big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
From Wild Fermentation
Though miso is classically made with soybeans, it can be made with any legume or combination of legumes. I've made miso using chickpeas, lima beans, black turtle beans, split peas, lentils, black eyed peas, kidney beans, adzuki beans and more. The distinctive color and flavor of each bean carries over into the miso it produces. Use what is abundantly available to you, and be bold in your fermentation experimentation!
Red Miso
Time frame: 1 year or more
This miso is strong and salty, and it requires at least a full year of fermentation. It is a style traditionally known as red miso when made with soybeans, though its color can vary, especially using different beans. A shorter-term "sweet" miso recipe will follow this one.
Equipment:
Ceramic crock or food grade plastic bucket, at least one gallon/4 liter capacity
Lid that fits snugly inside (plate or hard wood disk)
Heavy weight (scrubbed and boiled rock)
Cloth or plastic (to cover the crock and keep dust and flies out)
Ingredients (for one gallon or 4 liters)
4 cups/1 liter dried beans
1 cup/250 milliliters sea salt, plus 1/4 cup/60 milliliters more for the crock
2 tablespoons/30 milliliters live unpasteurized mature miso
5 cups/1.25 liters koji (about 1 3/4 pounds/850 grams)*
Process:
1. Soak beans over night and cook until soft. Take care not to burn the beans especially if you are using soybeans, which take a long while to cook.
2. Place a colander over a pot and drain beans, saving bean cooking liquid.
3. Take 2 cups of the bean cooking liquid and dissolve 1 cup of salt in it to make a strong brine. stir until the salt is completely dissolved. Set the brine aside to cool.
4. Mash beans to desired smoothness, using whatever tools available. Leave the beans fairly chunky.
5. Check the temp of the brine. (Just stick a clean finger in and once it is comfortable it is ready.) Once it is comfortable to the touch, take about 1 cup of it and mash the mature miso into it. Then return the miso mash to the brine, add the koji. Finally , add this mix to the mashed beans and mix until the texture is uniform. If it seems thicker than miso you've had, add some more bean cooking liquid or water to desired consistency. This is your miso; the remaining steps involve packaging it for its long fermentation.
6. Salt the bottom and side surfaces of your fermenting vessel with wet fingers dipped in sea salt. The ides is to have higher salt content at the edges to protect the miso from unwanted wild organisms.
7. Pack the miso tightly into the crock, taking care to expel air pockets. Smooth the top and sprinkle a layer of salt over it. Don't be timid about salting the tp. You'll scrape away the top layer and discard when you dig out the miso.
8. Cover with a lid. A hardwood disk cut to exactly the size and shape of your crock is ideal, but I usually use the biggest plate I can find that fits inside your crock. Rest a heavy weight on the lid. (Same as sauerkraut.) Finally place the outer cover on the whole thing to keep dust and flies out. Tie or tape the cover over the crock.
9. Label clearly with indelible markers. Store in a cellar, barn, or other unheated environment
10. Wait. Try some the fall or winter after the first summer of fermentation. This is called one year miso. The years are counted as the summers, periods of most active fermentation, that have passed. Repack it carefully, salting the new top layer. Then try it a year later or even a year after that. The flavor of miso will mellow and develop over time. I tried some nine year old miso recently and it was sublime, like a well-aged wine.
11. A note on decanting: When you open a crock of miso that has been fermenting for a couple of years, the top layer may be quite ugly and off-putting. Skim it off, throw it in the compost and trust that below the surface the miso will be gorgeous and smell and taste great. I usually dig out a whole 5 gallon of miso at once. I pack the miso into throughly clean glass jars. If the tops are metal, I use a layer of wax paper between the jar and the lid, as miso causes metal to corrode. I store the jars in the basement. Since fermentation continues, the jars build up pressure, which needs to be periodically released by opening the jars. Occasionally, mold will form on the surface of a jar of miso. As with the crock, scrape it away and enjoy what remains beneath it. To avoid these inconveniences, you can store miso in the fridge.
*Koji is grain, most often rice, inoculated with spores of Aspergillus oryzae, a mold that starts the miso fermentation. Can be found @ the South River Miso Company and G.E.M. Cultures
Though miso is classically made with soybeans, it can be made with any legume or combination of legumes. I've made miso using chickpeas, lima beans, black turtle beans, split peas, lentils, black eyed peas, kidney beans, adzuki beans and more. The distinctive color and flavor of each bean carries over into the miso it produces. Use what is abundantly available to you, and be bold in your fermentation experimentation!
Red Miso
Time frame: 1 year or more
This miso is strong and salty, and it requires at least a full year of fermentation. It is a style traditionally known as red miso when made with soybeans, though its color can vary, especially using different beans. A shorter-term "sweet" miso recipe will follow this one.
Equipment:
Ceramic crock or food grade plastic bucket, at least one gallon/4 liter capacity
Lid that fits snugly inside (plate or hard wood disk)
Heavy weight (scrubbed and boiled rock)
Cloth or plastic (to cover the crock and keep dust and flies out)
Ingredients (for one gallon or 4 liters)
4 cups/1 liter dried beans
1 cup/250 milliliters sea salt, plus 1/4 cup/60 milliliters more for the crock
2 tablespoons/30 milliliters live unpasteurized mature miso
5 cups/1.25 liters koji (about 1 3/4 pounds/850 grams)*
Process:
1. Soak beans over night and cook until soft. Take care not to burn the beans especially if you are using soybeans, which take a long while to cook.
2. Place a colander over a pot and drain beans, saving bean cooking liquid.
3. Take 2 cups of the bean cooking liquid and dissolve 1 cup of salt in it to make a strong brine. stir until the salt is completely dissolved. Set the brine aside to cool.
4. Mash beans to desired smoothness, using whatever tools available. Leave the beans fairly chunky.
5. Check the temp of the brine. (Just stick a clean finger in and once it is comfortable it is ready.) Once it is comfortable to the touch, take about 1 cup of it and mash the mature miso into it. Then return the miso mash to the brine, add the koji. Finally , add this mix to the mashed beans and mix until the texture is uniform. If it seems thicker than miso you've had, add some more bean cooking liquid or water to desired consistency. This is your miso; the remaining steps involve packaging it for its long fermentation.
6. Salt the bottom and side surfaces of your fermenting vessel with wet fingers dipped in sea salt. The ides is to have higher salt content at the edges to protect the miso from unwanted wild organisms.
7. Pack the miso tightly into the crock, taking care to expel air pockets. Smooth the top and sprinkle a layer of salt over it. Don't be timid about salting the tp. You'll scrape away the top layer and discard when you dig out the miso.
8. Cover with a lid. A hardwood disk cut to exactly the size and shape of your crock is ideal, but I usually use the biggest plate I can find that fits inside your crock. Rest a heavy weight on the lid. (Same as sauerkraut.) Finally place the outer cover on the whole thing to keep dust and flies out. Tie or tape the cover over the crock.
9. Label clearly with indelible markers. Store in a cellar, barn, or other unheated environment
10. Wait. Try some the fall or winter after the first summer of fermentation. This is called one year miso. The years are counted as the summers, periods of most active fermentation, that have passed. Repack it carefully, salting the new top layer. Then try it a year later or even a year after that. The flavor of miso will mellow and develop over time. I tried some nine year old miso recently and it was sublime, like a well-aged wine.
11. A note on decanting: When you open a crock of miso that has been fermenting for a couple of years, the top layer may be quite ugly and off-putting. Skim it off, throw it in the compost and trust that below the surface the miso will be gorgeous and smell and taste great. I usually dig out a whole 5 gallon of miso at once. I pack the miso into throughly clean glass jars. If the tops are metal, I use a layer of wax paper between the jar and the lid, as miso causes metal to corrode. I store the jars in the basement. Since fermentation continues, the jars build up pressure, which needs to be periodically released by opening the jars. Occasionally, mold will form on the surface of a jar of miso. As with the crock, scrape it away and enjoy what remains beneath it. To avoid these inconveniences, you can store miso in the fridge.
*Koji is grain, most often rice, inoculated with spores of Aspergillus oryzae, a mold that starts the miso fermentation. Can be found @ the South River Miso Company and G.E.M. Cultures
