Miso

To make miso, you start by cooking soybeans until they are soft. Then you mix them with salt and kōji. Kōji is rice, barley or soybeans with a special mould growing on it, and this mould starts the fermentation. The mixture then rests for anywhere from a few weeks to several years. Slowly it breaks down into a thick, savoury paste. The longer it ferments, the darker its colour and the deeper its flavour. Pale, young miso tastes mild and a little sweet. Dark, long-aged miso tastes rich, salty and intense. Each region, and even each household, has long kept its own recipe and ageing time. So "miso" can taste very different from one kitchen to the next.

The most familiar use is miso soup. You make it by stirring the paste into a pot of dashi, Japanese soup stock. But soup is far from the only use. Miso works as a marinade for fish and meat and as a base for salad dressings. Cooks stir it into sauces as a secret ingredient for extra depth, or brush it onto grilled vegetables as a glaze. Behind all of this lies umami, the deep savoury taste that dashi has too. That is exactly why the two so often meet in the same pot. A well-equipped Japanese kitchen usually keeps more than one kind of miso. A pale, mild one suits a light morning soup. A dark, strong one suits something heartier.