Mastodawn

Apart a jar full I took out in December, the #miso has been fermenting for 7 months, and is looking so good. It is darker than in December and I am looking forward to tasting it. Some jars are currently sterilising. I could have left the miso ferment a little longer but didn't want to push my luck - it has a soy bean-koji-salt ratio for 4-6 months fermentation.

#Fermenting #Fermentation #FromTheFermentationBench #FromTheKitchenBench #Food #Vegetarian

Cont....

This was a kit miso that I used for my first time making miso.

It is darker than the jar I "harvested" from it in December, and is more mellow in taste, and more pastey - fewer bean bits and skins. This is all expected from the longer fermentation in our hot weather, and is quite lovely.

But both the one I harvested early and the rest I did today are very salty compared to store bought misos. So I checked against Shockey's recipes and the salt percentage is way higher than hers for the combined weight of koji and beans, even for her misos that are fermented for 24 months.

It's still very good - I have been using the early harvested one for ages. I'll now be more aware of salt levels when using it so I don't add too much additional salt (if any).

I am not sure why they'd use this level of salt, maybe to keep the fermentation slow and avoid problems. I am sure going to check some other recipes I have saved to compare.

Let me know your thoughts.

#Fermenting @Fermentation #Miso #FromTheFermentationBench #Food #FromTheKitchenBench

Cont .....

A little more information..... apparently, traditionally Japanese miso varieties are salty. Modern misos, especially outside of Japan, are using a lower salt percentage eg Noma and Shockey. Even so, this kit seems to have a very high percentage for a white miso - although I found another kit online with exactly the same ratio. This is really good info: https://thejapanesefoodlab.com/miso-science/#salt-content

I probably could have fermented it for a year, but the instructions said 6 months.

I have one more source I want to check for info, a very traditional miso book, but I guess my learning from this is that salt levels are very flexible, as are koji/beans ratio, and time can be adjusted according to the amounts of other ingredients.

Nothing is every fixed in fermentation 😆

#Miso #Ferment #FromTheFermentationBench #FromTheKitchenBench #Food

The Science of Miso – The Japanese Food Lab

Pollinators Mar 2

@LifeTimeCooking Thank you for sharing your miso fermentation. Figuring out the salt content to use will take some notes. We were going to start from a chickpea recipe in the Kirsten Shockey recipes. Our fermentation temperature is going to be around 20 Celsius. #fermentation, #miso.

@Pollinators I had some miso soup this morning made half and half with the miso from yesterday and the earlier harvested one. It was very delicious and slightly sweet, which I had not detected in the earlier miso.

The salt levels reminded me that first experiments in a new area should be viewed as throw away ones, just in case (like my first veggie ferments). This time, the results are very usable, even good, but they did raise some questions for me - this is what I want from a first experiment. I learnt a lot while I was looking for answers.

One of the surprising things from yesterday's miso is that it is not as textural as the early harvested one - less skins and bean bits. In my reading I found out that these come to the top of the fermenting miso and so it is best stirred well before harvesting.

I sent you the link to get The Book of Miso in case you don't have it. I've been reading its section on making miso. Incredibly enlightening. He used higher temps than Katz and makes me feel much more comfortable in this are.

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators after weeks of reading and working out a method, I finally took the plunge and started my first miso! I‘m aiming for 12-24 months, using 14% salt. (Though quite a bit of that sits on top and will have to be scraped off, if I understand correctly). #fermentation #miso

kimchiconcept Mar 2

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators I hard a hard time working out what to use as a weight, because there isn’t much room in the jar left. My usual 80mm Weck glass lids aren’t heavy enough so I got myself a nicely formed piece of iron bar from a local metal workshop 😜. It’s in a double plastic bag so that should be safe. But I’m wondering now if it isn’t too heavy. I‘ve got 1.7kg of Miso, and the total weight is nearly 3kg. Is that too much? I.e. can it sink in, over time?

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators I used a large ziplock bag filled with salt as a weight. This is handy so that the weight is consistent over the area of the miso. There are guidelines for how much weight to use for the weight of miso. Too heavy and you are forcing too much tamari out of the miso. Too light and the miso will erupt, creating air pockets.

Have a look online to find some guidelines. It can depend on fermentation time, type of miso and size of container. You can watch the progress and increase or decrease the weight as required.

#Food #Fermentation #Miso

kimchiconcept Mar 2

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators thanks! Salt sounds good, I’ll go with that then. That’s from the same Shurtleff/Aoyagi book, right? It’s the first time someone talks about too much weight.

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators Yes, that's the one.

It's good to go back to the source.

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators They also list things that can be used as weights, including (clean, sterilised) stones!

kimchiconcept Mar 2

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators with stones, I’m a little wary, because there are many types, I don’t know anything about that, but I read somewhere (in the context of lacto-fermentation) that the acid can leach out heavy metals or other substances you don’t want to have in food. Until now I managed to stick to glass or ceramic.

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators Good point.

kimchiconcept Mar 2

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators it‘s probably fine, if it doesn’t get into contact with the stuff… I’m looking at Shurtleff/Aoyagi‘s History of Miso (a free pdf on their site soyinfocenter.com) and its big vats with stones on top 😃

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators Looking good! I understand about all that reading! You'll learn so much by going through the process of making miso.

Let us know in 24 months how it worked out 😄

Pollinators Mar 2

@kimchiconcept @LifeTimeCooking It’s a lovely fermentation.

Pollinators Mar 3

@kimchiconcept @LifeTimeCooking This is exciting. We have started soaking chickpeas for a Wednesday morning miso fermentation. Our store bought koji is shown below. We intend to make a batch with each variety. Our fermentations will be short, two months with the white koji and six months with the red koji. Both batches will have about 5 percent salt. #fermentation, #miso, #koji, #KirstenShockey

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept Very exciting!

kimchiconcept Mar 3

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators 💯 exciting!

Next thing on my list is trying to make koji myself. I had some luck using our electric oven as an incubation chamber for Tempeh, so I’m hoping it can work for Koji too.

kimchiconcept Mar 3

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators btw those 2.5 kg really were too much. I had tamari coming up after only two days. So now we know you can have too much weight 🤓

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators I saw this in my reading this morning. "Miso" from oats, fruit, spices 😄

www.flavor-freaks.net/p/oatmeal-raisin-miso

#Food #Fermentation

Pollinators Mar 3

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept The sweet and savory possibilities are interesting. We don’t have a background in baking with miso.

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept No, I don't either. It is not something I'd be tempted to make. However I did make miso porridge overnight, which I love, with the recent miso, and wow! It was so good. (miso is added to cooled, partially cooked oats and it converts the starches to sugars and makes it very milky) I've shared the recipe before.

Pollinators Mar 4

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept Thank you for the tasty ideas with overnight oats and miso. We have a lot of experience with overnight oats.

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept This one is very simple - just oats and water, then miso. OMG so good. And as you stir the miso into the porridge you can see it begin to work as the porridge becomes looser.

https://www.southrivermiso.com/recipes/porridge-grain-milk/

I think it is also in Shockey's book and def in Katz's

Miso Porridge & Grain Milk | South River Miso Company

Porridge is the mother of us all - Russian proverb

South River Miso Company

kimchiconcept Mar 4

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators omg I’m going to need more large jars

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators 😄 That's what fermenting does to you 🤣

Pollinators Mar 3

@kimchiconcept @LifeTimeCooking We plan to ferment brown rice koji. Then the fermentation possibilities will be expanding! #fermentation, #miso, #koji.

kimchiconcept Mar 10

@LifeTimeCooking @Pollinators so! rice is mixed with amazing green spores and is on its way. I have been racking my brains for too long… do I need a rice steamer or can I just steam them in the pot as I know how? (Decided on the latter) What kind of rice? (I settled for supermarket basmati) Do I need a better fermentation chamber? (No) And so on. Too many instructions and in the end i just had to jump in and disregard half of them. Fingers crossed! #fermentation #koji

Pollinators Mar 10

@kimchiconcept @LifeTimeCooking Congratulations on feeding the amazing green spores some basmati rice. #fermentation

kimchiconcept Mar 12

@Pollinators @LifeTimeCooking reporting back: even the half finished #Koji smelled amazing and tasted sweet. Unlike anything else. But in the end, the first attempt failed. I didn’t prepare the rice the right way, it became really soggy on day two and had to be thrown to the compost. Oh well, live, take notes and learn…

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators Lots of lessons in the first trial. I bet your next one will be a success.

@kimchiconcept @Pollinators Yay, well done! Sometimes we just have to dive in.

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept I have finally made my mind up after vacillating for so long. I *think* I have made my mind up 🤣

Chickpea Miso - 2 month ferment - Shockey
Mellow Miso - 6 month ferment - Shockey
Red Miso - 12-24 month ferment - Shurlett

I intend to use some white rice koji and some brown rice koji. Also available locally via internet is black rice, red rice and barley koji. Lots to try.

I already have people queuing up for some miso 😄 so I am looking to have a rolling cycle. There are so many options to experiment with, and Shurlett has lots of very interesting variations. As I begin to harvest one miso I plan to begin another.

The red miso from Shurlett is very similar to the one I have just made, slightly different ratio but close, but a MUCH longer ferment. I can't wait to compare.

Very interested to hear how the koji making goes, @kimchiconcept

#Food #Fermentation #miso #FromTheKitchen

Pollinators Mar 4

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept Yes. You have chosen well. Sharing the slow food by fermentations is lovely. We recently shared Indonesian fermentations with our neice and her three person family. They were interested in growing yogurt too.

Pollinators Mar 4

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept Focusing on the koji rice, are you pre-wetting the grains? Our plan is to mix it as a dry ingredient.

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept I pre-wet in the miso I made - 100ml water with 400g koji. Then salt is mixed with the koji before mixing with the beans.

Any reason for not pre-wetting? You might need a moister bean paste to make sure the koji is activated and that the miso doesn't turn out too hard. (I am just guessing.)

Pollinators Mar 4

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept The Kirsten Shockey chickpea miso recipe said add leftover bean cooking water to get a consistency of rough mashed potatoes. We added three cups of this water to each batch. The small dark chickpeas went from 350 grams dry weight to 700 grams after boiling. We will see.

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept Should be fine. It is looking so good. Is that the amount you are making of each?

I never thought of using Desi chickpeas for the chickpea miso. Another variation to add to my list 😄

Pollinators Mar 4

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept They look wonderful. We have ingredient bottlenecks at this time. We only have 454 grams of each variety of koji rice. And each recipe uses 440 grams. Therefore we are interested in making more at home. #fermentation, #miso, #koji

Pollinators Mar 5

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept I started at 1,000 grams of water in the jars. Then I increased the weight to 2,250 grams this morning per the Kirsten Shockey recipe. This change was based on the feel that the plates were not firmly in the desi chickpea miso. This photograph is from yesterday. #fermentation, #miso, #koji, #KirstenShockey

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept I am not entirely sure what you mean by "plates were not firmly in the miso". Good to double the quantities tho, you can never have too much miso :)

Did you find the Desi chickpeas hard to mash? They are usually firmer than the light chickpeas and I would have said they don't swell as much when soaked, but yours doubled in weight.

I am putting my chickpeas on to soak today, and ordering in some more koji and soybeans.

Yay! Miso making season.

#Food #FromTheKitchen #Miso #Fermentation #ferment

Pollinators Mar 5

@LifeTimeCooking @kimchiconcept We have small white serving plates on the chickpea miso. And then the jar with water. The cooked desi chickpeas are dry and firm. The right size mortar and pestle would mash them. However, the food processor is present and efficient. Note that the potato masher was the wrong tool. The three cups of added water was added a half cup at a time. #fermentation, #miso, #koji

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept Ah! All clear now. I had not read the part about weighting with water. I am not surprised that you needed a food processor to mash them. Can't wait for the results!

I am making about a ¾ sized batch (of schockey's recipe) to use up some koji I have. It is not the best koji but it needs to be used. I have my fingers crossed I get something usable 😄 I will probably weight with salt but may use water.

Interestingly the miso I made previously used 20% of the miso weight in salt to weight it down, in stark contrast to Shockey and Shurlett! It worked perfectly but I didn't see a lot of tamari. Maybe a little heavier would have worked, but I am not sure about a really heavy weight 😲

@Pollinators @kimchiconcept I love that crock btw.