Salt-scrub (shiomomi): a handful of salt on the meat, scrub with a tawashi brush to lift the slime and the black film on the foot and edges. This is a scrub, not a cure — a minute or two, then rinse under running water.
Cook in the shell: the shell goes into the pot as shown in class. Shuck after cooking (a spoon or palette knife under the foot), then remove guts and the hard mouth parts.
Class notes give no scrub duration; the timing above is standard practice, not course material.
Steamed abalone 蒸し鮑 mushi-awabi
Water ml
1000 ml
water
1000 ml
sake
200 ml
light soy
20 g
kombu
daikon, thick half-moons
School whiteboard “AWABI — Steamed Abalone”. The pot on screen: abalone in shell, generous daikon half-moons, liquid just covering.
Kombu, water, sake, light soy in the pot; abalone shell-down; daikon on top and around.
The board sketch shows a wrapped bundle — cover (otoshibuta / paper) so the abalone stays submerged.
Low heat, barely simmering, not a boil.
Cool in the liquid.
Duration not recorded. Mushi-awabi is normally 3–5 hours at a bare simmer (or steamed 2–4 h); the meat goes from rubbery to tender somewhere after the second hour. Keeps 3–4 days in its liquid, refrigerated.
Why daikon
Japanese cooks credit daikon with softening abalone (and octopus) — the usual explanation is its enzymes (amylase/protease), which is dubious since enzymes denature well below simmering temperature. The daikon does lightly season the liquid and absorb the abalone's flavour; the real tenderising is the long low cook. Treat the daikon as traditional, not essential.
Serving
Sliced thin for nigiri (brush with nikiri), or thick for otōshi with the liver sauce (kimo, blended with the cooking liquid).