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Soy and legumes from Japan — Aomori

Tsugaru miso (incl. Tsugaru sannen miso, "three-year miso")津軽味噌

Tsugaru miso is the red, medium-salty rice miso of Aomori. It is made from soybeans, rice koji and about 13 % salt, and it ages in the cold north for a long time, about three years in the "three-year miso" form. The 1648 domain rule fixed the mix for the domain's purveyors.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Tsugaru miso itself.

DocumentedSoy and legumes3 years

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
soybeans
rice (koji)
salt
water

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 years

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Koji mould grows over steamed rice

Step 1 of 3
Rice koji
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: rice koji.

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

At a glance

Tsugaru miso is the red, medium-salty rice miso of Aomori. It is made from soybeans, rice koji and about 13 % salt, and it ages in the cold north for a long time, about three years in the "three-year miso" form. The 1648 domain rule fixed the mix for the domain's purveyors. Made in 3 steps over 3 years. The longest step, long cold ageing, takes up to 3 years (Japanese Wikipedia). Salt is 13 % (Japanese Wikipedia).

Key numbers
Main stepup to 3 yearsReported[JA-WIKI-津軽味噌]Long cold ageing
Salt13 %Reported[JA-WIKI-津軽味噌][TSC-2017][ACJC-2022]Cook soybeans, mix and pack

What makes this one different

A rice miso with a low koji ratio (about 0.6 by volume in the 1648 rule) and 13 % salt, aged in the cold for about three years, where Satsuma barley miso ripens in one to three months.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tsugaru sannen misothe name for the long-aged (about 3 years) form [JA-WIKI-津軽味噌]

Safety

high salt chosen to prevent spoilage over multi-year ageing

History and sources

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

Commercial miso likely began after Aomori port opened (1624) with Ōmi immigrants' sake brewing; 1648 domain law fixed the purveyors' mix; miso stocks went with troops in 1669 (Shakushain war); shipped to Ezo (Hokkaido) by 1703, where the name 'Tsugaru miso' may have arisen; export bans in 1833 and 1835 (Tenpō famine); Aomori made ~25,000 t in 1972 (6th nationally) and 5,851 t in 2009 [JA-WIKI-津軽味噌, KUSHIBIKI-1973].

  1. [ACJC-2022] Aomori Chuo Junior College, みそを作ろう! (food education leaflet), 2022; says Tsugaru miso is a red medium-salty rice miso with a low koji ratio, about 13 % salt, aged longweb
  2. [JA-WIKI-津軽味噌] Japanese Wikipedia, 津軽味噌wiki
  3. [KUSHIBIKI-1973] Kushibiki M. 1973, 津軽味噌 (味噌風土記) (Tsugaru miso), J. Brew. Soc. Japan 68(12):908–911, doi:10.6013/jbrewsocjapan1915.68.908paper
  4. [TSC-2017] Tokyo Seiei College, 日本各地のいろいろな味噌 (student nutrition sheet), 2017web