Hatchō miso

Hatchō miso

What it is

Hatchō is a place — eight chō from Okazaki castle — where two houses still ferment nothing but soybeans, salt and water, with no rice or barley koji in the vat at all. Each cedar barrel is weighted with river stones stacked by hand into a cone of about three tonnes, and it has to stand without mortar through two full summers.

In the kitchen

Use half what a recipe asks of rice miso; it is denser and far more astringent. Slake it through a strainer into hot broth and never let it boil — at a rolling boil the aroma is gone inside a minute.

Goes with

Eggplant Daikon Pork Hon-mirin Konnyaku White sugar Kombu Dark chocolate

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd

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