It's Miso Making Time
 

I've realized that over the many years, I like to ferment things, whether it's cheese, wine, apple cider, soft drinks, tempeh, natto, chili sauce...You name it and I've probably tried to ferment it. I love foods that take a long, slow time to mature and make heavy use of Mother Nature to work her magic.

I made a big batch of Miso about 2-3 years ago and now, we're down to our last jar. Wah Wah. The kids have been bugging me to make more. It's been raining all month, so it's time to ward off cabin fever and get busy making more miso. It's hit and miss, because I don't have a formal incubator. I have to set my crock of miso next to the woodstove to keep warm, then cross my fingers. It's worked so far.

Today, I'm making a traditional, medium/dark, soy miso. (You can make miso out of a lot of other beans and legumes too.) To make miso, you first have to start out with Koji, which is a culture that is grown on rice, or barley. I'm starting my brown rice koji today, so I can use it in a couple of days to prepare my soy beans for the miso. If you're interested, I'll post pictures of the miso making progress. There's not much to see today. I'm just soaking the rice overnight.

If you are interested in making miso too, I have a great recipe book to recommend: Miso - Tempeh - Natto & Other Tasty Ferments, by Kristen K. Shockey & Christopher Shockey

Also, there's a good website on Fermentation: https://revolutionfermentation.com/en/ I don't know them and am not trying to sell anything, they just have a lot of good info.

It's MisoMaking Time
 

Well that's pretty cool! I do like miso and fermented items. Kimchi is what I'd do first and also cabbage. What type pot do you
put items into ferment? We are so lucky to have several farmer's markets here that often have fermented items (near Santa Cruz)
for easy pick up.

Ahhh...you're just down the coast from me. Hi neighbor! :)

I found a set of simple, black glazed crocks, S,M & L, that have weights to help hold everything down. I really love them. They can sit in my living room, or kitchen and not look bad...just part of the decor (if we even have that...LOL.) The weights are helpful in keeping everything submerged. I'll post pix of them later.

I love Kimchi too. I should make some of that at the same time. :)

My dau is into making fermented chili sauce. It's yummy! I just gave her a bunch of chilis that I grew. I'm hoping that she'll give me a jar of sauce.

This recipe book also has recipes for what they call "Tasty Pastes." They're sort of a freestyle type of fermented bean, or vegetable and mushroom pastes that are good on spreading on crackers, toast, etc. I want to try to make some. I have 3 crocks. I might as well put them all to work.

Is fermenting regional? Does weather affect it?

what brand of brown rice do you use? Or favorite is no longer carried around here and the replacements we've tried for steamed or fried rice dinner were yuck.
Yesterday we watched A Town Like Alice with Bryan Brown...lots of miso mentioned in the first 1/3, wonder if it was the same thing, or just Japanese for rice or food?

I ordered both the miso and the vegetable book. They were cheaper new then used.

I made my koji rice yesterday and found the perfect place to put it to ferment. The warmth of my built-in griddle on my stove added just the right amount of heat. By yesterday afternoon, I had fuzzy, white mycilium growing all over the rice. :) I left it on the griddle overnight to finish the process. However, when I got up this morning, the rice was gone...no where to be seen. I found it out in the outside fridge, where my DH put it after I went to bed to "keep it from spoiling." Augghhhhh! The koji is probably ruined now. It needs to maintain a temperature of around 85-90 degrees f. I'm trying to revive it, but it doesn't look hopeful. I've ordered more starter and rice, but I now have a huge pot of cooked soybeans. What do I do with those?

He's hiding in the bedroom, pretending to sleep in. No breakfast for you buddy.

Oh...fun! A fellow fermenter in the making. :D

I just use Safeway's Signature Select brand. I think that short grain is supposed to be better than long grain, because there's more surface area for the spores to grow on, but long grain works too. Actually, white rice works better. Koji doesn't need anything fancy. It's kind of like starting sourdough starter. Just plain, whte flour works for that. The spores don't care...it's the starch that they're after.

I'll have to watch that movie!

I don't know if it's regional, but it is temperature and humidity sensitive. They make tempeh in Indonesia, where it's hot and humid. They make miso in Massachusetts, where it's cold and snowy. My vinegars and Kombucha grow year round on the top of my refrigerator in N. California. The key is to create an environment that allows whatever you are fermenting to thrive. Each fermentation has different requirements.

Good news! Yesterday, with fingers crossed, I put my rice koji back on the griddle to warm back up and keep growing. It worked! I checked on it last night and could see the fluffy, white mycelium growing. I continued to let the koji sit on the griddle overnight and this morning, the rice is covered in white fluff. It smells like koji too. I don't see any mold or other infectants growing on it, so I'd say that it's good to go. I'll take pix when the sun comes up.

Today, I'm mixing my cooked soybeans with the koji, salt and miso and putting the mix in my crock to age.

Well I am not sure about what to get to make my own koji. People order the spores or the dried koji rice? The latter seems more pricey then buying miso. As for brown rice, I am big on Lundberg.

Pictures girl, pictures. LOL

We have been making stuff on and off for decades but never made miso.

I'm so sorry...I had to catch up on work and was unable to get back to post the pix. Here are some:

Cooking Brown Rice
Cooking Soybeans
Sanitizing everything by boiling

(To be continued)

More Miso making pix:

Koji Rice Cooked and ready for inoculation
Koji Rice inoculated
Koji Rice close up of inoculated rice
Soybeans mixed with Koji Rice
Homemade Miso added to soybeans and Koji

Homemeade Miso pic didn't show up in the last post here it is:

More Miso making pix:

Sanitizing weights that go inside of crock
Crock used
Using food processor to grind up soybeen/koji/miso/salt mixture
Putting miso mixture in crock and tamping down
Covering miso mixture with parchment paper and coating edges with salt

Last of the miso pix:

Putting weights on top of parchment paper
Putting cover on crock
Putting crock in a warm place by the wood burning stove

That's it! It's been a few days and some liquid is starting to develop on top of the parchment paper. That is actually Tamari, which can be spooned off and used in cooking, or it can be stirred back into the miso. This will sit about a year, or two, to make a very rich, dark miso. White miso takes only about 2-3 weeks. I'm going to start a second batch as soon as my koji starter comes in the mail.

I've been checking on the miso. It's happily fermenting in the crock, set near the woodstove. There's a pool of tamari developing on the top and it smells good.

I put the miso up in jars. It has a good taste, but very salty. It must be used in small doses. It will continue to ferment in the jar, in the fridge. Time to give some away.