Fermentation Support Forum

I've checked up and down for a post regarding sodium content of miso, but couldn't find anything relevant. I believe to understand that the high sodium level in miso is both for flavor and to ward-off uninvited guests, like wild yeast and bacteria. I would love to find a way to lower the sodium level without opening the door to problems. Does anyone know if I could cut the salt in half or by a third, or even by a quarter in the mixture, and then use a thicker layer of salt on the surface of the miso to keep potential problems away?

for example if you use about 1 TBS miso for 1 bowl of soup , cut other sources of salt in the soup to your taste.
White miso is 5.5% salt , that is ~1 gram/TBS

I wonder if the salt moderates the effect of the koji enzymes and/or the lactobacillus. If that's so, the fermentation might run faster or differently without the salt.

Whoa. Never thought about that. Okay, forget the low sodium approach. This will be my first time fermenting miso, so I'll stick with the true and tried methods. Appreciate the advice!

My first batch of miso was experimental. (Search here for Taco Miso if interested.) It's a dumb way to go. I've made two somewhat more conventional batches since and they worked better. It's probably good to get good at the vanilla versions and then branch out.