Sukiyaki — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Tender slices of marbled beef simmered tableside in a sweet-savory warishita sauce with tofu, vegetables, and noodles, then dipped in beaten raw egg. A luxurious and celebratory Japanese communal dining tradition.

Ingredients

500g thinly sliced beef (well-marbled ribeye)
1 block firm tofu, cut into cubes
200g shirataki noodles, rinsed
1 large negi (Japanese leek), sliced diagonally
200g napa cabbage, chopped
150g shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
100ml soy sauce
100ml mirin
50ml sake
3 tablespoons sugar
4 fresh eggs for dipping
Beef suet or vegetable oil for cooking

Instructions

1 Prepare the warishita sauce by combining soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar in a bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Arrange all ingredients on platters for tableside cooking, keeping them separate.
2 Heat a cast iron skillet or sukiyaki pot on a portable burner at the table. Melt a small piece of beef suet or heat oil, then sear a few slices of beef until just browned on one side.
3 Pour in enough warishita sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Add negi, napa cabbage, mushrooms, tofu, and shirataki noodles, arranging them in sections so each ingredient cooks at its own pace.
4 Let everything simmer gently in the sweet-savory sauce for five to eight minutes. The vegetables will release moisture and the tofu will absorb the rich braising flavors as everything melds together.
5 Each diner cracks a raw egg into their individual bowl and beats it lightly. Pick cooked ingredients from the pot with chopsticks and swirl them through the beaten egg before eating.
6 Continue adding more beef, vegetables, and sauce as ingredients are consumed. The broth grows richer with each addition. Finish with udon noodles simmered in the remaining intensely flavorful broth.

Did You Know?

The word sukiyaki may derive from suki meaning plow, as farmers reportedly cooked meat on heated plow blades in the fields. The dish became a symbol of Japan's modernization when the Meiji emperor publicly ate beef in 1872.