Ishikari Nabe
石狩鍋
Hokkaidō's salmon and miso hot pot, born on the Ishikari River in the Meiji fishing boom — sweet corn, potatoes, and a knob of butter at the end.
By Japanese Cookbook Kitchen · July 3, 2026
北海道 HokkaidōMeiji era, 1868–1912
鍋- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Beginner
Hokkaidō is Japan's newest kitchen. The island was only settled at scale in the Meiji era, when the government sent farmers, fishermen, and soldiers north — and the food they invented there reads like frontier cooking anywhere: generous, warm, and built from what the land threw at you. What the Ishikari River threw at you, every autumn, was salmon beyond counting.
Ishikari nabe is that abundance in a pot: chunks of salmon simmered in miso broth with potatoes, cabbage, corn, and — because this is Hokkaidō, Japan's dairy country — a knob of butter melted over the top at the end. If miso and butter sounds like a violation, note that Sapporo has been putting butter on miso ramen for seventy years. The pairing is the region.
Like all nabemono it's really a table ritual, not a recipe: the pot goes in the middle, everyone serves themselves, and the cook's only job was the broth and the knife work. For a dinner that feeds four with fifteen minutes of attention, it has no business tasting this complete.
The butter is not a garnish — it's the Hokkaidō signature. Add it in the last minute, off the boil, and let each bowl get a little.
板前の一言 · A word from the kitchen
Ingredients材料
Serves 4
Broth
- 1 Lawase dashi
- 4 tbspmiso — a sweeter white or awase suits the salmon
- 1 tbspsake
- 2 tspmirin
The pot
- 500 gsalmon fillet — skin on, cut into 4 cm chunks — collar and belly pieces are prized here
- 300 gnapa cabbage, in wide ribbons
- 2potatoes, in thick half-moons
- 1onion, in wedges
- 200 gfirm tofu, in large cubes
- 100 gsweet corn kernels
- 1negi or leek, sliced on the bias
- 20 gbutter — to finish
- sanshō pepper — at the table
Method作り方
Step 1: Salt the salmon
Sprinkle the salmon lightly with salt and let it sit 15 minutes, then pat dry. This firms the flesh so the chunks survive the simmer whole.
Step 2: Build the broth
Bring the dashi to a bare simmer with the sake and mirin. Dissolve in half the miso through a ladle — the rest goes in later, so the pot finishes fragrant.
Step 3: Simmer the slow vegetables
Add potatoes and onion and simmer 8 minutes, until a skewer slides into the potato with only mild resistance.
Step 4: Add the salmon and the rest
Slide in the salmon, cabbage, tofu, and corn. Simmer gently 6 to 8 minutes — never a hard boil, which shreds the fish and dulls the miso.
Step 5: Finish with miso and butter
Dissolve in the remaining miso, taste, and lay the negi and butter on top. Lid on, heat off, one minute. Carry the whole pot to the table and serve with sanshō.
道具 · The tools
Equipment
Donabe
土鍋The clay hot-pot that makes nabemono taste like nabemono — a gentle, even simmer that carries straight to the table.
Shop on Amazon →Portable gas burner
カセットコンロThe tabletop butane burner that turns any nabe into a shared meal — cook and eat from the same pot.
Shop on Amazon →
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Questions from the kitchen
Where does ishikari nabe come from?
The Ishikari River, north of Sapporo, where Meiji-era fishermen hauled autumn salmon and cooked the day's unsold fish — heads, collars, and all — in a miso broth right on the bank. The dish still carries that no-waste generosity.
Can I use another fish?
The dish is salmon by definition, but the method forgives — trout works, and so does cod if you shorten the simmer. Keep the skin on regardless; it holds the pieces together and feeds the broth.
What do I do with the leftovers?
What every Japanese household does — add cooked rice to the remaining broth next morning, warm it through, and finish with an egg. The porridge (zōsui) is arguably better than the nabe.
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