Japanese Cuts of Meat: Pork, Beef and Chicken Names at the Supermarket

The core idea: animal, part, cut

Every meat name fills up to three slots in a fixed order. First the animal: buta (豚), pork; gyū (牛), beef; tori (鶏), chicken. Then the part: bara, belly; momo, leg or thigh; rōsu, loin. Then the shape: usugiri, thin slices; kakugiri, cubes; hikiniku, mince. Butaniku, pork, is literally pig meat, and gyū momo usugiri is thinly sliced beef leg.

When one slot is obvious, people drop it. At a tonkatsu restaurant rōsu can only be pork, and on a yakiniku menu it can only be beef. At home, a label may also add a use such as sukiyaki-yō, for sukiyaki. Official labels often write part names in hiragana, as in kata rōsu (かたロース), while recipes and shop signs prefer katakana and kanji (肩ロース). Two flatmates are planning dinner.

Pork and chicken: where the parts are

The part names describe the body, so the diagram does most of the work. Rōsu comes from English roast, a Japanese coinage that now names the loin; hire is from French filet, and in the Kansai region you will also hear here, as in herekatsu. Bara is usually explained as short for abara, the ribs, around which the belly meat lies.

The chicken names are just as literal. Sasami (笹身) is literally bamboo-leaf meat, for the slim leaf-shaped strip under the breast. Teba, the wing, is literally hand feather, and it divides into tebamoto, the base; tebanaka, the middle; and tebasaki, the tip, usually sold with the middle attached. A friend who cooks a lot gives you advice.

UnihongoVocabulary

唐とう揚げあげなら鶏にわとりももがおすすめ。For karaage, I'd go with chicken thigh.

Beef names at the supermarket

Beef has more official parts than pork, and a supermarket label must use them: kata rōsu, ribu rōsu (rib loin), sāroin, hire, bara, momo and a few more. Yakiniku menus use a second set of names. The table mixes both, with a note on where you see each.

Karubi comes from the Korean word for rib, and harami is usually explained as hara, belly, plus mi, flesh, although the cut is the diaphragm. Because neither is an official part name, a label that says karubi-yaki-yō, for grilling as karubi, must also give the real part, usually bara.

Shape words: usugiri, kiriotoshi, komagire, hikiniku

The third slot says what the knife or the grinder has done. Some shape words also tell you the price level, because trimmings are cheaper than neat slices. Hikiniku, mince, is literally ground meat, from hiku, to grind. Aibiki, literally ground together, is beef and pork mixed; the label names the heavier meat first, so gyū buta aibiki has more beef than pork. Komagire and kiriotoshi are both trimmings, but in general usage komagire means small scraps from several parts and kiriotoshi larger offcuts, sometimes from one named part. Checkout and aisle phrases have their own supermarket guide, and cooking verbs another; here, at a staffed butcher's, a customer asks.

Reading the label on the pack

Once the name is decoded, the rest of the label answers four questions: where from, until when, how much, and who packed it. Kokusan (国産), domestic, means the animal spent the longest part of its life in Japan; imports name the country. Fresh meat carries shōhi kigen, a use-by date. At a staffed counter the big number on the price card is the price per 100 grams; on a pack, the total you pay is kakaku or onedan. Domestic beef adds a ten-digit individual identification number, and meat that was frozen is marked kaitō, thawed. A newcomer checks a pack with a colleague.

UnihongoVocabulary

国産こくさんは日本にっぽんで育っそだったという意味いみですか。Does kokusan mean it was raised in Japan?

Beyond the basics: yakiniku menu words

At a yakiniku restaurant, where you grill meat at the table, the menu uses its own names, mostly for beef. Karubi, rōsu, harami and tan are the core; horumon is offal, and the pork neck appears as tontoro. Grades go in front: jō, premium, and tokujō, top premium. Staff often ask how you want a plate seasoned, tare, a sweet soy sauce, or shio, salt. Tan shio, salted tongue, is a common first plate. Colleagues are ordering the first round.

Beyond the basics: wagyū, kokusan-gyū and animal readings

The kanji for the three animals change their reading with the word. Buta, pig, becomes ton in compounds such as tonkatsu and tonjiru. Ushi is the living cow, but the meat is gyū: gyūniku, gyūdon, gyūtan. Niwatori is the bird in the farmyard, while the meat is tori, as in toriniku and yakitori. The pairs below are the ones that trip up shoppers.

Common mistakes with meat words

Taking harami for belly. The hara in the name suggests belly, so shoppers expect bara. Harami is the diaphragm; for belly, look for bara.

Thinking rōsu means roast. The word came from English roast, but in Japan it names a part, the loin. Roast beef, rōsuto bīfu, is usually made from momo.

Reading aibiki as half and half. The ratio varies, and the label names the heavier meat first. Gyū buta aibiki is mostly beef.

Paying more than you expected. Price cards and labels show the price per 100 grams in large figures, and a 350-gram pack costs three and a half times that. Look for kakaku or onedan before you reach the till.