- Phil Moscowitz
- Feb 19, 2007
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If blood be the price of admiralty,
Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
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I've found Cooking With Dog on Youtube has some excellent recipes for both. In fact the first tofu dish I ever made was one of theirs- Tofu Steak With Mushrooms!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_OMJP4ouVI
Super easy, not too many ingredients, just be sure to not just use button mushrooms or anything like that.
This video is mesmerizing. I love dog
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Sep 15, 2017 01:58
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Apr 19, 2024 08:28
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- Phil Moscowitz
- Feb 19, 2007
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If blood be the price of admiralty,
Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
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I made the roast beef recipe from Cooking With Dog, except with beef broth instead of dashi stock (and my usual substitution of dry vermouth instead of cooking wine).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wLrpOhqbJc
Rareness aside, it came out really well. I'll need a meat scale to ensure my cut is the proper size next time.
Do you check for doneness by stabbing it with a metal poker and sensing the temp with your lips?
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Jan 2, 2018 04:52
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- Phil Moscowitz
- Feb 19, 2007
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If blood be the price of admiralty,
Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
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Lol
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Feb 18, 2018 13:23
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Apr 19, 2024 08:28
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- Phil Moscowitz
- Feb 19, 2007
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If blood be the price of admiralty,
Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
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Koji is the Japanese name for a collection of mold fungi in the Aspergillus genus, most famously A. oryzae. Koji has been domesticated and used for over two millennia; the earliest known recorded mention of it is in a Chinese text called The Rites of Zhou, one of the classical Confucian texts.
Koji’s use is widespread: it pops up in Chinese jiangs, douchi, and liquors; it’s present in Korean nuruk, a dry culture medium used to make makgeolli and soju; and of course it’s critical in miso, soy sauce, sake, and shochu in Japan. Aspergillus oryzae is one of humanity’s oldest friends.
“Koji” is used a little more broadly outside of Japan to refer to both inoculated media like rice as well as the koji spores themselves, though the more proper term for the spores alone is “kojikin.”
I’m writing this up after attending a koji workshop by Rich Shih of Our Cook Quest and Nicco Muratore, CdC of Commonwealth. I’ve worked on and off with koji over the past several years, but I’d never made my own. My usage has bumped up against the limits of my willingness to get koji shipped to me, and newer resources are sharing more simplified ways of inoculating rice, barley, and other starchy media with koji than were previously (publicly) known.
But before I get into the “how,” I’d like to get into the “why” — as in, why bother to do this? Individual enthusiasts like myself may get into it to make ingredients and brews not commercially available and for the joy of mastering a process. Farmers are getting into this as a way of creating value added products and reducing food waste. Restaurants are using koji products to reach a more sophisticated audience with unique flavor profiles and a means of speeding the dry aging process of meat and charcuterie.
If you want to experiment with homemade miso, soy sauces, liquid aminos, pickles, marinades, the dry age process, aged charcuterie, homebrewing wines, and more, and you like the idea of making your own live culture starter, this post on koji is for you.
Incubation Chambers
Koji prefers nearly tropical growing conditions: 86 F and 70-75% humidity. It doesn’t like to be wet or soggy, so moisture and condensation control are critical, and it requires oxygen, so air circulation must be accounted for.
Some people go wild and buy expensive temp and humidity controlled fermentation or aging chambers and others rig up fridges with temp/humidity controls, but you don’t have to go crazy. Above are a couple examples of what Rich and some chefs are doing.
The first is a watertight cooler with a 150W aquarium heater, an air stone, and an aquarium air pump suitable for a 10 gallon tank. The bubbler set up takes care of air circulation. Partially fill the cooler with clean water, let it reach temp, and you can rest your trays — hotel trays were favored here — on the lip of the cooler or if they’re a bit smaller, use glasses to set up feet for the tray(s) to rest on. With the koji tray inside and covered by a dampened cloth, you’ll close this up and have a good fermentation chamber you can also use for other similar projects.
The second option uses one of those clear plastic restaurant tubs, an immersion heater like an Innova, a hotel tray that can fit inside, some cups to hold the tray above the water, and plastic wrap to cover the top of the tub. You’ll note that this set up isn’t insulated, so you may need to compensate by putting this chamber in a warm area like by a fridge compressor, radiator, etc. You can also compensate with blankets and a heating pad. This method also has more trouble from condensation dripping from the plastic wrap and with air circulation, so using the damp cloth and keeping a corner peeled back are important.
Other folks are also using collapsible bread proofers, big dehydrators (if yours has a fan that can’t be shut off, you’ll want to make a chamber to put inside the dehydrator to protect your koji from drying out), ovens with their oven light turned on, and even egg incubators.
The traditional method is basically a big cedar sauna filled with cedar trays that hold the koji rice.
Spores and Storage
GEM Cultures is probably the most popular source for koji spores in the US. They have a pretty Web 1.0 site and you order by email, but they’re legit.
The package says you can make about 5 lbs of miso, but you can really make a lot more. Rich got the commercial spore pack and is only starting to run low four years later after giving a fair amount away.
Working with koji spores only demands food safety levels of sanitation. You may choose to work with food safety gloves, but as long as you wash your hands, you don’t absolutely have to. People with compromised immune systems should take extra precautions to avoid inhaling the spores if they choose to work with koji ; Aspergillosis is rare, but it’s no joke. In general, nobody needs to be huffing yeast, koji spores, flour, or any other kitchen powders anyway, so move slowly and carefully when working with kojikin or sporulated koji. The danger is low but it does exist.
Depending on your spore kit, your spores May or may not be cut with rice flour. You need to cut the spores if they’re not in order to improve the even distribution of the kojikin. This will also help you stretch the amount of product you can make! Kojikin are a pretty aggressive fungus so they really want to grow.
To cut your spores, start by toasting rice flour to drive off moisture and destroy any microorganisms that might compete with the kojikin. Do not use any whole grain flours for this: bran will go rancid. Use a ratio of 10:1 toasted rice flour to spores, mix together in a big, sanitized, dry, sealable glass jar, and keep refrigerated. These spores will remain potent for years under good conditions.
Growing Koji
Sanitize your kitchen and equipment like you’ve got someone you want to impress coming over. Koji isn’t as picky as mushroom spores, but you want to follow best kitchen practices for this if nothing else.
White jasmine rice (that is, with the hulls polished off) is the easiest growing medium for koji. Wash the rice and steam it in a towel-lined bamboo steamer or perforated metal steamer for about 35-40 minutes, starting with when steam rises from the steamer basket. You’re aiming for individual, separate, somewhat al dente grains; they feel firmer and almost rubbery compared to rice steamed as usual. If the rice can be squeezed into a ball but still crumbles easily, you’re on target. (You can also use a combi oven for this, but it’s gonna take you like two hours.)
Break up the rice clumps without smashing the grains and let it cool in the fermentation tray. The grains need to be separate to provide airflow and surface area for the spores, so run the lumps between your hands and get that stuff evenly spread out. Noma recommends double gloving to deal with the heat. The rice needs to cool to less than 110 F — room temp is fine.
You can use down to 1/8th of a tsp of cut kojikin for 4 lbs of cooked grains. Sprinkle the spores over the grains and make sure to wipe the spoon in the media after, then turn and mix the grains very thoroughly but gently. Don’t compress the rice. Cover the tray with a clean, damp (not soggy!) linen tea towel and place in your fermentation chamber.
After 12 hours, you’ll turn this mixture very thoroughly again. You probably will not notice any change at this point.
In 12 more hours (the 24 hour mark), turn the koji again. You may notice little dots of very pale yellow, white wisps of hyphae, and a sweet fragrance. These are good signs! Furrow the rice into rows. This helps with temperature, oxygenation, and moisture control. Make sure to check the temperature of the koji occasionally, as the enzymatic activity produces heat and can cause the koji to overheat and kill itself in a closed environment, and make sure the towel stays damp but not soggy.
At 36 total hours, fold the koji throughly again and furrow it. You might choose to stop here if you intend to use the koji to dry age/cure meat products. At 48 hours, the koji medium might be too sweet for a savory meat application.
To store, pack it in a container, sealable bag, or vacuum seal it and refrigerate. This will last 3 weeks - 1 month before the enzymatic activity declines too far. Fermentation will slow but continue in the fridge. You can also freeze it or dehydrate it.
Next time: Uses & Errata
Interesting and good effort post! 
I have very little experience with Japanese cooking though I love Japanese food. So my interest is purely academic. But looking forward to more.
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Jan 14, 2019 23:04
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Sep 15, 2017 01:58
