Ogawaya Kinzanji Miso, Sweet 450g (金山寺味噌 甘口 450g)
The story behind it
Ogawaya Miso Ten, in Togane City, Chiba Prefecture, was founded in 1848 (the first year of Kaei) as a koji house. It has made kinzanji miso since the Showa 20s (1945 to 1954).
Kinzanji miso is a nameshi-miso, a miso eaten as it is, that originally comes from Wakayama. Wakayama and Choshi were linked by boat, and the story goes that people who made kinzanji miso came to Choshi. Togane's climate is similar to Wakayama's, and koji making took root there.
It is made by preparing a koji from wheat and soybeans and fermenting it with salt water. The maker does its own polishing of the wheat, removing the outer husk. The polished wheat is soaked in water overnight, steamed, inoculated with koji mold, and left for two days to become koji. After maturing in a fermentation room, chopped vegetables and starch syrup are mixed in, and it rests further in a low-temperature aging room.
The Amakuchi (sweet) type is the sweeter kinzanji miso that mostly goes out today. Besides cucumber and rice, the interview mentioned serving it with roast beef, marinating a dried squid for a day before grilling, and spreading it on bread with cheese.
How to use it
Top cucumber or rice with it as the classic way. It also goes well alongside roast beef, or as a marinade, like a pickling bed, for meat and fish such as dried squid, left for a day before grilling. Spread on bread and topped with cheese, then toasted, it tastes something like teriyaki.