Another amino post, this time koji/soy.

Another amino post, this time koji/soy. Not a super glamorous pic I’m afraid! My first time attempting a koji culture for ages, and while it started off fine, it started sporulating quite quickly, within 36 hrs. See the green colour in the third pic. This happens for a variety of reasons, but in this case it was either too dry or too hot. The culture gives off a lot of heat once it gets started, so you have to manage that quite well.

Anyhow, apparently slightly sporulated koji is fine for soy sauce, so I cooked some soy beans, then blended, added some water and salt, and I’m now waiting the best part of 12 months for this mixture to turn into something approaching soy sauce. I think the standard blend is barley and soy beans. I’m not totally sure it’ll get there before it goes bad, but let’s see…

Koji is pretty amazing stuff and the enzymes it produces can be used in a huge variety of applications including charcuterie, cheeses, veg, as well as the traditional uses: miso, soy sauce, amazake, sake.