{"id":98353,"date":"2026-03-31T02:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=98353"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:29:11","slug":"this-recipe-took-3-years-ninja-kikatsugan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/03\/31\/this-recipe-took-3-years-ninja-kikatsugan\/","title":{"rendered":"This Recipe Took 3 Years &#8230; Ninja <em>Kikatsugan<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZVhxaJZG37I?si=J34V_mj0jXPAcaRO\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Tasting History with Max Miller<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 23 Sept 2025 <\/p>\n<p>Very bitter, very sake-flavored balls that include ginseng, coix seeds, and licorice<\/p>\n<p><em>City\/Region<\/em>: Japan<br \/>\n<em>Time Period<\/em>: 1676<\/p>\n<p>Much like cowboys, pirates, and knights, ninja have been fictionalized to be a far cry from the intelligence gathering and sabotage experts of history. The term &#8220;ninja&#8221; didn&#8217;t even become popular until the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n<p>Even the historical text I&#8217;m using here, the <em>Bansenshukai<\/em>, has been called into question. Because it was written over the period of several centuries, often by people who weren&#8217;t even alive during the period when ninja, or <em>shinobi<\/em>, were active, who knows if it&#8217;s an accurate portrayal of their tools and methods.<\/p>\n<p>If this recipe is accurate, I feel bad for the people who had to eat them. They&#8217;re really bitter with an overwhelming sake flavor that isn&#8217;t pleasant. Really, I wouldn&#8217;t recommend making these; they&#8217;re not worth the 3 year time investment, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tastinghistory.com\/recipes\/hyorogan\" target=\"_blank\"><em>hy\u014dr\u014dgan<\/em><\/a> are a much tastier ninja survival food.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><strong><em>Kikatsugan<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<em>10 ry\u014d Asiatic ginseng<br \/>\n20 ry\u014d Buckweat flour<br \/>\n20 ry\u014d Millet Flour<br \/>\n20 ry\u014d Yam<br \/>\n1 ry\u014d Liquorice<br \/>\n10 ry\u014d Coix seed<br \/>\n20 ry\u014d Rice flour<br \/>\nGrind this into a powder, soak it in three sh\u014d of sake for three years until it has dried. Afterward, roll it into balls the size of peach pits.<br \/>\nEating three of these daily will keep you healthy even when you have nothing else to eat.<br \/>\nEating three will prevent both mental and physical fatigue.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <strong><em>Bansenshukai<\/em><\/strong>, 1676<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingredients<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>200 g Asiatic ginseng root*<br \/>\n20 g dried licorice root*<br \/>\n200 g coix seeds* (also known as Job&#8217;s tears)<br \/>\n400 g Japanese yam<br \/>\n400 g buckwheat flour<br \/>\n400 g millet flour<br \/>\n400 g rice flour<br \/>\n2.7 L sake, I used a cheaper cooking sake rather than a fancier one<br \/>\n*See notes below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Grind the ginseng root, licorice root, and coix seeds into a powder. You can do this by hand in a mortar and pestle, but it&#8217;s a lot of work, so no one will judge if you use a spice grinder instead.<\/li>\n<li>Peel the yam, then chop it into small pieces. Smash and grind these up in a mortar and pestle until you get a coarse paste.<\/li>\n<li>In a large bowl, whisk together the buckwheat flour, millet, flour, and rice flour. Mix in the powdered ginseng root, licorice root, coix seeds, and yam. I used my hands to make sure everything gets evenly distributed.<\/li>\n<li>Transfer the mixture to a large jar. Earthenware is ideal, but I wanted to see the process, so I used a clear glass jar.<\/li>\n<li>Pour in the sake and stir, making sure that all of the dry ingredients get mixed in.<\/li>\n<li>Cover the jar with a piece of tightly woven material like muslin and secure it with a string tied around the jar. Make sure you get this tied on tightly so that no bugs or other critters get in.<\/li>\n<li>Give it a stir every 2 to 4 days and make sure there isn&#8217;t any mold or anything growing in it. Stir every 2 to 4 days for the first 6 months, then stir once a week for the next 2 1\/2 years, for a total of 3 years.<\/li>\n<li>After 3 years, the mixture should have dried out to a paste-like consistency that will hold together. Roll it into balls about the size of a peach pit, or 3\/4 inch (2 cm).<\/li>\n<li>The text gives no further instruction on how to prepare them, so I tried three different ways. The most palatable (even though it still didn&#8217;t taste good) was to steam them in a bamboo steamer for 15 minutes. You can also just leave them out to dry a bit naturally, or put them in a 200\u00b0F (95\u00b0C) oven for 2 hours to dry out.<\/li>\n<li>However you prepare them, serve them forth.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasting History with Max Miller Published 23 Sept 2025 Very bitter, very sake-flavored balls that include ginseng, coix seeds, and licorice City\/Region: Japan Time Period: 1676 Much like cowboys, pirates, and knights, ninja have been fictionalized to be a far cry from the intelligence gathering and sabotage experts of history. The term &#8220;ninja&#8221; didn&#8217;t even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,7,24],"tags":[1276,476,1384,703,1388,1442,381],"class_list":["post-98353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-history","category-japan","tag-cooking","tag-espionage","tag-fanfiction","tag-middleages","tag-recipes","tag-tastinghistory","tag-theatre"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-pAl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98353"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101617,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98353\/revisions\/101617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}