Chronic. It is common to abuse good pasta, to solicit them relentlessly, to bet on their generosity. Not so with miso, yet king of good nourishing pasta and flagship food of Japanese cuisine, but which remains underused in the West. Carried by fusion cuisine and in the wake of soy sauce, it has certainly made its way to chefs’ tables, as well as to the tote bags of foodistas and followers of healthy cuisine. But its large-scale democratization is not complete, far from it. When it is not ignored, it is associated almost exclusively with the soup of the same name, mediocre or tasteless when it only serves to inflate a standardized sushi menu and it has been tinkered with a vague infamous powder.
In order not to upset his good nature, the most elementary correction is to start by pronouncing his name correctly: “misso”, Japanese style, and not miso with “z”, as in the hostile prefix (misogynist, misanthrope). Then, you have to venture into the land of miso as you approach a continent, with humility, curiosity and thirst for discovery. Because the range is large, not to say immense. In order to awaken the senses and the appetite of our compatriots, the comparison is often made with our gastronomic banner: in Japan there are as many misos as there are cheeses on our territory… Quite a program!
Extreme diversity
Multisecular in Japan, the tradition of miso is based on a simple and natural recipe: soya beans and salt placed in fermentation, alone or with the addition of cereals, rice and barley mainly. The ferment used, called koji, is a fungus belonging to the family of Aspergillus oryzae. Depending on its composition and the duration of its fermentation (from six to thirty-six months on average), miso undergoes both organoleptic and chromatic transformations which explain its extreme diversity.
There are two main families on the market: white miso (shiro miso), whose color ranges from pearly white to dark yellow, passing through beige or blond, and red miso (aka miso), which varies from russet to brown, from caramel to dark chocolate. This color chart comes with an intriguing variety of aromas which, to put it simply, intensify as the color darkens. The suave and slightly salty sweetness, alternately floral or fruity, of a light miso contrasts with the more sustained and structured taste, sometimes musky, sometimes woody, of a red miso, while the darker surprises with its fiercely appearance. powerful and salty. The presence of rice gives a sweeter result, that of barley favors malty accents. “You have to be curious and taste the various varieties which have very different orientations, in order to soak up their flavors and to appeal to our sensory memory., recommends William Ledeuil, chef of Ze Kitchen Galerie, Kitchen Galerie bis and Kitchen Ter (re) in Paris. Thus, we begin to know the repertoire better and have fun with miso. ”
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