This is a guest post from a couple of our students, Kaitlin Cordova and Rebecca Morrow, on how to make training metsubushi.
I’d suggest doing all this over a sink, maybe outside. Last time I did this, I saved the egg innards in tupperware and made a bunch of scrambled eggs for me and my friends.
1. Buy one or two dozen eggs. (2 dozen pretty much guarantees you’ll be able to practice each technique a couple times, and probably have some left over to share with those who don’t have enough or to have some fun after it’s all done.)
2. Take a pin or an unbent paper clip and put a small hole on one end of the egg.
3. Make another hole on the other end of the egg, but make this one a little bigger.
4. Over a sink, blow through the small hole to push the yolk out the bigger hole. If you’re going red in the face and nothing’s happening, make both holes a tad bigger – you may not be getting enough air in or the bottom hole may be too small for the yolk.
5. Rinse out the inside of the egg so none of the egg residue sticks to the powder.
6. Set the hollowed, rinsed-out egg back in the egg carton to dry.
6b. On drying: Allow at least a night for the eggs to dry, preferably more. Better to give it more time than necessary than have wet baby powder that doesn’t work well. That being said, I’d suggest letting them sit for a few hours and then flipping them over. If anyone else has tips on drying methods, please leave a comment.
7. Once you’ve got all your eggs emptied and dry, it’s time to fill them up with baby powder! Standard baby powder works fine; you can use scented powder if you want. Puts lots of nice smells in the air, haha. 😉
8. First, put some tape over the small hole. It’ll get messy very quickly if you don’t.
9. This is Rebecca Morrow’s clever method for getting the baby powder in:
Get a 3×5 notecard and make your little funnel.
10. Pour the baby powder inside the funnel and, using a bo shuriken, pencil, or other thin item, stir the baby powder around so it actually goes down into the egg.
11. When it looks full, shake the egg a little to get the powder to settle; if there’s still room, add more powder.
12. When you can’t get anymore powder inside, set it back in the egg carton and tape up the top hole.
13. Repeat until they’re all done. You’re ready to go!
Editor’s note: Please be sure to wear eye protection and a dust mask for safety in training!
If anyone has additions, alternatives, or corrections, please post them in the comments section. 🙂
I’ll second that on filling the egg as full as possible. Otherwise the powder cloud won’t be big enough or full enough to be effective. That was the most common error last time we trained with metsubushi.
Michael suggested I post my comments here, so I am. I usually keep 2-3 dozen eggshells on hand at all times, always poking a small hole in each end and ‘blowing’ the egg’s contents out for cooking. Doesn’t take that much time to do, and it can be done very tidy. I’m going to experiment with using a toaster oven set on low heat to see how much temperature the egg shell can take & how long it takes to dry out. Moisture on the inside of the shell is a no-no, especially with talcum powder. If you need more dispersal of the powder, add sand, salt, or rice-the weight is neglible but will help. Here is a link to a video that shows some of the metsubishi I made in use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmuWLFEJrDU&feature=channel_video_title
Thank you for the ideas Kent! And cool video.
Definitely wear eye protection if adding sand or salt to the mix. I think the rice would be a safer option. That said, I’ve never really had much difficulty with the powder dispersal just using the baby powder. I guess experiences vary.
Looks like that plug-in that pull comments from Facebook is finally working.
Pretty much exactly how I make them. I have about 2-3 dozen eggshells on hand most of the time; I just remove the insides as described when I need eggs to cook, rinse and allow them to dry.
Hey Kent, that’s an awesome idea. You should post that on the comments for the actual blog post. Don’t know why I haven’t been saving my eggshells.
Metsubishi are great fun, especially when loaded with non-hazardous ingredients. Powdered wasabi is very nasty-I got some in my eye when I didn’t realize I had it on my finger and rubbed my eye. THAT’S something I’d rather not experience again. We used some ‘safe’ metsubishi in a demo back in ’08, here is the link to that. Not too bad for having made them the night before, and the eggshells were not as dry as they probably should have been…there was some clumping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmuWLFEJrDU&feature=channel_video_title
I have to disagree on filling them completely, though. I would be concerned with the filler becoming compressed into a ball, which could possibly keep it from dispersing properly. I know that it’s tempting to pack as much as possible, but you probably should experiment with different amounts of filler to make sure it’s not packing.
@Doug,
Actually you didn’t. I have a plug-in on the site that will pull comments from Facebook, etc. It wouldn’t work for the first couple of months and now it is suddenly working. Ah, the joys of managing websites.
so when I tried this in the past I used flour, confettti is also a good filler especially for like halloween or party type situations though historically they used powdered glass because it did permanent damage and kept persuers busy for longer…also the traditional instructions say to burn the shell to turn it black so its harder to see… dont it stinks to high heaven, just paint it.