Miso is loosened with water and mixed into wheat flour to make a batter. Chopped vegetables go in. A ladleful at a time is poured onto an oiled griddle, spread out, and browned on both sides.

The name is the method, stated without ornament. Tarasu means to let something drip or run, and that is precisely what you do with the batter when it goes onto the iron. Nothing in the word describes what it tastes like.

In Chichibu what goes in is shakushina pickle, fried first in oil. Beyond that it varies by household and by season, and leftover rice sometimes goes in as well. Some people put the miso into the batter; others cook it plain and brush a sugar and soy sauce glaze on afterward.

Saitama grew a lot of wheat, and the reason this particular thing survives is that it is easier than the alternatives. Udon takes work. Manju takes work. This takes a bowl, a ladle, and a hot surface. It was eaten as kobiru, the small meal in the gap during work in the fields, and it was also what came out with tea in place of a sweet. Some households worked leftover rice into the batter as well, which is the kind of detail that tells you it was never a recipe so much as a habit. Pour, spread, turn. There are no other steps.