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Soy and legumes from Okitama district

Yukiwari natto (and its older form, Goto natto)雪割納豆

Yukiwari natto is cracked natto fermented a second time with rice koji and salt. Roasted, split and dehulled soybeans are steamed and fermented with natto bacteria, then mixed with salt-cut koji, weighted in a barrel and ripened into a salty, miso-like relish. It comes from Goto natto, a farmhouse food made at New Year and ripened until spring.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes15 days – 40 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo published recipe gives amounts. The MAFF entry lists the ingredients only.
Soybeans[maff-yukiwari]
Natto bacteria (Bacillus subtilis var. natto)[maff-yukiwari]
Rice koji[maff-yukiwari]
Salt[maff-yukiwari]
Starch syrupListed among the main ingredients of the commercial product[maff-yukiwari]
Startertwo stages; natto bacteria first, then rice koji enzymes with salt

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days – 40 days

Start
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What changes: Roasted soybeans are split, dehulled, soaked and steamed

Step 1 of 5
Roast, split, dehull, soak and steam the soybeans
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus subtilis
Moulds

Output: steamed split soybeans.

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

Yukiwari natto is cracked natto fermented a second time with rice koji and salt. Roasted, split and dehulled soybeans are steamed and fermented with natto bacteria, then mixed with salt-cut koji, weighted in a barrel and ripened into a salty, miso-like relish. It comes from Goto natto, a farmhouse food made at New Year and ripened until spring. Made in 5 steps over 15 days – 40 days. The longest step, weight in a barrel and ferment a second time, takes 15–40 days (Shurtleff W 1975) and runs at 25–33 °C (Shurtleff W 1975). Bacillus subtilis var. natto (natto bacteria), first fermentation and Koji mould of the rice koji, through its enzymes, second fermentation do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step15–40 daysReported[sic-natto]Weight in a barrel and ferment a second time
Temperature25–33 °CReported[sic-natto]Weight in a barrel and ferment a second time

What makes this one different

Ordinary natto stops after the Bacillus fermentation. Yukiwari natto adds rice koji and salt and ferments a second time, which makes it salty and miso-like and lets it keep [maff-yukiwari].

Related ferments

Variants

  • Goto nattoThe farmhouse form; split-bean natto made at New Year was mixed with rice koji and salt and ripened until spring, to eat during the April–May farm work. One account gives about a month of ripening [maff-yukiwari, sic-natto]. A food writer describes it the same way, with split beans put in the kotatsu at New Year to make split-bean natto, then mixed with rice koji and salt, bottled and ripened until spring [ishiguro2022].

Safety

The high salt content (9.3 % in one analysis) keeps it from spoiling quickly; it is stored cold after ripening [maff-yukiwari, sic-natto].

History and sources

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

Goto natto was made in Okitama farmhouses from the Edo period, as a stand-by against famine and as food for the busy spring farm season [maff-yukiwari]; SoyInfo dates it to about 1735 [sic-natto]. It was sold as yukiwari ("snow-breaking") natto from 1956. The maker closed in 2014 (the page also gives Heisei 28, which is 2016) and a new local company took over the same year, with the old maker's craftsmen [maff-yukiwari].

  1. [maff-yukiwari] MAFF にっぽん伝統食図鑑 (Japan traditional foods), 雪割納豆 (yukiwari natto), Yamagatagov
  2. [sic-natto] Shurtleff W., Aoyagi A., History of Natto and Its Relatives, SoyInfo Center, page 3 (citing Ohta 1975 for Goto natto)book
  3. [ishiguro2022] Ishiguro A. 2022, 山形県置賜地方に伝わる発酵食品「塩麹納豆」とは? (what is shio-koji natto, the fermented food of Yamagata's Okitama region), KOSMOST magazine, 13 June 2022web