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How to Make Miso SuccessfullyIn old
days there was a saying "Spend money to buy
good miso
than paying to a doctor." Indeed, miso has great health benefits
as written more in details later. In
Japanese, "my miso"
means to self-praise "own things."
So if I write “my miso is good”, the chance of being believed may diminish.
Nonetheless, until I made my own miso, it was unbelievable that the home-made miso is so
fragrant and tastes good. The difference is perhaps similar to the comparison
between the tomatoes from grocery and those from your own backyard. Making miso is easy
and economical. Every homemade miso should be good if done properly. The homemade miso is free
from any preservatives, and not pasteurized. Although
there are varieties of miso,
they may be classified into four major kinds as follows: (1) Edo miso, (2) shiro miso, (3) barley miso, and (4)
soy miso.
Shiro miso is also
called amamiso
because it has some sweetness. In the remainder of this article, how to make the four major miso will be explained first, and then medicinal
merits of the miso
will be described. 1
Traditional Way of Making Edo Miso Edo miso is the most standard type of miso. We explain here how to make it in a traditional way.
In a later section, we will write more innovative way of making miso, which may be favoured when a small amount to miso is to be
made. Materials Soybeans
1Kg (2Lb) Dry Koji[1]
1Kg (2Lb), or
equivalent amount of fresh
white koji Salt 0.5Kg
(1Lb, sea salt is preferred) Equipments Pressure
cooker 2 gallon
(8 liter) fermenting vessel 2 plastic bags[2] (for example, 14"x18", 4 mil
thick) 1 wooden drop lid 1 weight (see a later paragraph for possible
ideas) or 1 to 2Kg of salt Cooking and mashing of soybeans Soak
soybeans in ample water for 12 hours.
Cook it in a pressure cooker. Before closing the lid of the pressure
cooker, make the water level in the pressure cooker same as that of soybeans.
Heat at medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes after pressure rises. If no pressure cooker is available, boil in
a cooking pan at low heat until soybeans become soft (4 to 6 hours). Cool down
the cooked soybeans until it reaches 140F (60C). Mashing soybeans may be done by mashing in
a plastic bag, by food processor, or by mashing rod, but by far easier is to
mash it using a hand held electric blender (Figure 1). Mashing soybeans while hot is the best way
because as the temperature becomes lower, the soybeans become hard to crush. Do not
dispose the hot water but mash soybeans together with the hot water. Preparation of salted koji The first
thing in the whole process is to make salted koji, that is, to mix koji thoroughly
with salt. This process helps prevent koji from
spoiling, particularly if fresh koji is made or purchased but not used immediately. If dry koji is used,
it must be soaked in warm water of 1/2 volume for 2 hours, and then mix with
salt, at least a few hours before soybeans are cooked.
Koji-to-soybeans ratio Before the
World War II when the tenant system of farmers existed in Japan, the miso for
landlords of farmlands and that for farmers were different. The miso for
landlords had a higher ratio of koji to soybeans, while the ratio was lower for farmers so
the farmer’s miso
was cheaper. The higher
the ratio of koji
to soybeans, the more the flavor and sweetness of miso. The amount of koji to
soybeans in our recipe for Edo miso is 1-to-1,
which produces a landlord's deluxe miso. An obvious
question is what are the lower or higher limits of the
ratio. The higher limit of koji is 675g
(1.5Lb), and the lower limit is 360g (0.8Lb), both with 450g (1Lb) soybeans
and 225g (0.5Lb)
salt. If you
make koji
by yourself, follow the instruction written in another article titled “How to
make koji successfully”, or the book titled “Handboook of Making Sake, Shochu,
Koji, Amazake, Miso, Natto, Mirin and More,”
available at Amazon.com . Container The
container for miso
making should be about 1.5 times in volume of the miso to be made. The containers
with vertical side wall are most preferable.
The capacity may be found using the chart in Appendix 3. Wash the container carefully, and dry
completely. The container
for miso
fermentation may be made of glass, ceramic or plastic. Plastic buckets of 5
gallons in the food grade may be available easily at a hardware store, but
their side walls are not straight. For such, a few lids of different
diameters need to be prepared so, as the height of the top of miso changes,
use a different lid that fits. Do not use any metal container even if it is
stainless steel. Stainless steel may be corroded although red colored rust
may not be seen. Recently fermentation
vessels in the ideal shape are being sold online. See the figure below as an
example.
Figure 2 1 gallon stoneware pickling crock, $40.
Other sizes are available from
Ohio Stoneware
Figure
3 A drop lid made of wood. Drop lid This is a
handy man's job. The lid is used
inside the fermenting vessel. So the
diameter must be smaller than that inside the vessel, but it must fit inside
the vessel leaving only a very small gap.
See the figure below.
Figure
4 A split design of lid. Convenient if the
mouth is narrow. Weight(s) Weights
are very important. If miso is made
without weight, a harsh and sour product with strong smell of esters will be
the result. A suggested total weight
is 30% of miso
being fermented. There are many ways of finding appropriate weights. Some ideas are: ·
Stones from backyard after thorough washing. Do not
have to be a single piece. ·
A bottle, which just fits in the fermenting vessel,
filled pebbles or salt, or water. One gallon bottle filled with water weighs
about 4kg.
Figure 5 An example of fermentation vessel and weight for the Edo miso
Figure
6 Illustration of miso
fermentation vessel Figure 7 Ceramic weights (980g a piece) ·
Salt may be used as weight. The specific gravity of
salt is high, and salt in a plastic bag is flexible in shape. If salt in a
plastic bag is used as a weight, a lid on the top of miso is not needed. See Section
8.6 Innovative Miso
Making for specific applications of this approach. Setting soybeans for fermentation The mixture
of soybeans, koji
and salt must be soft like peanut butter. If harder, add a warm water and
mix. Throw the mixture of salted koji and soybeans in a soft ball size into the containment
for fermentation. Squeeze the content
to eliminate any possible air bubbles.
Smooth out the top surface of the mash. Put the drop lid as shown in
Figure 6. Spread a small amount of
salt at the edge of the lid. If salt
is to be used as weight, read Section 8.5 for more information. Aging Recommended
aging period for Edo miso is 6 to 9 months, which
is hard for the beginners to wait.
Fortunately, the homemade miso tastes good even with only 3 months of aging. The miso being aged
should be placed at a cool place in the house, but not in a
refrigerator. However, even temperature
goes up in summer, do not worry about it as far as
the top is pressed with the weight. During the fermentation, the proteins in
soybeans are decomposed by the protease, which is one of the major enzymes of
koji, to
amino acids and umami. Turning over One month
after the aging starts, open the lid.
The miso must be mixed so the bottom and top
are turned over. The purposes are (1)
to make the mixture of soybeans, koji and salt as homogeneous as possible, (2) to remove the
gas generated during the aging process, and (3) to expose to fresh air
briefly. When finished, repack just as
the initial packing. If any
mold is found on or around the drop lid, remove it using paper towel. It is
not possible to make miso
without seeing white mold, which is the sign that fermentation is in
progress. If black mold is found,
remove it carefully. Then, sterilize
the lid with shochu
or brandy, and dry. The
bacteria, aided by enzymes in the koji, start the natural fermentation of soybeans and koji. Proteins
and oils are gradually converted to simple amino and short chain fatty acids. 2
White Miso In Kansai district of Japan, white miso is
popular. The procedure of making white miso is almost same as the Edo miso except the amount of koji is doubled
with a reduced amount of salt, and the fermentation period is much shorter.
White miso
is less salty but rich in koji and very delicious. Recommended amounts of
ingredients for white miso
are (1) soybeans 500g, (2) koji 1000g and (3) salt 150g. The cooking and mixing procedure is the
same, but the aging period is only 2 to 3 weeks. The short aging period for
white miso
is a great advantage. 3
Barley Miso Barley miso has a
special fragrance, which you may be addicted to. It can be used not only to
replace regular miso,
but also good as condiments of cooked rice. The procedure of making is same as for the
regular miso. Materials for barley miso Soybeans
450g (1Lb) Barley Koji made from 450g (1Lb) barley Salt 160 g
(0.35 Lb, sea salt is preferred) Barley koji is not
available in ordinary store even in Japan, so it has to be made by the
procedure written in the book titled “Handbook of Sake …” mentioned earlier. The amount
of salt is reduced to 70% of the regular miso written in Section 8.1.
The ratio of barley to soybeans remains the same. Fermentation of barley miso goes
faster, so you may be able to serve it after 2 months aging. Another
way of using barley is to replace only a portion of soy in the regular miso by
barley. The miso using a partial amount of
barley still has a unique flavor. For
example, a portion (up to a half) of the soybeans may be replaced by the
barley in the traditional premium miso, while using the same amount of rice koji. 4 Soy Miso
Soy
miso is
also called aka miso. Soy miso does not use rice koji but uses soy koji.
Therefore, making soy koji is necessary. Fermentation period for
soy miso
is 1 to 2 years, which is the longest compared to other miso. Materials Soybeans 1.8 Kg (4 Lb) Sea salt 450 g (1 Lb) White koji kin 1 g Procedure ·
Pulverize soybeans to ¼ size
sing a mixer or food processor. ·
Soak the pulverized soybeans
in water overnight. Steam cook the soybeans for 4
hours. (Do not use a pressure cooker because we don’t want to make soybeans
soft.) At this time, beans are cooked but not soft. Cool the soybeans to 40
degrees C. Transfer to the incubator vessel. Spread the koji spore just like when
making rice koji.
Incubate to grow koji
fungus in a warm place. It may take 3 or four days until the soy koji is
completed. ·
Make soy miso in the same procedure as Edo miso is made. ·
Open the soy miso when one
month is elapsed, and mix the content upside down. ·
Ferment for 1 to 2 years. It
is important that the fermented miso is under a weight. 5 Innovative Miso
Making In the previous sections of 1 through 4, traditional ways
of making Edo miso,
white miso,
barley miso
and soy miso
were explained. Beginners in making miso may wish
to make a small amount of miso. The method
explained in this section is significantly simpler than the standard method
and cheaper in preparing the equipments. Among the four varieties of miso,
the white miso is the simplest because its
fermentation period is the shortest. Thus we explain how to make the white miso in the innovative way. ·
We use a small
fermentation vessel (1 gallon) as illustrated in Figure 8. ·
No
solid weight nor a lid is used. Instead, salt in
a plastic bag is used as weight. Fermentation vessels of any cross sectional
shapes, including circular or elliptic shape, may be used. Side wall does not have to be straightly vertical. ·
The same
ingredients as mentioned in Section 2 are used. The weight ratios of the
materials are same as in Section 2 except the total weight of miso become about 3Kg. Materials
(for white miso) Soybeans (raw) 500g Koji (white or yellow)
1Kg Seasalt for miso 150g Tool Fermentation vessel like in
Figure 8. Salt 1400 g (2 packs of iodized salt available
at gocery) for weight in doubled soft ziplock plastic bags
Figure 8 1.1
gallon Rubbermaid canister and 1.4 Kg salt in doubled ziplock
bags. Cooking procedure is same as stated in Section 2. Place
the salt for weight in double ziplock bags and
seal. Put it directly on the top of miso. Place the
lid or cover the vessel with a plastic sheet and tie with a piece of string.
Once packing is finished, place the vessel where no dilect
sun light reaches. The fermentation period is 2 to 3 weeks. The miso made in
this way can be kept without placing in fridge, but if is not used soon, keep
the content in the fridge.
Figure 9 1.1
Rubbermaid canister packed with miso and solt in ziplock bags For Edo miso, use the same materials as mentioned in Section
1. The weight ratios of the materials are same as in Section 1 except the
total weight will be about 3Kg. The following is the material for Edomiso: Materials
(for Edomiso) Soybeans
675g (1.5Lb) Dry Koji 675g (1.5Lb), or equivalent amount of fresh koji Salt 338g
(0.75Lb, sea salt is preferred) Tools 1 gal plastic fermentation vessel Salt 1400 g for weight in doubled and soft ziplock
plastic bags Cooking procedure is same as stated in Section 8.1. Place
the salt for weight in doubled ziplock bags and
seal. Put it directly on the top of miso. Cover the vessel with a plastic sheet and tie with
a piece of string. Once packing is finished, place the vessel where no dilect sun light reaches. The fermentation period is 3 to
6 months. When 2 months are passed open the top plastic and weight. Mix the miso upside down, and then repack 6 Recipes Using Miso Miso pork
cutlet Materials 3
tablespoon salad oil 6
tablespoon homemade white miso 3
tablespoon sugar 1
tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon
sake 1 cup dashi soup (1
teaspoon dashino-kona
in 1 cup water) 1/4 lemon 1/2 head
cabbage 4 pork
slices (1/4 Lb per 1 cutlet) 1 egg Equipment Regular
tools appropriate for preparing pork cutlets.
Vegetable Miso Soup Materials for 2 servings 2 cups
water 1 teabag
style dashino-kona
(or 1 teaspoon powdered dashino-kona) 1/4 cup
condiment: any one of wakame,
tofu, chopped daikon and others (see the next
Table) 2 to
3 teaspoon miso 1/2 green scallion
thinly shopped.
(Add miso only after stopping heating.)
Table 1 Top 10 contents of miso soup in Japan
Miso Pickles Root
vegetables (carrots, turnips, and radish), celery, cabbage, and Chinese
cabbage can be pickled in miso. Crisp and lightly
pickled vegetables can be a part of every meal. Miso pickles can be easily
prepared and ready to eat in 1-3 days. In addition to the variations below,
try pickling other vegetables. For a stronger flavor, pickle longer but serve
smaller amounts. Very strong-flavored pickles can be minced and sprinkled
over rice. (1) Place
1/2-inch layer miso
in bottom of a non-metal container. (2) Add
vegetables and cover with more miso. (3) Cover
container and let sit for 2-3 days. (4) Remove
vegetables, rinse, and serve. (5) If
desired, cut vegetables into matchsticks before serving.
Figure
9 Teabag type dashino-kona Fish and meat cured with miso The
procedure is exactly same as pickling vegetables except the cured fish or
meats are baked on a fry pan with a small amount of oil: (1) Place
½ inch layer miso
in a non-metal container. (2) Add
cut fishes or meats and cover with more miso. (3) Cover
container and let sit for 2-3 days. (4) Remove
fish or meat, rinse. (5) Cook
the fish or meat in a frying pan with a small amount of oil. The fish
cured in this way has a good flavor of miso. Meats become very tender even if it is
shank. Do not
reuse the miso
once used to cure fish or meat. 7
Health Benefits of Miso Soybeans contain rich
proteins, linoleic acid, vitamin-E that help activate the brain. Miso
contains lactic yeast and more than 160 live micro biotics. They enter human intestinal tracts alive
and promote lactic acid in intestine. The lactic acid enhances the natural
and acquired immune systems, that help reduce the
chance of infection by viruses. A summary of miso
benefits is given in Table 2. See also
footnote[3]. Miso also has the effects of eliminating toxic
substances. Enzymes of miso help
digest other foods. These benefits are
available only by eating the unpasteurized miso, that is not the case with ordinary miso from groceries. Table
2 Effects of miso at a glance[4]
To get
such fresh miso, one has to go to a
local miso
makers in Japan or make by yourself. Most of miso sold in the market are pasteurized so the micro biotics
do not exist, and the precious enzymes have been eliminated. The only sure
way to get these wonderful medicinal benefits is to make miso by yourself
or get from someone who makes miso by himself/herself. The
following paragraph is an excerpt from "Culinary Treasures of
Japan" by John Belleme and Jan Belleme, published by Avery Publishing Group. Miso's outstanding medicinal qualities have been confirmed
by scientific research. Dr. Shinichiro Akizuki, director of Saint Francis Hospital in Nagasaki, devoted his career to
researching the use of foods, such as miso, as preventive medicine. Although Dr. Akizuki spent
years treating atomic-bomb victims at just a few miles from ground zero,
neither he nor his associates suffered from the usual effects of radiation.
Dr. Akizuki
hypothesized that he and his staff were protected from the deadly radiation
because they had miso
soup every day. Miso, a
fermented soy food, is one of the world's most delicious, versatile, and
medicinal foods. This ancient Far Eastern staple food recently began
appearing on natural foods store shelves in the West but has already
established itself as an essential ingredient in the new natural cuisine. Miso is used to
enhance every course from hors d'oeuvres to desserts. It is used in basic
macrobiotic dishes as well as fancy gourmet fare. It is no wonder that miso quickly
became popular among health-conscious Americans. A good
source of essential amino acids and some vitamins and minerals, miso is also
low in calories and fat. Miso is rich in isoflabon. Centuries
of Japanese folklore and recent scientific studies indicate that the daily
use of miso
may lower cholesterol, alkalinize the blood, cancel the effects of some
carcinogens, counteract the effects of radiation exposure, and neutralize the
effects of smoking and environmental pollution. Like
yogurt, unpasteurized miso
has abundant lactic-acid bacteria and enzymes that aid in digestion and food
assimilation. In 1972, Akizuki's theory
was confirmed when researchers discovered miso contains dipicolonic acid, an alkaloid that dispels heavy metals,
such as radioactive strontium, from the body. Scientists
at Japan's Cancer Research Center found in 1981 that those who regularly ate miso soup
suffered significantly less than the norm from some forms of cancer and heart
disease. More recently, researchers at Tohoku
University, Japan, isolated substances in miso that cancel out the
effects of some carcinogens. The most
convincing evidence demonstrating the protection miso offers to those exposed to
radiation was published in Japan in 1990. Professor Akihiro Ito, at Hiroshima
University's Atomic Radioactivity Medical Lab, read newspaper reports of
European countries importing truckloads of hatcho miso after the accident at the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Professor Ito
reasoned that if people were protected from radiation by miso, then rats that were fed miso and
radiated should develop less cancer than radiated rats that were not fed miso. Professor Ito was not surprised to find that the
liver-cancer rate for the rats that were not fed miso was 100 to 200 percent
higher than that of miso-fed
rats. Even more extraordinary is the fact that Ito used commercial miso powder, the lowest quality of miso. Many natural healers and traditional
Oriental physicians consider long-aged misos, such as hatcho miso, the most
medicinally potent. The
brownish pigment in long-aged miso is melanoidin, which are
anti-oxygenic, antiaging, and creates umami by decomposing protein. It also prevents high blood
pressure, suppresses cancer. Brown color of soy sauce is also due to melanoidin. White miso does not
include melanoidin, but the amount of koji is much
greater than in other kinds of miso. Therefore, white miso has more medicinal
benefits directly inherited
from koji. |
