Saikyo miso

Saikyo miso (miso blanc de Kyoto)

What it is

Kyoto's white miso ferments for weeks rather than years, with roughly twice as much rice koji as soybean and around five percent salt against twelve in a red one. Saikyo is properly a Kyoto maker's name rather than a category: what it sells is shiro miso, sweet enough to finish a dessert cream.

In the kitchen

For saikyo-yaki, thin it with sake and mirin, bed the fish in it for one to three days, then wipe it off completely before grilling — left on, its sugars go from pale to black in seconds under a flame.

Goes with

Sea bass Scallop Hon-mirin Junmai sake Turnip Mitsuba

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd

Also used with

Japanese Spanish mackerel (sawara)

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