Sukiyaki: how to make Japan's most festive hotpot at home

Sukiyaki occupies a specific place in Japanese food culture: it is the meal for celebrations. New Year gatherings, family reunions, welcome dinners. The combination of expensive wagyu beef cooked tableside in a sweet, intensely savoury sauce, dipped in raw egg before eating, is considered a luxury that marks a special occasion. Making it at home does not require an occasion, but it tends to create one.

The pan

Sukiyaki is traditionally made in a shallow, flat-bottomed cast iron pan - wide enough to arrange ingredients in a single layer rather than stacking them. A wide, flat cast iron skillet works perfectly. Place it over a portable burner at the centre of the table so guests can cook their own portions throughout the meal. The Iwatani range is reliable and safe for indoor tabletop use.

The warishita sauce: the defining element

Warishita is the sweet-savoury cooking liquid that transforms sukiyaki from grilled beef into something categorically different. The basic formula: soy sauce, mirin and sake in roughly equal parts with enough sugar to push the flavour decisively sweet. Some cooks make the warishita in advance and add it all at the beginning. Others - and this is the more theatrical Kanto-style approach - start with just beef fat and soy sauce, cook the first beef slices directly in the pan, then add mirin, sake and sugar gradually as the meal progresses. Both approaches work. The sauce should taste noticeably sweet - more so than most Western palates expect from a savoury dish.

Ingredients and the order they go in

Thinly sliced wagyu or well-marbled ribeye is essential - the fat renders into the sauce and adds depth that lean beef cannot provide. Arrange alongside: napa cabbage, firm tofu cut into large cubes, shirataki noodles (drained and briefly blanched to remove any off-flavour), enoki and shimeji mushrooms, naganegi (Japanese long onion) cut diagonally, and grilled mochi cakes. Add ingredients gradually in the order of their cooking time. Cook each piece briefly in the warishita and dip into a beaten raw egg before eating - the egg cools the hot food and adds a coating richness.

Managing the sauce through the meal

The warishita reduces and concentrates as cooking progresses. If it becomes too salty or syrupy, add a small amount of dashi or water. If it loses depth, add a little more soy. The last ladle of sauce, soaked up by tofu and noodles at the end of the meal, is often the most intensely flavoured.

Explore more Japanese hotpot cooking: shabu-shabu and oden. Browse our full sukiyaki tools collection.