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Fermentation Atlas

Soy and legumes from Kyushu, Chūgoku, Shikoku

Sweet barley miso (Satsuma miso)麦味噌

Satsuma miso is the sweet barley miso of southern Kyushu. Barley koji is mixed with mashed boiled soybeans at a high koji ratio, and home batches ripen in about a month, leaving barley grains visible. Made in 5 steps over 31 days – 3 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days – 3 months (Japanese Wikipedia). Salt is 9–11 % (Japanese Wikipedia). Aspergillus oryzae does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[JA-WIKI-さつま味噌][JA-miso]Ripen
Temperature10–20 °CReported[JA-WIKI-さつま味噌]Soak and drain the barley
Salt9–11 %Reported[JA-miso]Mix salted koji with mashed boiled soybeans
AciditypH 4.9–4.9Measured[OITA-1993]Ripen
DocumentedSoy and legumes31 days – 3 monthsMore soy and legumesMore from Japan

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
barley (as koji)
soybeans
salt
Starter: tane-koji (Aspergillus oryzae) on steamed barley

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days – 3 months

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a bean10–20 °C

What changes: Barley soaks up water, longer when the water is colder

Step 1 of 5
Soak and drain the barley
Time
4–8 h
Reported
Temperature
10–20 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus oryzae

Output: soaked barley.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Barley koji instead of rice koji, at a high koji ratio and moderate salt: it ripens fast and stays pale, with visible barley grains and a toasty barley aroma.

Related ferments

Made the sweet barley miso way

Safety

Barley miso darkens after shipping faster than rice miso, and tyrosine crystals and liquid separation can appear [DOMOTO-1989].

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

In the late 1980s barley miso was about 9–10 % of Japan's miso (50,000–55,000 t), about 70 % of it made in Kyushu [DOMOTO-1989].

  1. [JA-WIKI-さつま味噌] Japanese Wikipedia, さつま味噌wiki
  2. [OITA-1993] Ōita Prefectural Industrial Research Institute 1993, report on warm packing of barley miso (oita-ri.jp; table partly garbled)gov
  3. [DOMOTO-1989] Dōmoto Y. 1989, 味噌の地域特性 —西日本編— (regional features of miso, western Japan), J. Brew. Soc. Japan 84(2):76–82, doi:10.6013/jbrewsocjapan1988.84.76paper
  4. [JA-miso] Japanese Wikipedia, 味噌 (miso; type table of koji ratio, salt and ageing)wiki
  5. [WP-Miso] English Wikipedia, Misowiki