Shio-koji

Shio-koji

What it is

Rice koji, salt and water blended and left a week at room temperature make a slurry whose enzymes work both ends of the problem: protease cuts protein into free amino acids, amylase turns starch into sugar. An old northern preserving trick, it became a national habit in Japan around 2011.

In the kitchen

Ten percent of the weight of whatever you are curing: thirty minutes for a fish fillet, four to twenty-four hours for chicken. Scrape it off before it meets heat or the sugars burn, and never leave fish overnight — the protease keeps working and the flesh goes soft.

Goes with

Chicken Cod Cucumber Turnip Pork Salmon Egg

Same species

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

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us