Katsudon
Katsudon
Katsudon is one of the most comforting and satisfying dishes in Japanese home cooking — a bowl of steamed white rice topped with a tonkatsu pork cutlet and beaten egg, cooked together in a light dashi and soy broth until the egg is just set. The name combines katsu (the cutlet) and don (short for donburi, the rice bowl), and it appears on the menu of virtually every Japanese diner, family restaurant and home kitchen. It is also famously associated in Japan with success and good luck, making it a dish eaten before important exams or competitions.
The key piece of equipment for making katsudon properly is a small individual oyakodon pan — a shallow, round pan with a long handle, typically around 18 centimetres across, designed to hold a single serving of the dish during the brief cooking time when the broth and egg are added over the cutlet. The small size ensures the ingredients stay in the right proportions and that the egg sets evenly without the broth dissipating. Using a regular larger pan works but produces a noticeably inferior result.
Beyond the oyakodon pan, you will need a good saucepan for preparing the broth, a deep frying pan or pot for the initial tonkatsu frying, a draining rack for the cutlet and quality donburi bowls for serving. The bowl is an important part of the experience — katsudon served in a proper deep donburi bowl, with the slightly overhanging egg-covered cutlet visible above the rim, looks and feels like the genuine article in a way that a shallow plate simply does not.
The collection here covers all of these components, from the essential cooking tools to the serving vessels and condiment accessories needed for a complete katsudon experience at home.
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Serve in our donburi bowls and explore our cookware for the right pan.
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