact, there is a list of fish, and generals will only eat the fish at the top.

According to the Four-stream Bunting Book written in the Muromachi era (a book sorting out Japanese cuisine schools handed down from heian period), it says, "Carp is the best, followed by snapper and so on. There is no fish higher than carp "and" the upper level is marine organisms, the middle level is river organisms, and the lower level is mountain organisms ".

In other words, the first is carp, the second is snapper, followed by marine fish, fish from rivers and fish from streams. This ranking comes from heian period's idea of "Four Streams", which started as a chef and reigned in the world, to determine the order of fish to be served to noble people. In the Edo era, these were reflected in the dining table of the generals who were the heads of the Takeshi family, and were further divided into finer upper and lower grades.

The high-grade fish are carp and snapper, besides which there are fragrant fish, shrimp, sand carp, perch and whitebait. On the contrary, the low-grade fish that will not appear in the general's royal diet are sardines, snapper and bamboo. Fish, crucian carp, and tuna. Therefore, tuna is an exclusive fish for the common people. However, the common people will also discard the tuna parts that are too greasy and only eat the lean parts. Thanks to this, all the cats in Edo eat is tuna belly, the top food, and the cats can be said to have received an unexpected salary.

There is another kind of fish that samurai don't eat, that is, puffer fish, which is the representative of modern advanced fish. To be correct, although I want to eat, I am forbidden. As we all know, puffer fish is poisonous, and even if those ancient bold gourmets challenged, there were many victims. Of course, there are also many samurai who can't stand it and steal food, which leads to the final death. So in the Edo era, of course, the shogunate banned it, and all the vassals strictly prohibited the samurai from eating puffer fish. If they ate death, they had to cut off their families.

It was in the Meiji era that puffer fish became edible as it is now, and the credit is given to Ito Bowen. It is said that as a national veteran, Ito Bowen wants to hold a banquet in Chunfanlou, a famous restaurant in Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi Prefecture) (which is still open), but the catch is insufficient and there are no fresh live fish. So the restaurant cooked the only puffer fish in the fish tank and took it out in fear. I didn't expect Ito to have never eaten such delicious fish, and I was in a great mood before I lifted the order prohibiting the consumption of puffer fish.