Adventure Time in the Koji Kingdom

March 30, 2017 5:47 PM

Traditional products made with koji are miso, saki, soy sauce. I wanted to do something completely different, something that hadn't been done with koji. I didn't just want to make a sauce or ingredient, I wanted to make a star.
posted by Michael Tellurian (7 comments total)

If you don't want to watch a 20minute TEDx talk, I think most of the content will be reproduced here.
posted by dis_integration at 6:44 PM on March 30, 2017 [6 favorites]

Jeremy's charcuterie is amazing. He's been doing pop-up dinners around Cleveland for several months now promoting his delicatessen Larder (not open yet - Facebook Page). The non-traditional stuff is quite innovative.
posted by Surely This at 2:28 AM on March 31, 2017

That's cool, I'd never heard of koji before, I had just assumed it was yeast. I know the rice cooker gets heroically funky if you leave it for a few days, I wonder if there are dormant koji spores on the rice.
posted by lucidium at 7:43 AM on March 31, 2017

In San Francisco, Aedan sells koji and similar products (you can get it at Rainbow and farmers' markets). Escabeche made with a koji-based pickling sauce are a mainstay in our house, since the end product is so much less vinegar-pain-y than the traditional stuff.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:21 AM on March 31, 2017

I want a picture of the cooked porkchop!
posted by Seamus at 1:41 PM on March 31, 2017

Koji making it is my favorite part of brewing sake (gotta produce the koji myself because I need LOTS of it and Japan is too far away.) Koji is amazing stuff, an enzyme powerhouse. Now I'm going to have to make my own soy sauce in my copious free time which I have so much of.
posted by Captain Shenanigan at 8:37 PM on March 31, 2017

Koji is also what's used to make baiju, now the worlds largest spirit category by sales volume. Photos I've seen of workers in the facilities where the grains for baiju are fermented with koji look completly medieval. Having sampled an array of baiju styles, I can only imagine the odor in there would leave me retching.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 10:53 AM on April 1, 2017