Can I use unpasteurized store bought miso to make more miso?
I have some leftover chickpeas and red beans that I was thinking of making into a miso paste, but I don't have any koji and don't want to go searching multiple stores in the middle of a pandemic. Can I use store bought miso as the starter for making more miso? It says unpasteurized so I imagine that it is just dormant and can become active again. Has anyone done this before?
Best Answer
Maintaining a Koji culture is considered difficult, even commercial operations rarely do this. Meredith Leigh talks about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X-96_FFLyI&t=11m35s I think I may have read somewhere that the new Koji Alchemy book has good info on culture maintenance. Most of my books on Koji don't even mention culture maintenance, although The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz does. It seems to be important to make sure there are plenty of nutrients. In Japan they add ash for this.
"When rice has cooled to body temperature, before inoculating, mix in sifted hardwood ashes, about 1.5 percent by weight of the quantity of dry rice you cooked. The ash provides potassium, magnesium, and other trace elements that promote healthy mold growth and sporulation."
Don't use white rice and do cook your substrate until it's quite soft.
Good luck!
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What is unpasteurized miso?
Unpasteurized miso is a "living food" containing natural digestive enzymes, Lactobacillus, and other microorganisms which aid in the digestion of all foods, and which have been shown to ward off and destroy harmful microorganisms, thereby creating a healthy digestive system.Can miso be made without koji?
You can't make miso without koji. Miso isn't actually a fermentation, it's the enzymes created by the mold Aspergillus oryzae, which is grown on rice to create koji. Those enzymes are used to break down the proteins and starches in the soybeans to create miso.Can I use miso as a starter?
It will also need 5% live miso paste (regular miso paste) which helps to act as a starter. Because of the salt content this miso needs to ferment slower, so a cool, dark area such as a cellar is ideal and takes 1\u20133 months (or longer if you want to age it for a more complex flavour).Can you get koji from miso?
Basically \u201ckoji miso\u201d refers to the miso with a high proportion of koji in Japan. Miso is made by fermenting a mixture of soybean, koji, and salt. Koji miso tends to use greater amount of koji for soybeans (about twice the amount). By the way, koji is made by attaching koji mold to steamed rice/barley/soybean.Miso soup | 5 MISTAKES to avoid when making miso soup (with recipe)
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