Make Your Own White Soya Bean Miso Recipe
It’s worth taking a bit of extra time to ensure that everything is correct before you start making your own white soya bean miso, otherwise many potential pitfalls will only be identified beyond the point at which they can be rectified. Measure twice, ferment once! That being said, even when things go wrong something usable can be recovered. To scale the recipe up or down, use a ratio of 1:1 cooked soya beans to koji, with 8% salt.
Equipment
Large bowl
Sieve
Large jar
Ingredients
100g dried soya beans (200g cooked weight)
200g rice koji (or 140g dried koji + 60ml water)
32g salt, plus extra for salting and topping
Method
Wash and then soak the soya beans overnight. Strain, and then simmer in fresh water for 3–4 hours. Once the beans are soft, strain, reserve the liquid, and allow to cool.
Combine the beans, koji, and salt and mash into a paste. Add a little reserved liquid if the paste is dry.
Lightly salt an empty sanitized jar and pack it tightly with the paste.
Generously salt the top of the paste, then seal the container and leave in the dark at room temperature to ferment for 6 weeks. The colour should start to darken after 4 weeks.
Scrape off the salt topping (this can be used as umami salt), and taste to check you are happy with the flavour. Miso can be stored for years. If stored in the fridge, it will hold the flavour it had when it finished fermenting. If stored ambiently, it will continue to change and develop.
Troubleshooting
If the miso has been exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations, the yeasts in the system can become stressed and produce an unpleasant acetone aroma. Removing the paste from the fermentation vessel, aerating it to dissipate these volatile compounds, and keeping it in the fridge can solve the problem. The same technique can be used if the miso becomes overly alcoholic in flavour.
If the miso starts to dry out, not enough liquid was present at the start of the process. It’s still completely usable, although fermentation will have likely halted so the flavour will no longer develop. Next time, try adding a little more of the reserved cooking liquid to the paste, and proportionately more salt so the ratios remain the same.
Slimy miso can be a problem and is generally caused by a Bacillus subtilis infection. While still edible, it isn’t pleasant, so discard and compost.
Unknown moulds can be deleterious and without expert advice it is hard to identify them. If you are unsure, discard the project and compost.
Extract from The Science of Fermentation by Robin Sheriff. Published by Penguin Random House Australia. RRP $45.
