Yummy Delicious BBQ Eel!

BBQ Eel ( Unagi ) for Sushi

Cutting eel for sushi is simple when you have some instructional guidelines to follow.  Cutting eel feels like cutting through cooked fish with  a thicker meat and fat bond.  The meat is fragile but not as fragile as cooked fish.  You will need to know how much pressure and force to use when cutting eel.  Paying attention to thickness, length, width, shape, and starting position will affect your outcome of cutting eel.

After cutting eel,

Enjoy it on Dragon Rolls, Eel Cucumber, Eel Avocado, Eel Nigiri, or Eel Don!



Instructions for Cutting Eel:

Before you start cutting eel, you should sharpen your knife to make this process as easy as possible. Take the eel out of package and cut the eel in half, right down the middle crease. Before cutting eel, position the pointy end facing you. Position the eel at a slight tilt to the right and position your knife onto the eel to make an X.

The perfect shape you would want from cutting eel would be a slanted rectangle with dimensions Length: 1.5″ and Width: 2″ Height: 1″ The diagonal sides would be considered the Length.

A tip that I like to show beginners is to create an equilateral triangle with the side of the eel, the side of the blade, and the invisible line in between the 2 sides. If you follow this method through out the process you will more than likely come out with close to identical shapes when cutting eel. The first piece you cut should be put aside and only placed inside rolls because it does not have the desirable shape you want for for eel nigiri, eel don, or eel placed on top of sushi.

Follow a ratio of 1/3 skin to 2/3 meat. Cutting eel to this method will have an outcome of a desirable look.

By the time you reach the end of one side, you should have 10 desirable pieces, and 2 pieces for inside rolls (the top and bottom piece). One package has 2 sides so one package should output 20 desirable pieces and 4 pieces for rolls.

The shape, size, look is instructed to achieve typical sushi restaurant preferences. If you want them thicker or thinner, adjust accordingly to your preference.

After cutting eel, you will notice your cutting board is filled with the Unagi BBQ sauce. That’s fine that you discard it or save it but do not wipe off the sauce off the top of the eel that remains after cutting eel.

Lightly toast the eel until warmish hot and serve any way you want!