Fermentation Support Forum

Hi guys... a friend of mine makes great hatcho miso... with only soybeans... he steams, inoculates with aspergillus and incubates all of the soybeans that goes into the miso...
After reading Katz's recipe for making miso, where you make rice koji, and add the same amount again of cooked soybeans (1:1)... I'm wondering...
Can you make hatcho miso by steaming and inoculating, incubating only half the amount of soybeans... and then mashing that together with the other half of the soybeans that have been simply cooked?
ie... make a koji from soybeans, but stick to the same ratio of 1:1 of koji to cooked beans???
Just wondering if a difference... would save time because want to make a double batch miso/tamari.
Thanks to any who have some experience they're willing to share...

Depends on how far the enzymes will go. I haven't made hatcho before, so I don't know what typical proportions are. Different proportions of koji/beans/salt will yield much different things. Using less koji (whether soy for hatcho or barley for mugi or rice) will take longer to ferment, and generally be more savory. So will adding more salt. Less salt and more koji = faster and sweeter miso.

The Book of Miso by Shurtleff and Aoyagi has a table of proportions for several different styles of miso. This is a good starting point for understanding basic recipes and then modifying or making your own.

Thank you Tim... I might stick to my friends tried recipe first batch, seeing as we're using 20kg dry beans... and experiment with smaller batches later :)