Has anyone tried making a nut "miso"

[tettoffensive]

As someone who avoids soy and gluten I was intrigued when I learned of Momofuku's nut "misos". From what I've heard them say, they are not really miso, but call it that for lack of a better term. What they seem to me is to be fermented nut-butters which are innoculated with aspergillus orzyae in the same way that miso is made. The recipe hasn't been released, but I did find some information that suggested that it only fermented for 5 days rather than the long periods used for actual miso.

So I'm thinking I should just make a nut butter of my choice and ferment that in an appropriate environment with koji.

I'm wondering though what that environment might be?

Should I use any salt or any other ingredients?

Do I just put uncooked koji rice in the container with it?

Or do i need to grind it up or cook it or anything?

http://www.wildfermentation.com/new-frontiers-of-miso

[WWFSM]

I'm not certain how to do it, but I've seen mention of it from time to time. Have you had a look at The Book of Miso yet? http://books.google.ca/books?id=SKqJsiZ49HkC&lpg=PP1&dq=miso&pg=PA167#v=onepage&q&f=true There is mention of including nuts in miso, but I don't know if they go into nut only miso.

Are you avoiding beans (the not soy kind) because of possible cross contamination with gluten? In my personal experience, North American grown beans tend to have more contaminants than the European or Middle Eastern ones. For example, I have huge issues with soy and cannot eat chickpeas grown or processed in North America or parts of Asia, however, I can have ones grown and processed in Europe, the Middle East, India, and much of Africa. I'm just saying that it might be a great way to start making miso by using a different bean, then move into nut miso... or just jump into the nut miso making and let us know how it goes. It all depends on your style.

Whatever you choose, please let us know what you find out and how it goes.

[tettoffensive]

No, I don't avoid soy because of gluten. I avoid it in addition to gluten. I avoid it for a few different reasons with one of the main reasons being it's phytoestrogens. Just google "paleo soy" and you can see some of the reasons why paleo people avoid it. Unfortunately, we're getting bombarded by soy and corn in the US. Soy bean oil is extremely common for restaurants to cook in.

Anyway, that is what intrigued me about this. I may just have to experiment. Although, they do warn about the safety of consuming this and that they used scientific labs to analyze before consuming. But I wonder if this is any more dangerous than lacto-fermenting vegetables which I normally do in a pickle-it jar for an anaerobic environment?

[WWFSM]

No, I don't avoid soy because of gluten.

Sorry, I must not have been clear in my question. I wanted to know if you eat the other beans (non-soy beans like black eye peas, chick peas, &c.) as some of them can have gluten contamination. There are several good recipes out there for non-soy, bean miso which might be worth a go to learn the technique before trying the nut miso.

I know what you mean about those phytoestrogens. Nasty things that. Even if I could eat soy, I would never eat unfermented soy... that's just ...well...shudders

Anyway, I'm really curious to see how your nut miso goes. Well worth experimenting. As for danger, it's a very different process than lacto fermenting, as for miso it's the mould that's doing the work. I've read (but have not been able to confirm from a scientific source) that the koji mould want's at least some access to O2. If that's true then a pickle-it jar may not work. Then again, I've seen people wrap their miso in plastic, so I have doubts as to the validity of this superstition.

The other issue with pickle-it jars, is I'm not sure if they do a full gallon size. Have a read of this about why a gallon is the smallest amount of miso one should make at a time: http://books.google.ca/books?id=SKqJsiZ49HkC&lpg=PP1&dq=miso&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=true

I was thinking that the experts at GEM Cultures might know more about making Nut Miso. You may need a different strand of koji mould than you would normally grow on rice. If they don't know, maybe they can put you in contact with someone who does.

Let us know what you learn and try. I'm really excited to see how your endeavour progresses.