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Miso Making Chronicle – 1 year later and finally done!

November 30, 2016 By admin 19 Comments

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Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
Around this time last year, I made my very own homemade organic sprouted miso for the first time. I even brought back a traditional cedar barrel for miso making from Japan in order to do this. It was quite a job as I overestimated what would fit in the barrel and I made 40 pounds worth! Yes, you heard it right. 40 POUNDS!! 
At the time, letting it ferment for one full year seemed like forever. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that I just put in this much work, but had to wait for a full year until it was done. I would hover over it with curiosity for the first few weeks, but then slowly started to forget about it. When the 6 month mark hit and I opened it up for a check up, I knew another 6 month was going to fly by. Then came Halloween, and Thanksgiving, black Friday. As I woke up from the mixed feelings of happiness and uneasiness from the shopping I did on black Friday, I remembered it. My miso should be ready!

I took the barrel out of the closet and sure enough, it was dated 11/26/15. Exactly 1 year ago, this miso was made. I couldn’t believe it was finally time. I’ve longed for this very moment so no time to waste! Let the opening begin.

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
I took the cover and outer lid off. The salt bags I used as weights peaked their heads out through the inner lid. I always liked how this looks.

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
I removed the salt bags and the kelp lid and the salt mounds were waiting for me. No sign of mold so far.

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
I peeled off the kelp lid made from laying kelp, and the salt layer greeted me. Usually, there should be a pooling of dark brown liquid, tamari at the top, but looks like I didn’t get much on this one. It may have been because I didn’t have enough weight on it, or maybe I needed a bit more water content, or the LA climate was too dry. You can see that the little bit of tamari came up from the miso and got absorbed by the salt layer. That’s were the salt is brown colored. 

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
I scraped off the salt layer and the beautiful deep brown miso revealed itself. No sign of mold whatsoever! Amazing!! What a beauty!! Since there was no mold growth at all, I decided to keep the tamari salt to use for cooking. It should make a delicious miso tamari salt.

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
Just to make a comparison, this was how the same miso was 6 month ago. More of a yellow brown and didn’t have much sheen. 

homemade miso making chronicle 6 month fermentation update
Drum roll! Then this is the same but 1 year old miso! The color difference is quite significant when you look at it side by side. A beautiful deep auburn color with a nice sheen to it. It also has a slight alcohol smell from the fermentation, which wasn’t there 6 month ago. 
What a difference half a year makes in the fermentation process! And the taste? A full bodied intense but well rounded miso flavor. The depth of flavor is like no miso I’ve tasted before. Ok, I fully get it now. This is an art form.

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
Since I used organic brown rice koji, the little rice grains were still intact. If you use the regular white rice koji, it breaks down and disappears, but the only organic koji that was available in the US was brown rice koji. I transferred the grainy miso into a couple of jars, and the rest was blended up in the food processor to make it into a nice and smooth miso. It took a good couple of hours blending and stuffing the jars with a barrel full of miso. But when it was all done, I just sat and gazed at these beautiful little miso babies. I was a proud mama!  

Miso Making Chronicle - 1 year later and finally done!
My cedar miso barrel needs to be in constant use, otherwise it will get damaged so I immediately ordered koji for this year’s miso making. I’ll make some tweaks based on what I found this time, and post another miso making chronicle post.

That night, I made miso soup without dashi to see if the rumors were true. Dashi is stock and you cannot make miso soup without it. It’s sacrilege and if you tell a Japanese person you made miso soup without it, they will give you a horrified look and immediately give you the miso soup 101 lecture. But rumor has it, homemade miso is so good, you don’t even have to use dashi, quite possibly the only time us Japanese might be ok with, dare I say, dashi-free miso soup? The rumors were true. The deep rich flavor made the miso taste like it for sure had dashi, even though it didn’t, and boy was it tasty! I drank the broth up like a thirsty man in the desert. I can’t get enough of it! Guess what’s for dinner tonight? That’s right, miso soup!

Filed Under: Homemade Miso Making Posts

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vicki

    February 8, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    Hello Mariko! I really enjoyed reading about this Miso making process. Congratulations! I have a friend I’m going to send this to. Best wishes on your other projects!

    My husband and I know the great value of eating more raw foods and juicing. It heals the body; I think cooking classes would really help.

    please contact me though the given email; I would like to ask you some questions, if you don’t mind. Thank you!

    Reply
    • admin

      February 9, 2017 at 6:33 am

      Hi Vicki,

      Thank you so much for your lovely comment! And thank you for sharing this post with your friend!
      I will shoot you and e-mail:) xx

      Reply
  2. TerryUnumn

    August 31, 2017 at 12:25 pm

    Hello. And Bye.

    Reply
    • admin

      August 31, 2017 at 8:59 pm

      Hi! Thank you so much for checking out my blog!

      Reply
  3. Manuelfum

    December 28, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    I enjoy all your posts. You’ve done really good job

    Reply
    • admin

      January 2, 2018 at 6:09 am

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  4. Amy Feng

    December 30, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    Congratulations,i am googling how to make miso at home and i find out this useful article! But i have some questions about the barrel,how to clean it and what to do before i use it for the first time,and it will be damaged if you dont use it often? Thanks and happy new year!

    Reply
    • admin

      January 2, 2018 at 6:08 am

      Hi Amy,

      Happy New Year! Wishing you a blessed New Year full of peace, happiness, prosperity and health.

      Thank you so much for your comment. What is the material of your barrel you intend to use? You can clean the barrel with soap and water.
      If it is made of wood, it would be ideal to use it on a regular basis. If you made a lot of miso, you can keep it in there even after it’s ready, if you don’t need to make another batch of miso right away. Let me know if you have any other questions!

      Reply
      • Amy Feng

        January 31, 2018 at 8:48 pm

        Thanks for your reply,i bought a traditinal cedar wood barrel from Japan,and i wash the barrel with water,but the wood color turned darker, i will try your recipe to make chickpea miso, it looks so tasty from your foto!!

        Reply
        • admin

          February 5, 2018 at 8:15 am

          Hi Amy,

          That’s awesome! Your barrel will get darker in color with use overtime too.
          Don’t they smell amazing? It’s gonna be awesome!
          When you make the miso, I recommend not mixing the entire salt in and leave some out so you can use it to salt the top.
          I learned that doing it this way will keep your miso from getting too salty:)

          Reply
  5. DelonleMow

    January 1, 2018 at 6:47 am

    Hola, Me gusta mucho tu sitio, ?sigue haciendolo mejor!

    Reply
    • admin

      January 2, 2018 at 6:09 am

      Feliz año nuevo! Muchas gracias!

      Reply
  6. Michaelhoaky

    March 28, 2018 at 12:56 pm

    Thank you for helping people get the info they need. Great stuff as usual. Keep up the great work!!!

    Reply
    • admin

      April 3, 2018 at 7:36 am

      Thank you so much for your kind words! I truly appreciate it:)

      Reply
  7. Brianvon

    June 21, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    Many thanks for the site, it is packed with so much useful info. Reading this .

    Reply
  8. Brianvon

    June 22, 2018 at 7:35 am

    I am amazed. I do not think I know anyone who understands just as much about the topic. You should make a career of it, honestly, impressive site

    Reply
  9. Maya Crawley

    April 14, 2019 at 10:33 pm

    Thanks you so much for sharing your miso-making experience, really helpful and exciting. I really really want to get a traditional cedar container to try making miso in – do you have an suggestions on where I might be able to order one from? Yours looks super cute.

    I live in New Zealand so could possible order one from Japan?

    Any suggestions would be much appreciated,

    Cheers
    Maya

    Reply
    • admin

      September 1, 2019 at 7:38 am

      Hi Maya,

      I am very sorry for the late response. Life took me away from my blog this year, and I wasn’t able to be on top of checking the comments I receive.
      It can be a large vessel depending on what size you want, and that could rack up the shipping cost. I brought mine back in a vary large duffle bag.
      Probably the best way is to travel to Japan and bring it back with you. But you may have some luck looking on Rakuten Global https://global.rakuten.com/en/
      There may be some store who would ship overseas.
      Once again, I deeply apologize for my delayed response.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. MISO MAKING CHRONICLE – HOMEMADE CHICKPEA MISO 1 YEAR LATER AND FINALLY DONE! says:
    February 7, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    […] things is that on level 2, we have a lot of “create your own” projects. Since my homemade organic sprouted miso was done last December, I’ve been bringing it in and using it on my create your own projects and it’s been […]

    Reply

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Mariko Sakata

Hi, I'm Mariko! I am a raw food chef, instructor, and a cookbook author. Plant-based cooking is my passion. My creations are plant-based, mostly raw, and gluten free.
Hope you enjoy my recipes! Check out my About page to find out more about me.

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marikosakata

Ying and Yang☯️ My utmost respect to Stacey A Ying and Yang☯️ 
My utmost respect to Stacey Abrams. The word “inspirational” does not quite cut it.
Testing a couple of vegan cheeses🌱🧀 We’ll Testing a couple of vegan cheeses🌱🧀 We’ll see how they turn out🧐
Hope everyone had a lovely holiday season😊

新しいヴィーガンチーズを研究中✨さて仕上がりはどうなるかな?

ヴィーガンチーズのオンラインオンデマンドクラスにご興味のある方はプロフィールのリンクからどうぞ🙇🏻‍♀️
Getting ready to cook some gluten free 100% buckwh Getting ready to cook some gluten free 100% buckwheat soba for New Year’s Eve🍜 It’s a Japanese tradition to eat soba on New Year’s Eve for good fortune and longevity for the coming new year. Probably one of my favorite traditions, because it gives me another excuse to eat noodles🍜💕 I’ll have my bowl of soba to wish everyone good fortune and longevity🙏🏼✨
Happy New Year’s Eve! 

アメリカはまだ大晦日なので、年越しこれから年越し蕎麦を🍜少し自宅から遠い日系マーケットに行く機会がコロナで今年激減したので、大事にとっておいた十割蕎麦を年越し蕎麦に✨

日本の皆様、明けましておめでとうございます🎍2020年はコロナで未曾有の一年で、日本にも一時帰国できませんでしたが、その分オンラインクラスやオンデマンドクラスを通して皆様にお会いでき、又お陰様で増版、台湾語と韓国語版も出版され、実りも大変多い一年でした。昨年は大変お世話になりました。本年も何卒宜しくお願い申し上げます🙇🏻‍♀️
Uplifting a gloomy Monday with this plate of raw v Uplifting a gloomy Monday with this plate of raw vegan cheddar cheese🌱🧀 Hope everyone in LA us staying dry🌧

ロサンゼルスには珍しく今日は一日中雨🌧熟成していた太陽のようなローフードヴィーガンチェダーチーズをおやつに気分転換🌱🧀
Enjoying some post Christmas treats and probably g Enjoying some post Christmas treats and probably going to pass out from sugar crash🎄😝

クリスマスツリーのライスクリスピートリーツ(スピルリナ入り)🎄来年は抹茶味で緑色にしたいけれど、夫が抹茶味あまり好きではないので、レシピ2倍でプレーンと両方作らないといけないかな?
Merry Christmas everyone💚 I made some minty ric Merry Christmas everyone💚 I made some minty rice crispy treats this year, and this may very well become one of our yearly tradition🎄Tastes like crunchy York peppermint patties💕 Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas✨

ミント味のライスクリスピートリーツ💚ライスクリスピートリーツは幼少の頃にニューヨークで出来立てを食べて以来大好きなお菓子ですが、高カロリーなので特別な日にしか作りません😅今年はミント味にアレンジしてみたら、これまた美味し過ぎて毎年恒例になりそうです✨
When we decorated our tree earlier this week, we w When we decorated our tree earlier this week, we were a bit short on ornaments, but we were able to get extras just in time🎄✨ Listening to Mariah, my QUEEN and tree trimming now❄️ Merry Christmas and happy holidays everone✨

クリスマスツリーの飾りが先日少し足りなかったので、オーダーした追加の飾りがギリギリイブの今日届きました❄️毎年恒例のマライヤ・キャリーやマイケル・ブーブレを聴きながらツリーの飾り付け🎄皆様素敵なクリスマスをお過ごしください✨
Testing out my Waring blender for vegan cheese mak Testing out my Waring blender for vegan cheese making😊 Not gonna lie, it’s no Vitamix, but it does a good job👍🏼

最近お気に入りの普通のミキサーで試しにヴィーガンチーズ作り🌱🧀勿論バイタミックスには負けますが、なかなかの出来👌🏼
The homemade ornaments we made yesterday worked ou The homemade ornaments we made yesterday worked out great on our newly delivered white Christmas tree🎄Orion’s ornament hanging above my husband’s favorite ornament from his childhood, a vintage snoopy ornament circa 1981. I love the look of this vintage Hallmark panorama ball ornament. I may need to add some more from eBay. Happy holidays everyone❄️

昨日作った手作りオーナメントを白いクリスマスツリーに飾り付け🎄夫の幼少の頃のお気に入りのスヌーピーオーナメントと一緒に❄️1981年の物でヴィンテージのホールマークのオーナメントなんですが、中がダイオラマになっていて、ストーリー性があって面白いんです✨これから毎年一つ、他のバージョンを足していこうと思います😊
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