🍲 Tachi Miso Soup／Miso Soup with Pacific Cod Soft Roe

In Hokkaido, soft roe of Pacific cod and Alaska pollack are distinguished. The soft roe of Pacific cod is called "Madachi" and the soft roe of Alaska pollack is called "Sukedachi". The miso soup using the whole soft roe of those codfish is called "Tachi miso soup" and is a typical winter soup in Hokkaido. “鱈(Codfish)” is a fish that is in season during the cold months when it snows, as can be seen in the Japanese character for codfish which depicts the character for snow to the right of the character for fish. The flavor is said to be the best from around January to February. It is said that Codfish has been eaten in various places such as Edo or Kyoto since at least the Muromachi period. At that time, the internal organs of the fish were removed through the mouth without cutting the stomach and filled with salt to prevent the fish from rotting during transportation. These fish were well appreciated by the Samurai because the stomach was not cut, in other words, it was a food that did not make one think of Seppuku(=Harakiri). The living water temperature of Codfish, which is a type of cold-water fish, is as low as 2℃ to 4℃(≒35 F to 39 F). Therefore they are mostly found around Hokkaido where the ocean temperature is very low, and Hokkaido boasts the largest catch of cod in the country. In addition, Alaska pollack, which migrates from summer to autumn in search of food, is caught throughout almost all of Hokkaido.