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Soy and legumes from Japan — Kyushu, Chūgoku and Shikoku

Sweet barley miso (Satsuma miso)麦味噌

Satsuma miso is the sweet barley miso of southern Kyushu. Barley is steamed and grown into koji, mixed with cooked soybeans at a high koji ratio and moderate salt, and ripened for one to three months. Barley miso ripens, colours and sours faster than rice miso.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes30 days – 3 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo recipe source was found; the amounts are the type-table ranges for sweet barley miso, for which the Aichi table names Satsuma miso as the example.
Barley (for koji)15–25 buThe barley weighs 1.5–2.5 times the soybeans[aichi-itc]
SoybeansSteamed or boiled, as the JAS definition of barley miso says[JA-miso]
Salt9–11 % of the miso[aichi-itc]
Starterkoji mould (species not named in the sources) grown on steamed barley

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 3 months

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a bean

What changes: Barley soaks up water and drains

Step 1 of 5
Wash, soak and drain the barley
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

Output: soaked barley.

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

Satsuma miso is the sweet barley miso of southern Kyushu. Barley is steamed and grown into koji, mixed with cooked soybeans at a high koji ratio and moderate salt, and ripened for one to three months. Barley miso ripens, colours and sours faster than rice miso. Made in 5 steps over 30 days – 3 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days – 3 months (Itō M). Salt is 9–11 % (Itō M). Koji mould on barley does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[aichi-itc]Ripen
Salt9–11 %Reported[aichi-itc]Mix the salted koji with the cooked soybeans

What makes this one different

Barley koji instead of rice koji, at a high koji ratio and only 9–11 % salt, so it ripens in one to three months. Salty barley miso, such as Nagasaki miso, uses 8–15 koji and 11–13 % salt and ripens for 3–12 months.

Related ferments

Made the sweet barley miso way

Safety

The Aichi sheet says salty miso, at about 12 % salt, holds enough salt to stop unwanted microbes, which is why it can ripen for a long time. Satsuma miso has less salt, 9–11 %, and is ripened for a short time instead [aichi-itc].

History and sources

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

In the late 1980s barley miso was about 9–10 % of Japan's miso, 50,000–55,000 t a year, and about 70 % of it was made in Kyushu [DOMOTO-1989].

  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; quotes the JAS definition of barley miso)wiki
  3. [DOMOTO-1989] Dōmoto Y. 1989, 味噌の地域特性 —西日本編— (regional features of miso, western Japan), J. Brew. Soc. Japan 84(2):76–82, doi:10.6013/jbrewsocjapan1988.84.76paper