Fermentation isn’t new at our house. We make beer (well, Todd makes beer), we pickle, there’s always kraut and kombucha on a shelf or in the fridge.
But one day I saw Samin Nosrat explore soy sauce in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and I got curious about miso. I’d cooked with it plenty, but making miso seemed otherworldly.
A few months later, the NOMA Guide to Fermentation started me on the journey to making miso at home. I built a fermentation chamber in our basement, equipped it with heat and humidity sensors, a heater, a humidifier, and a lot of pans - and then waited for the right moment to jump in with two feet.
I started by fermenting peppers - eating them right out of the jar, dried and ground into powder, and stuffed into tamales. Then came fruit - nectarines salted with chilies in honey and salted plums that I’d dry and eat as a snack. Finally, I was ready for what had seemed really scary - koji, in this case pearled barley inoculated with aspergillus oryzae. Getting koji right is the first step in making miso, and it took 3 tries (about 5lbs) to get right.
Once I made koji, I realized there was a universe of food I’d never considered making. Miso was the first big project, but it won’t be the last.