Fermentation and Drying

Overview

Let ingredients ferment in jars and dry on racks in the sun. Time and placement turn harvests into seasonings and dried ingredients.

Things to enjoy

Culture koji and ferment

Steam rice, and soak and boil soybeans in a pot. Culture rice koji on the koji shelf, then mature it with boiled soybeans and salt in a jar to make miso. Stored miso moromi can also be fermented with salt.

Press and heat-finish shoyu

Roast wheat in a frying pan, crack it in a suribachi, and culture it with steamed soybeans on the koji shelf. Mature the shoyu koji with brine in a jar, press the moromi, and heat the raw shoyu in a pot. Stored shoyu moromi can go straight into the press.

Dry in sunlight

Place drying racks under open sky to dry fish and seaweed on clear days, making the weather and workshop location part of preparation.

Cook with what you prepare

Use fermented seasonings for flavor and shave katsuobushi for stock. Prepared ingredients support many different meals.

Key items

• Fermentation JarThe terracotta fermentation jar: load a complete batch of materials and let time work.
• Koji ShelfA shelf that grows koji on prepared materials, including inoculation and care before fermentation.
• Pressing VatThe pressing vat for brine, juice and oil.
• Wooden SteamerTwo square wooden trays stacked over a hagama kettle.
• SuribachiA mortar for grinding and mashing cooking ingredients, separate from the grain-milling ishiusu.
• Small PanA small pan for quicker frying and sautéing.
• Small PotA small pot for quicker cooking over a heat source.
• Drying RackThe stick-and-string rack; dries under open daytime sky instead of heat.
• Shaving BoxA box that shaves katsuobushi into flakes — ride the block over the blade on top and the shavings collect inside.
• Cutting BoardLay food on the board and work it with a knife — the heart of prep work.
• SoybeansA carrot-style field crop — plant the bean itself.
• Polished RiceRice pounded free of hull and bran in an usu.
• SaltSalt from rock salt or the coastal salt line.
• Salt Water BottleSalt Water BottleBrine dissolved in the pressing vat; the shoyu base.
• Soaked SoybeansSoybeans swollen from a night in water; mill them into namago.
• Steamed SoybeansSoaked soybeans steamed and cooled for culturing shoyu koji with cracked roasted wheat.
• Boiled SoybeansSoaked soybeans boiled in a pot; combine with rice koji and salt in a jar to make miso.
• Steamed RiceRice steamed and cooled before culturing on the koji shelf.
• Rice KojiKoji cultured on steamed rice; combine with boiled soybeans and salt for miso.
• Roasted WheatDry-roasted wheat, coarsely crushed for shoyu koji.
• Cracked Roasted WheatCoarsely cracked roasted wheat for culturing with steamed soybeans.
• Shoyu KojiKoji cultured on steamed soybeans and cracked roasted wheat; mature it with brine in a jar.
• Miso MoromiA brewing mash that can be fermented with salt into miso.
• MisoMiso matured in a jar from boiled soybeans, rice koji and salt.
• Shoyu Moromi BottleShoyu Moromi BottleMature shoyu mash fermented from shoyu koji and brine, kept in its bottle.
• Raw Pressed Shoyu BottleRaw Pressed Shoyu BottleLiquid pressed from mature shoyu moromi; heat it in a pot to finish the soy sauce.
• Shoyu BottleShoyu BottleSoy sauce finished by heating raw pressed shoyu in a pot.
• Vinegar BottleVinegar BottleVinegar fermented from fruit or grain; the bottle comes back.
• Mirin MoromiA mash of glutinous and ordinary rice — the mirin-line intermediate.
• Mirin BottleMirin BottleA sweet seasoning rested from mirin moromi in the jar, for simmered and glazed dishes; the bottle comes back.
• NukadokoRice bran worked with salt into a pickling bed — vegetables and fish alike are buried in it.
• Cucumber NukazukeCrisp cucumber pickled slowly in a seasoned rice-bran bed.
• Hakusai AsazukeCut hakusai briefly rested with salt in a jar for a juicy asazuke.
• Dried AjiA split aji sun-dried on the rack; keeps you fuller than the raw cut.
• KatsuobushiNamaribushi dried rock-hard; shave it before eating.
• Bonito FlakesKatsuobushi shaved into flakes in the shaving box, ready to eat as they are.
• NoriThe thin algae mat of warm coastal floors.
• Nori SheetNori dried flat on the rack; wraps onigiri.
• Dried DaikonDaikon cured on the rack until it shrinks and dries — lighter than the fresh root and it keeps.

Representative recipes

Related activities

• Fields and Paddies
• The Kitchen
• Aquatic Life