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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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.

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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

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

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

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

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.)

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.

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

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

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.

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