Abura-age facts for kids
Abura-age (pronounced ah-BOO-rah-ah-geh) is a special Japanese food. It is made from soybeans and is deep-fried twice. To make it, thin slices of tofu are fried first at a lower temperature (around 110–120 °C). Then, they are fried again at a higher temperature (around 180–200 °C). This double-frying makes the tofu light and puffy, like a pouch.
Abura-age is used in many Japanese dishes. It is often used to wrap inari-zushi, which are rice balls. It is also a common ingredient in miso soup. You can find it in udon noodle dishes, where it is called kitsune-udon. This name comes from old stories that say foxes (called kitsune in Japan) love deep-fried tofu. Sometimes, abura-age is even stuffed with other foods, like nattō, before being fried again. There is also a thicker version of abura-age called atsu-age or nama-age.
How Abura-age Became Popular
The Japanese were the first to create these unique tofu pouches. We don't know much about their very early history. However, a cookbook from 1782, called Tofu Hyakuchin, had a recipe for deep-fried tofu. It's not clear if this recipe made the tofu puff up like the abura-age we know today.
We do know that tofu pouches were definitely around by 1853. This is when inari-zushi first appeared. Inari-zushi are tofu pouches filled with vinegared rice.
Abura-age in Factories
Because abura-age can be stored for a long time and is light, it became perfect for making in large factories. This made it easy to share across the country. By 1974, big factories were using a lot of soybeans every day to make many tofu pouches. For example, some factories used two metric tons of soybeans daily to make over 116,000 tofu pouches!
By 1980, modern factories were making even more. They could produce between 300,000 and 450,000 pouches every day. They used special conveyor belts for deep-frying. At that time, about one-third of all the soybeans used for tofu in Japan were for deep-fried tofu. Most of this was for making abura-age pouches.
Abura-age in Japanese Stories
In Japanese mythology, abura-age is known as the favorite food of kitsune (foxes) and the god Inari. Inari is a god of rice, tea, and sake, and is often linked with foxes. This is why kitsune-udon is named after foxes, because they are said to love this tasty deep-fried tofu.
See also
In Spanish: Aburaage para niños
