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Soy and legumes from Kyushu, Chūgoku, Shikoku, northern Kantō

Salty barley miso (e.g. Nagasaki, Shimabara; reddish northern-Kantō barley miso)

Salty barley miso, of which the Aichi table names Nagasaki miso as the example, uses less barley koji and more salt than sweet Satsuma miso. Barley koji is mixed with steamed or boiled soybeans and ripened for 3 to 12 months. It is made in Kyushu, Chūgoku, Shikoku and the Kantō.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes3 months – 12 monthsFamily: Sweet barley miso (Satsuma miso)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo recipe source was found; the amounts are the type-table ranges for salty (karakuchi) barley miso, for which the Aichi table names Nagasaki miso as the example.
Barley (for koji)8–15 buThe barley weighs 0.8–1.5 times the soybeans[aichi-itc]
SoybeansSteamed or boiled, as the JAS definition of barley miso says[JA-miso]
Salt11–13 % of the miso[aichi-itc]
Starterkoji mould (species not named in the sources) grown on steamed barley

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 months – 12 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countMouldsYeastsLactic acid bacteria

What changes: Koji mould grows over steamed barley

Step 1 of 4
Make barley koji
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: barley koji.

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

Salty barley miso, of which the Aichi table names Nagasaki miso as the example, uses less barley koji and more salt than sweet Satsuma miso. Barley koji is mixed with steamed or boiled soybeans and ripened for 3 to 12 months. It is made in Kyushu, Chūgoku, Shikoku and the Kantō. Made in 4 steps over 3 months – 12 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 3–12 months (Itō M). Salt is 11–13 % (Itō M). Koji mould, yeasts and lactic acid bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–12 monthsReported[aichi-itc]Ripen
Salt11–13 %Reported[aichi-itc]Mix the salted koji with the cooked soybeans

What makes this one different

The salty, reddish barley miso: less koji and more salt than sweet Satsuma miso, so it ripens for 3–12 months instead of 1–3 months [aichi-itc]. Saitama barley miso of northern Kantō was an Edo favourite [SIC-miso2].

Related ferments

Safety

The Aichi sheet says salty (karakuchi) miso, at about 12 % salt, has enough salt to stop unwanted microbes, which lets it ripen for a long time. Its type table gives Nagasaki barley miso 11–13 % salt [aichi-itc].

History and sources

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

In the Edo period many farmers and small miso-shop operators who had made only soybean miso began to try barley or rice koji for more variety of flavour. In Edo in the 1600s the three most popular misos were Sendai red miso, barley miso from nearby Saitama and Edo sweet red miso, and both salty and sweet barley miso were made in Kyushu and at the southern tip of Honshu [SIC-miso2].

  1. [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
  2. [JA-miso] Japanese Wikipedia, 味噌 (miso; type table of koji ratio, salt and ageing)wiki
  3. [SIC-miso2] Shurtleff W., Aoyagi A., History of Miso and Soybean Chiang, page 2, SoyInfo Center (a chapter of the unpublished manuscript History of Soybeans and Soyfoods, 2004)web