
Miso is an incredibly versatile ingredient and can be used in a very wide range of dishes. Typically, it will be a combination of white and red miso, which makes it suitable for all styles of cooking. At least two or more miso pastes are blended together and used in a variety of dishes. This type of miso is a mixture of different kinds of miso. This is best used in meatier and stronger dishes, as it has a pretty strong umami flavour and is packed with salty notes. It is also fermented for far longer than shiro miso is, resulting in a darker colour paste. While known as white miso, it is more of a yellow colour.Ī miso with a red-brown colour, aka miso tends to use more soybeans, and may also involve barley as a starter grain rather than rice. It has a mild taste, with a hint of sweetness, that makes it perfect for light soups, sauces and salad dressings. Made from soybeans and a rice grain starter, shiro miso is fermented for a shorter amount of time than other miso types, leaving it with a lighter colour than some varieties. Image Credit: wilbanks Varieties of Miso Paste Shiro Miso (White Miso) There are also regional differences in miso pastes, with colour and flavour varying between areas of Japan, depending on the production practices preferred by each region. Examples of this include mugi-miso, which is a miso made using barley as a starter, while mame-miso uses already fermenting soybeans as the fermentation activator, creating a far more intense flavour. Different types can then be produced by using a different fermentation starter. The most popular type of miso in Japan is kome-miso, which uses a rice grain as the starter. The flavour of the resultant miso is dependant on the grain type used as the koji. This mixture of ingredients is left to age and ferment for between six months and three years. Miso paste is made from mashed soybeans, salt and koji – a grain mash used to promote the fermentation process. We take a look at what miso paste is and how it is used in Japanese cooking. There are a number of different types of miso paste, with their flavours depending on the specific fermentation processes used to create it. The paste is also packed with nutrients and is high in protein, making it increasingly popular around the world as people search for healthier ingredients.

Made from fermented soybeans, miso paste offers a strong umami and salty taste that adds some intense flavours to a variety of meals. It matures slowly over the seasons on a plateau on the edge of the Black Forest.Miso paste is an essential ingredient in the Japanese diet, acting as a fundamental component in many popular dishes. It has a high protein content and is vegan. The rice or soy miso paste is produced in the Black Forest with organic farming. The organic pastes from Schwarzwald Miso should also not be forgotten. He has a passion for fermented foods like miso and soy sauce and now produces and sells them directly in Berlin (or in the ConFusion online shop). Its creator Markus Shimizu was born in Tokyo, where he spent the first eight years of his life. You can find outstanding and diverse varieties for example from the Berlin label Mimi Ferments. Its colouring ranges from reddish to dark brown. Not only is it saltier, but it is typically fermented for much longer. Akamiso is by far the most intense and complex of the three. Its colour varies between yellow and light brown tones. Shinshumiso is also rather mild, yet fermented a little longer than the white miso paste. Its salt content is also somewhat lower than most other varieties. In terms of taste, it is the mildest, as it usually has the shortest fermentation process. The most common subdivision of miso is as follows:

White, yellow or red, what’s the difference? Nowadays, the basic ingredients haven’t really changed, but fermentation in traditional wooden barrels is rare as the whole trade has become industrialised with increasing demand. The longer the fermentation process takes, the more complex the flavour that develops. The duration of fermentation varies from a few weeks to several years, which of course has an enormous influence on the taste of the paste. The effect of koji moulds is used for fermentation. This process takes place in wooden barrels weighted down with stones. However, there are also miso pastes that are made with barley or that do not contain any grain at all.įor traditional production, steamed soybeans are fermented with steamed grain. For example, wheat or rice can be chosen as the grain. However, the exact composition of the ingredients varies greatly. The paste is typically made from soybeans, grain and salt. Miso is a seasoning paste that probably originated in China or Korea, but is now particularly popular in Japanese cuisine. What is miso and where does the intense flavour come from?
