Miso

I like myself some proper barley miso and although it takes time, it is effortless to make. Mix soy beans, koji and salt and then wait. You can’t do anything wrong, believe me…

Koji is a mushroom that grows through a grain, for example rice or barley, and transforms the grain’s starches into sugars. It also produced enzymes that will work on the soy beans and transform them into miso paste¹. There are different koji strains. Some of them turn rice into sake, and others are specialised on making soy sauce.

I use the following guideline for my miso

Ratio: 1 part dry soy beans: 0.55 parts dry grains : 0.4 parts salt – For example for 10kg mugi (barley) miso: 5.1 : 2.8 : 2. Yes, it’s a lot of salt.
It will double it’s weight after cooking and letting “ferment”
My miso usually molds as hell were it has contact with air. I just scrape that off before harvesting
It is said that a good miso needs a cold winter, a mild spring and a hot summer to fully ripen. That means that you should start the process in autumn and can harvest during summer. I leave my miso outside on the balcony
If you put weights on it, the fluids coming to the top is shoyu, or soy sauce. Otherwise, the miso stays wetter

The dry ingredients, soy beans and barley

Making barley koji

Barley cooked and added to a container that keeps the warmth and some of the humidity
A mix of roasted rice flour and koji spores for better dispersement
The koji container on a heating element keeping it slightly warm