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Soy and legumes from Heian Japan

Misho (末醤), Heian soybean paste末醤

Misho was the court's miso-like paste, in which the soybean grains still showed. The Engishiki, completed in 927, lists its ingredients for one batch, soybeans for hishio, rice for koji, wheat, sake and salt, and says they make 1 koku of paste, but it does not describe the method. This is a text-only reconstruction from the recipe as two modern sources quote it.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe Engishiki court recipe (Ōzen-shiki, 造雑物法), by volume, which yields 1 koku of misho. 1 koku = 10 to = 100 shō = 1,000 gō.
Soybeans for hishio (醤大豆)1 koku[tsuchiyama2016][ndl-kaleido]
Rice5 shō 4 gōMarked in the text with a small note, 蘗料. Sasaki and colleagues (2023) read the same note on the court's hishio in this passage as rice for koji[tsuchiyama2016][ndl-kaleido][sasaki2023]
Wheat5 shō 4 gō[tsuchiyama2016][ndl-kaleido]
Sake8 shō[tsuchiyama2016][ndl-kaleido]
Salt4 to[tsuchiyama2016][ndl-kaleido]
Starterkoji on rice (the text marks the rice 蘗料; Sasaki and colleagues 2023 read the same note on the court's hishio as rice for koji)
Start
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shapes, not to countMoulds

What changes: Koji mould grows on the rice that will start the paste

Step 1 of 3
Grow koji on the rice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

The Engishiki marks the rice as being for koji but does not say how the koji was made. Output: rice koji.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

koji mould grows on the rice and makes the enzymes for the paste

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Misho was the court's miso-like paste, in which the soybean grains still showed. The Engishiki, completed in 927, lists its ingredients for one batch, soybeans for hishio, rice for koji, wheat, sake and salt, and says they make 1 koku of paste, but it does not describe the method. This is a text-only reconstruction from the recipe as two modern sources quote it.

What makes this one different

Misho is the court paste closest to miso, with the bean grains left in (NDL). The court's hishio for the emperor used 3 koku of soybeans with rice, glutinous rice, wheat, sake and salt; misho uses 1 koku of hishio beans with rice, wheat, sake and salt.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Kugo-bishio (供御醤), hishio for the emperorEngishiki volume 33; soybeans 3 koku, rice 1 to 5 shō, glutinous rice 4 shō 3 gō 3 shaku 2 sai, wheat and sake 1 to 5 shō each, salt 1 koku 5 to, giving 1 koku 5 to of hishio (NDL).

Safety

The Engishiki says nothing about safety. As a general hazard for mould-ripened pastes, Ito and Matsuyama (2021) note that wild Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus make aflatoxin, while the koji moulds A. oryzae and A. sojae, bred for soy sauce and miso, do not. Nothing says which mould this koji used, so a koji that grows from wild mould cannot be assumed free of aflatoxin.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Engishiki was ordered in 905 and its main text was completed and presented to the throne in 927 (Wikipedia). Its text writes 未醤, which Tsuchiyama and co-authors say is correctly 末醤. The Taihō Code of 701 already had a court office for hishio, and the court's hishio store recorded hishio and kuki (the forerunner of salted nattō) (NDL).

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [tsuchiyama2016] Tsuchiyama H., Minemura T., Ioroi R., Mifune T. 2016, 『延喜式』に見える古代の漬物の復元 (Restoration of the ancient pickles in Engishiki), Bulletin of Tokyo Healthcare University 11(1), quoting the Engishiki Ōzen-ge 造雑物法 (Kokushi Taikei edition, p. 773)paper
  2. [ndl-kaleido] National Diet Library, 本の万華鏡 第21回 第2章 食文化にみる大豆こばなし (soybean food culture), quoting Engishiki volume 33gov
  3. [sasaki2023] Sasaki Y., Uduki H., Nagata N., Mifune T. 2023, 古代の「醤」の再現 (Reproduction of "Hisio" in ancient period), Bulletin of Tokyo Healthcare University 18(1)paper
  4. [wp-engishiki] English Wikipedia, Engishiki (date of completion only)wiki
  5. [ito2021] Ito K., Matsuyama A. 2021, Koji molds for Japanese soy sauce brewing, characteristics and key enzymes, Journal of Fungi 7(8):658, doi:10.3390/jof7080658 (review; states that A. oryzae is widely used in making miso)paper