Hi Eddie, i made a saltier miso in january, and i tasted it recently, it surprisingly resembles storebought japanese miso, im very happy. It's 9.5% salt pinto and chickpea with rice, and i made a split yellow pea barley one a few weeks ago, i will tell you about the upcoming results if you're interested, the color is a bit darker, i use a warm waterbath to store them since its cold, i used vacuum bags.
That sounds great! thats good to know your higher slat miso is tasting good already too, with the higher salt the fermentation / flavour development will be a bit slower but more savoury than with the lower salt misos, if its good already it should just keep getting better over the next few months. All sounds ace and yes please do keep me updated, I love hearing about this stuff. Cheers
I would love to see a video on some of your smaller batches, like the ones with elderflower. Specifically your technique in the vacuum seal bags, do you open them to empty the liquid in between?
I'm from the south and seeing all the different ingredients you've tried has made me determined to try grits (I imagine it would work similar to the masa) and peanuts. Boiled peanuts are one of my favorite things ever and I feel like people don't give them a fair chance since they are used to peanuts being a sweet food, but they are beans and cook like beans.
Im about to experiment with cocoa nib miso. Koji alchemy book talks about it but I couldn’t find an actual recipe. I’m using potassium carbonate in order to make the nibs less acidic so the koji doesn’t die/ so it works. I’m basically Dutch processing them. I’m going to use this video and it’s ratios for the experiment, thanks!
The miso can ferment happily without oxygen, there's two main things going on during its fermentation - enzymes from the koji breaking down protein into amino acids and then the bacteria fermentation which happens without oxygen and changes slightly throughout the miso's stages. Your key safety measure is using enough salt, if you follow my ratios & method I give here you you are well within the safe zone and lim icing the misos exposure to oxygen is another safety measure - thats one of the reason it is packed tightly in jars in traditional fermentation and then any exposed areas covered generously with extra salt. The vacuum packing simplifiers this and makes it more practical for small test batches :)
Thank you for sharing this informative tutorial video on How to make your own miso paste. After watching your video, I have two questions to ask and hope you will find some spare time to address them. 1. Can you make more Miso from Miso paste using more soybeans sans Koji? 2. Can you reverse engineer this process, i.e. making Koji from Miso paste? Cheers.
Hi Thanks for your comment and question. Unfortunately the answer to both questions is no. You cant make more miso just using old miso and soybeans - you need koji added to each batch to break down the soy beans / protein. And also unfortuately no you cant reverse engineer this and make koji from miso - you can collect koji spores from a fresh batch of koji and then use that to inoculate more rice and make more koji - but I would not recommend that as a starting point until you are quite experienced in making koji.
Its awesome the way you explain everything. May I ask you some question, in the blue algae miso, you just use 1 part of koji, 1 part of blue algae? O mix de blue algae power whit other protein?
Yes I think that sounds like a good approach, and you will need to dampen it with some water. I would suggest soaking the popcorn in water for maybe 30 min, the strain it, then squeeze out as much water as possible so the popcorn isn’t wet, just re-hydrated, then pulse in blender and the proceed with the method :)
Fascinating video Chef!!! I was wondering how would you cook the pumpkin seeds for its miso. Also, what did the by product tamari of your pumpkin seed miso turn out like? Thanks
Hi, I roast the pumkin seeds to help give them a lightly toasted flavour. This miso produces less Tamari as it is shorter fermented but the oil that comes from it / the pumkin seeds is delicious too.
The algae paste looks absolutely beautiful great idea. How long did you ferment the pumpkin seed one? In Noma they said there is a risk of it getting rancid so I am curious how long you let it go.
Thanks. Yes the pumkin seed miso is shorter fermented because of the oil content of the seeds. I do it for just three weeks, I make it a slightly wetter miso by adding some 4% brine. It is one of the quickest miso's you get to try your finished product and I found it worked well as one to add other flavours into (one option being to infuse / flavour the added brine)
I have a question. Can we apply this process to a dip? For example, can we create a amino paste out of cooked eggplant, tomato, onion, and red pepper. The consistency is like a dip. Not totally smooth, kind of like a wet hummus. I have been researching but hard to find clarity.
The problem you might have with that is the water content. You can absolutely make miso / amino pastes with a range of ingredients - things like squash or pumpkin miso are great for example, or mushroom miso's, Aubergene (egg plant) is quite high in water, it might be necessary to cook it in such a way as to reduce that water content, and any amino paste you make will be a dit think and quite salty to serve on its own as a dip. For the fermentation to be safe you need a low enough water content and a high enough salt content. I think your best bet would be to make an amino paste following the guidelines I give here, then use that amino paste along with some other ingredients to make a dip, that way you can add your higher water content ingredients separator to and after the amino paste has been fermented, and you can also get a salt level which would be more palatable. I hope that helps
Hi there! I'm sort of obsessed with all things koji thanks to you! In August, I started making miso, and I wanted to ask some questions after I just checked my progress with one of my batches. I did see some mold along the edges, and I just scraped it off. I'm hoping that it's still safe. I can send pics if you'd prefer. Also, it doesn't seem liquidy enough. It still seems pretty dry and the beans are still pretty solid and chunky (although they were in itially processed in a food processor). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Hi, aw thanks, I hope you are enjoying your fermentation journey. Did you salt the top of the misos? That can both help stop anything unwanted growing on the top but also will dry out some of the moisture helping to form a layer of Tamara on the top. How fine did you you process your beans do you think? They do want to be quite fine. It is always a bit tricky to diagnose any issues not in person but if you'd like you are welcome to send me over a couple of pics and. I'll take a look - my social media links are in the video description, also so long as it is just for personal consumption smell and taste can guild you a fair amount. It sounds like you have a couple of batches on the go too which is a good idea I think, its less upsetting then if you do decide you need to get rid of one but also gives you some to compare and contrast.
Thanks for replying! I'll send some pics to your social media account. Yes, I salted the top, and it seems it was only growing on the very edges of the recipient where there were some air bubbles between the weights and the mixture. In the pic you can see how fine it is, and yes I have garbanzo, lentil, soy, and black bean!@@EddieShepherd
Delicious, lots of the beautiful masa flavours, toasted corn & the aromas from the Nixtamalisation. It also has a sweetness as the koji converts some of the starch to sugars. Great to use for savoury or sweet applications
Hi Huw, I looked for wide mouth cookie jars online. You dont need the lids but you should be able to get good size food suitable glass jars listed as 'cookie jars'. Hope that helps :)
OMG your channel deserve 10 million subscribers why it's underrated... You explain it so deeply and so simple way that even kid could understand whole process😮😊😊 Thank you so much
Fascinating! Thank you for the detailed and understandable information. Will try to do this at home. Just started fermenting 6 months ago. So still learning. As a vegan, for lots of dishes miso is used. So this could help my wallet.
Eddie:I was wondering if the low salt content miso of about 4% in the video would spoil if fermented at room temperature for a long time. I made miso with 13% salt content last year with great success, and made miso with 9% salt content this year. I'm planning to make low-salt miso with 3-6% salt content, but I'm worried about spoilage, so I'd like to learn from your experience. Thank you very much!
Hi, so I would advise not to go lower than 4% salt. 4% salt is safe and you shouldn’t get any spoilage at room temperature over periods of up to about 6 months. Lower salt misos like this, around the 4% mark are designed for shorter, faster fermentation and produce, lighter coloured, slightly sweeter misos. If you want to make longer fermented misos, over 6 months, I would recommend using a higher salt percentage. I hope that helps
The protein in your ratios, is it the weight of the dried ingredients or after soaking? I'm very in love with miso and want to give it a try. Love all of the colors of your misos!
Hi @Eddie Shepard I have a silly question to ask about the salt that you are adding to the top... Is this in addition to the salt that you add to achieve whatever salt percentage you want, or do you save some of the salt back? Also, about how much salt would you say that you are adding to the top of your miso paste?
hi, sure no problem - so the salt on top is extra on top of the salt listed in the recipe for making the miso paste. The extra slat on top is as an extra safety measure, there isn't an exact amount to use, I go for a thin but consistent layer over the top. You can scrape this off and disgard it when your miso is ready, but you still dont want to go too crazy with the amount :)
Requesting clarity. When you presented the weights of the protein and koji, was that dry weight or hydrated weight? When you're calculating the salt to use, is that a percentage of the dry weight of the other ingredients or hydrated weight? Regarding the salt that was sprinkled on the top of the miso, was that part of the salt that was calculated for the recipe, or in addition to the salt that was already incorporated? You advocated using natural salts; can you use varieties like Hawaiian red clay salt or black salt, Celtic gray salt? Can you use smoked sea salt? Does the grain size of the salt make a difference?
Sure, I'll do my best - All the weights are for the finished fully prepared ingredients - so for protein that is it cooked or in its ready to eat form, for koji that is fresh or rehydrated if you started with dry. Salt is calculated as a percent of the prepared ingredients - cooked protein, ready to use koji. . The salt on the top of the miso before the weight is placed on top is extra additional salt. You can use different salts like the ones you mentioned if their flavour works with your ingredients. They should all work and the grain size should not matter, just bear in mind if they a wetter / damp salts you might need a little more to ensure a safe salt level as the percentages are given for dry salt with no water content in that weight.
When figuring out the weight for your salt, is it supposed to be based on the dry weight of the protein that you use or the weight of the protein once fully hydrated?
@@EddieShepherd I'm real glad I asked. Thanks for the response. Now I just have to find something else to do with the way too many beans I hydrated. Lol.
I find it interesting that you suggest 4-11% salt but I see some other recipes calling for 20%+. I recall reading that past a certain percent will kill good bacteria from fermentation. But I’m also reading that Koji wants no bacterial growth while doing its job so perhaps that’s why those recipes call for higher salt %? Those recipes also use nearly double the weight of koji to protein.
Hi, I havn't done much with barley koji, I know a lot of people love it, I decided to stick with the traditional rice version because I get some gluten-free guests visiting for the tasting menu and its useful to be able use the rice koji for everyone (barley contains gluten) and because I use the rice koji for techniques like amazake etc too where I want the rice koji flavour. I like the idea of barely being a more local ingredient to use though and I know a lot of restaurants in the UK and Scandinavia go for that option
@@EddieShepherd it has officially been one month, my miso babies are doing good, will update you when I decide to finish the fermentation process I'm aiming for three or four months
*spirulina* 💡ooooh Was not expecting that Nearly passed me by Did you only have to lightly mist to hydrate it enough? And so what about chlorella? Would love to see the processing again & a comparison of those two The visuals alone I've been wanting to try sesame for the bright white & seperately black colouration Cannellini or maybe broad beans also for the bright white Red dahl for a brightish orange? Thought that deep purple hue in your line up was from forbidden rice Or maybe ube or purple sweet potatoes Would that work do you think? The natural sweetness will surely have to explode especially with all that starch Then the salt & umami Sounds intense Would love to see it all! TY for your work & sharing it 🫶
Aw thanks. Yes I have a video on the blue algae miso and the dish I use it for coming soon. I think it’s always a great idea to make small test batches and taste them, somethings seem to work better than others but often tasting is the only way to know for sure. But that’s all part of the fun too :)
Greetings Eddie from the United States. I used black soybeans and soybean koji to make black "Hatcho" Miso, I will follow up in two years to let you know how it turns out 👍
Just curious. How do you use hatcho miso for your cooking? Unless you are a Nagoya food mania,not so many miso fans tend to use the black miso. Its usage is limited.🤔
@@lemoncake3824 Great question since Hatcho miso is a little bitter and cloying in its original state. The flavor opens up beautifully when you mix equal parts hatcho miso, mirin and honey when it is used in a sauce. Eddie may have a few ideas as well
Hello Eddie, this is a perfect timing as I`m soaking my soja for my first miso paste. Could you show more details of those variations of miso paste you are talking about in the video? Are you as well a natto fan?:)
Aw great. Yes I’m working on a video that will cover some of the more unusual misos soon. I’ve never worked with natto really but I’m very interested to try
@@EddieShepherd Give it a try:) It's a fast process and takes more or less, same time as Koji rice. It's less demanding on the parameters. I would love to see what you can developpe to pull up the flavours.:)
You can definitely do butterbeans, just make sure not they aren't to wet a mix, you could dry them out a touch in a low oven if they feel to moist. I haven't done mixxes of different beans in one miso I dont think but I cant see why you couldn't if you follow the key principles
Hi Eddie, Thanks for all of this. I was wondering : can i add chili and spices ( i want to make a mala sichuan flavor miso ) at the beginning of the fermention process. Or maybe chili and sichuan pepper will prevent fermentation ? Thanks again. Lucas
Hi! About the vacuum bags, can you do big batches in vacuum bags as well? Is oxygen not important at all? Do you notice any difference in the vacuum sealed ones to the jar ones? (which one do you prefer? i know you talked about the small batches but im just curious) (some more questions) I saw in a video that Sandor Katz calculates the salt to the dried rice and beans, do you think yours is more reliable since you figured this out for yourself? And one last thing, is koji fungus itself dead in the miso, does salt kill the fungus and leaves the enzimes behind? Thanks in advance!
I tend to only do small test batches in vacuum bags. Generally I find it’s a good way to do small tests but I prefer to use jars for bigger batches. The jars are more sustainable and easier for bigger batches I find, but it would be possible to do them in vac bags a just limited by the bags size really. Overall once a recipe is tested I prefer jars
Thanks for the reply, was just curious, cus you gotta weight it to prevent mold formation, and its more convenient to use a vacuum bag for that i thought.
@@topdawg4645 definitely for small batches it’s really convenient. If I had a bigger vacuum machine it might be more practical for larger batches too, but whichever fits how you work best really
I know you work in restaurants so thats why, i just bought a vacuum sealer today which has a long bag in it, maybe try to use not a wide mouth one but a very long one? Well i guess i should'nt be the one telling you, but for me, i think these kinda smaller batches will be great in vacuum bags (1kg) and imma do longer and shorter ones. Thank you!
Last year,I first time make miso at home. I also made another 8kg miso last December and this is very kanjikomi☃(prepared in wintertime and best to eat in autumn).
Fantastic video! Has made me curious to try making it myself! One question I have... If you are using the jar method, does it release a lot of smells into the air seeing that it's not airtight? My partner is super sensitive with smells in the air and might not love it, ha.
I hope you give it a try. I have never thought of the fermenting miso as having a very strong smell. It’s not like making kimchi etc which are very noticeable. I think if you can put it somewhere slightly out of your every day very used space it should be fine :)
Hi Eddie, I am gona start to do it... as on my experiment i want to try to separate into 3 samplers : one normal, another a part in a little pot with humebosi vinegar and another with Brottrunk Pauer Essence. What do you thing about that addings? wich % do you thing for... It's okey to add a vinegar for the fermentation? is another fermentation , I have powerfool intuition.... on ...
You shouldn’t add anything like vinegar to the miso at least until after it has fermented and then you could experiment with what you might want to do with it. Making changes to it than the ways to add flavour that I cover in the video could affect how it fence and in a worst-case scenario could even make it dangerous to consume if it hasn’t fermented in a predictable controlled way.
What about turning something inedible (for humans) like grass/ wild grass seed in to amino paste? Is this possible? I like the sustainability aspect to making use of an otherwise inaccessible food source...
There might well be cases where that’s possible, I’m sure people will have studied it but it’s outside my area of expertise unfortunately. You can absolutely use it to make things that might not be normally seen as delicious into sonetikng luxurious though, Noma’s work with making ferments with crickets etc springs to mind
hi, thank you! I haven't filmed the fruit 'glass' recipe yet but it is on my list, I have a few more ready to put up here first so maybe in the autumn :)
Excellent! I made cacao nib miso and it is remarkable. My triumph was stirring it into a roasted beetroot ice-cream. One of the most interesting misos I made came from a throwaway comment made by a colleague, who said that she had never seen the point of bags of "broth mix". I bought some and tried it and it worked really well as a sweet miso. I'm not sure how it would stand up to ageing, though.
@@DauvitAlexander fantastic! I have made a cacao nib myself and loved the flavour, really interesting to work with, I think it’s particularly good paired with Rose :)
Is the little pkg in those spicy chicken ramen bowls that say soup starter. Is that miso paste. It’s a dark caramel color that s taste like onion , carrots and like a chicken base and it is a little oily .
Its hard to know without seeing it and it can vary with different ingredients but compost smell doesn't sound right. I should not smell damp or mouldy. It should have some aromas of fermentation but also smell a little bread or of light roasting I would say. Again this can vary a lot between batches but a damp smell doesnt sound correct
@@EddieShepherd thank you for the answer. smells are hard to discribe... it does not smell rotten, more like alcohol maybe. i think it was a bit too wet when i started it a month ago... it basicly still looks the same...
I’m sure they will have. I’ve make miso with old bread - roasted & partly rehydrated which worked great, and masa as you mention. I would look at the noma book or koji alchemy as they’ve both done a lot of interesting unusual miso’s
your video is stunning, especially the blue algae miso.... so, i was wondering do u use powdered blue algae or real blue algae cause i can't find much information about it
Hi Grace, so I will have a full video about the blue algae miso and the dish I make with it coming in a few weeks time, its just finished so it wont be the next video but maybe the one after that :)
- Can you make miso with shrimps? Or anshovises, squids, bonito? Knowing that you will steam them - can you smoke them dry completely to add smoke flavor , after that you steam them so that you add moisture. - And 3 rd question, if the answer is yes, can we make miso with whole shrimp, because the carcass has a lot of flavor thank you for your time
I do plant-based food so those aren’t ingredients I work with, I’d have a look at the Noma guild to fermentation for more information of fermentation with things like shellfish
Hello Eddie😀⚗🧪.Season of fermentation is approaching in northern hemisphere. It is a great mystery why you haven't picked up "tempeh" in your channel ever before although you are very familiar with superfoods🧐. Someday pls show made-by-Eddie tempeh to us💗.