woodworking homemade shopmade craft
MAKING MISO
This is not wood working, but I introduce "Miso" making by myself as it is a kind of DYI. Miso Wiki
Recently Japanese people buy miso, but when I was a child, many people make miso by themselves. I, by myself, make miso many times as self made miso is quite delicious, though it cost much more than ready made miso. Now you can purchase on the net all the material you need. At this time I also purchased on net. I have experience and now I can successfully make miso, but in the past I failed many times.
For the beginners and small amount, various kind of miso making kits are available. If you wish to try, you can make 1,2 Kgs.
I made at this time about 12 Kgs. Then necessary materials are:
Dried soy bean 2.5 Kgs
Dried koji(malted rice) 5.0 Kgs
Salt 1.0 Kg
They are tor rather sweet, less salty miso, but if you wish more salty, long life miso, you have to change the ratio. But you had better check on net or something.
Tools are, in my case
Plastic bucket for pickles making but new one. I used the buckets in which I made sake previously. Enamel ware or glass container is very good.
Scale
Mixing bawl The larger, the better. Or strong plastic bag is good.
Large suribachi ( grinding bawl) This is the typical Japanese cooking tool. Strong mixer, food processor are useful. You can crush by hand without any device.
Pressure pan Usual pan is OK, but it takes quite long time, 4,5 hours, to cook the
You wash them and spray alcohol before hand.
Cook the soy bean by pressure pan so that you can crush a bean between thumb and little finger.
Grind the soy bean well. However it is not necessary to make smooth past. Remaining some particles is no problem. You can crush the beans in the plastic bag by hand, or the rolling pin, round glass bottle. Food processor, pasta machine are OK.
Mix all the material well. First divide each material in to small amount, and mix well at the same ratio, and mix together mixed small amount, thus finally all the material is mixed well in the backet.
Press the material into the bucket so that no cavity remains. Finally flatten the surface, and sprinkle a small amount of salt, then cover the wrap film. If it is too hard, you add a little amount of soy bean boiled juice to adjust hardness. However completed miso after 3-6 months will become soft. Therefore at this stage, some hardness is necessary.
It takes about 3-5 months. It varies according to temperature. Check it from time to time, and taste if it is well fermented or not yet. Anyway 2 months after making, you should mix all the miso completely. If necessary you should mix in every 2,3 months, but it depend on temperature and volume.
Total time in my case, about 5 hours.
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