Black koji ✦

Koji noir (kuro-kōji)

What it is

Okinawan awamori is brewed with this mould, which floods the mash with citric acid and keeps it from spoiling in subtropical heat - a preservative the brewer grows instead of adding. It was called Aspergillus awamori for the better part of a century before mycologists settled on Aspergillus luchuensis in 2013.

In the kitchen

Reach for it when you want koji to bring acidity rather than sweetness - a black shio-koji marinade tenderises and seasons pork without a drop of vinegar. Its spores are sooty and they travel: line the tray and keep it away from anything you are drying.

Goes with

Rice Salt Pork Sweet potato Lime Tomato Rice koji Chili pepper

Same species

Barley koji Rice koji Shio-koji Koji spores (tane-koji)

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