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Soy and legumes from Japan — Shizuoka

Aijiro miso (lightly sweet pale rice miso of Shizuoka)相白味噌

Aijiro is the lightly sweet, pale rice miso of Shizuoka, where it is simply called white miso. Mostly dehulled soybeans are boiled pale, packed hot with plenty of white rice koji into large vats, and left about ten days to ripen on their own heat, with no outside warming and no turning.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes5.1 days – 20 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne maker's example from Inamori 1965, planned to give 1,900 kg of miso.
Soybeans660 kgWeight before dehulling; about 80 % of the hulls are removed[INAMORI-1965]
Rice (for koji)450 kgDomestic rice, polished about 10 % (7.5 % in the example)[INAMORI-1965]
Salt220 kgIncluding the salt in the seed water[INAMORI-1965]
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)28.5 g1.5 mg per 100 g of miso, for a bright pale-yellow colour[INAMORI-1965]
Starterwhite, slow- and low-sporing seed koji (Aspergillus oryzae) chosen for strong amylase

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.1 days – 20 days

Start
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What changes: Lightly polished rice soaks briefly, then steams hard and fast

Step 1 of 6
Polish, soak and steam the rice
Time
1–1.5 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

A short soak and long drain keep even soft rice firm enough for good koji. Output: firm steamed rice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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

Aijiro is the lightly sweet, pale rice miso of Shizuoka, where it is simply called white miso. Mostly dehulled soybeans are boiled pale, packed hot with plenty of white rice koji into large vats, and left about ten days to ripen on their own heat, with no outside warming and no turning. Made in 6 steps over 5.1 days – 20 days. The longest step, ripen on its own heat, takes 5–20 days (Itō M) and runs at 56 °C (Inamori M. 1965). Salt is 7–12 % (Itō M). Aspergillus oryzae does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5–20 daysReported[aichi-itc][INAMORI-1965]Ripen on its own heat
Temperature56 °CReported[INAMORI-1965]Ripen on its own heat
Salt7–12 %Reported[aichi-itc]Mix and pack hot into large vats

What makes this one different

Aijiro sits between Kyoto white miso and salty pale miso. It has less koji and more salt than Kyoto white miso, but it is packed hot and ripens in about ten days on its own heat, so it stays pale and sweet. Inamori insists the sweetness must come only from the koji, never from added sweeteners.

Related ferments

Safety

Aijiro miso gasses and moulds more easily than other misos, so in summer makers use preservatives or heat treatment.

History and sources

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

Japanese Wikipedia, drawing on Inamori's 1974 survey of Shizuoka miso, says a Shōsōin document of about 738 records Suruga province producing misho (an early miso) and soybeans, and that the Edo-period Sunkoku zasshi describes a sweet white miso made in Abe district and elsewhere. It adds that tororo-jiru made with aijiro became a specialty of the Mariko post town [JA-WP-AIJIRO].

  1. [INAMORI-1965] Inamori M. 1965, 相白 (あいじろ) みそについて (On aijiro miso), J. Brew. Soc. Japan 60(10):869–871, doi:10.6013/jbrewsocjapan1915.60.869paper
  2. [aichi-itc] Itō M., 日本の伝統的発酵調味料である味噌について (On miso), Aichi Center for Industry and Science Technology, Food News No. 16, p. 3; type table adapted from みそ技術ハンドブックgov
  3. [SHIZUOKA-FOOD] Shizuoka Prefecture, しずおか食の情報センター (Shizuoka food information centre), ふじのくにの多彩なとろろ汁 (the many tororo-jiru of Fujinokuni)gov
  4. [JA-WP-AIJIRO] Japanese Wikipedia, 相白味噌 (aijiro miso; history section, citing Inamori 1965 and 1974)wiki