Start with these 35 seasonings from Nagano in total
Shinshu is known as Japan's largest miso-producing region. Rice miso, made with a high proportion of rice koji, dominates, and it is marked by a clean saltiness and a restrained sweetness.
The area's advantage is its climate. Winter cold slows fermentation down, so the miso ages slowly. Matsumoto still has a brewery that rests it for three years, and the longer it sits the darker the color and the heavier the umami. Cold has never been the handicap here. It has been used as the condition that lets you wait.
- Japan's largest miso region and the lineage of rice miso
- Long-aged miso that puts the cold climate to work
Why Shinshu rice miso is dry and clean
Shinshu miso is a rice miso made with a high proportion of rice koji, and at around 12 percent salt it is classed as dry. A clean saltiness comes first, then a gentle umami from the koji.
The climate is what sets the flavor. Low winter temperatures move fermentation slowly, which holds unwanted microbes back, so the color stays comparatively light and the finish has no hard edges. Shinshu miso is said to account for a large share of national miso production, and the Nagano Prefecture Miso Manufacturers Cooperative Federation administers the Shinshu Miso appellation.
Shinshu miso and the shichimi at the gates of Zenkoji
How miso making spread through Shinshu has several competing accounts. There is the story that Zen monks brought the method in during the Kamakura period, the account that Takeda Shingen encouraged brewing as military provisions in the Warring States period, and the picture of brewing settling in around the Matsumoto domain and across Shinano in the Edo period. Narrowing it to a single birthplace is considered difficult.
Yawataya Isogoro in Nagano City was founded in 1736 and has sold shichimi togarashi at the gates of Zenkoji ever since. Alongside Yagenbori in Edo and Shichimiya Honpo in Kyoto, it is counted as one of Japan's three great shichimi. Ishii Miso in Matsumoto was founded in 1868 and still holds to tennen jozo (naturally brewed, no temperature control) miso rested three years in cedar barrels.
Local dishes and their seasonings
- Oyaki (おやき)
- A local dish in which a dough of wheat or buckwheat flour is wrapped around a filling of vegetables, pickles or sweet bean paste, then baked or steamed. It is said to have developed in mountain districts to supplement a staple where rice grows poorly. Fillings follow the season: nozawana, dried daikon strips, eggplant with miso.
- Gohei mochi (五平餅)
- Mashed non-glutinous rice is pressed onto a skewer, brushed with a miso or shoyu-based sauce, and grilled. It is eaten from southern Nagano through the mountain districts of Gifu and Aichi, and the sauce is mixed differently by household and district. Perilla seed or walnut is sometimes worked in.
- Nozawana zuke (野沢菜漬け)
- A pickle made mainly around Nozawa Onsen in Shimotakai County. Salted after the autumn harvest and left to ferment with lactic acid in the cold, it develops a crisp bite and a gentle sourness. It has long been a winter staple to keep on hand in Shinshu.
Makers in Nagano
- Ishii MisoFounded in 1868
A miso brewery in Matsumoto. Using domestic soybeans and spring water from the Northern Alps system, it continues tennen jozo, resting the miso three years in cedar barrels. - Yawataya IsogoroFounded in 1736
A shichimi shop at the gates of Zenkoji in Nagano City. It blends seven elements, chili, sansho, hemp seed, ginger, dried citrus peel, sesame and perilla, carrying a shichimi that dates to the Edo period into the present.
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