Miso - anyone?

[bernardsmith]

Anyone here tried to make miso? I am having a hard time understanding exactly how much koji rice is needed to inoculate the beans. For my first batch of salty miso, last night, (13% salt by weight), I used two cans of cooked beans (chickpea and pinto) - about 500 g of beans. to this I added 300 g of koji rice, 400 g of liquid I drained from the beans, about 1 T from some store bought miso and hefty 110 g salt. My question: should the weight of the koji be more equal to the weight of the beans? If "sweet miso" uses significantly less koji than this (perhaps 10% of the weight of the beans) can I simply add more salt and let the sweet miso age longer and so come away with the more desirable saltier but far more complex flavored miso after , say 12 months?

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Have no idea on the make but I think it's awesome you're doing it. Where do you get your koji? Many, many years ago I lived inside a Japanese martial and zen temple, and regularly brewed sake. My original Koji came from Momokawa, extremely nice guys who were really helpful when I was starting out. Is the koji commercially available now?

 

[bernardsmith]

Part of the week I live in the Bronx in NY (my wife teaches in the city and I am with the state university based in Saratoga) but last Monday, my wife and I were both on vacation and we visited a mall in Brooklyn that focuses on the promotion of craft work and has lots of very specialized stores (making and selling pottery, chocolate, wood carvings) and one of the stores was an Asian market where they sold dried koji in 300 g bags (cost about $4.00). They also had some moist koji in their chiller cabinet but I was not sure how soon I would be able to make the miso and what kind of shelf life this active koji would have.
I live most of the week upstate and the nearest Asian market is about 40 miles from me. I am pretty confident that they sell koji but I simply don't have the time to check them out.

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Part of the week I live in the Bronx in NY (my wife teaches in the city and I am with the state university based in Saratoga) but last Monday, my wife and I were both on vacation and we visited a mall in Brooklyn that focuses on the promotion of craft work and has lots of very specialized stores (making and selling pottery, chocolate, wood carvings) and one of the stores was an Asian market where they sold dried koji in 300 g bags (cost about $4.00). They also had some moist koji in their chiller cabinet but I was not sure how soon I would be able to make the miso and what kind of shelf life this active koji would have.
I live most of the week upstate and the nearest Asian market is about 40 miles from me. I am pretty confident that they sell koji but I simply don't have the time to check them out.

Holy cow that is awesome. Best of luck, sounds like a great undertaking. My wife has been asking me to make Japanese food, we have the konbu, katsuobushi and miso to do some dashi....love how their cuisine relies on such a wonderful, simple stock. So I'm out of excuses. You've inspired me!

 

[Gadjobrinus]

Sorry, wrong thread.