MISOZUKE PARMESAN
How weird n wonderful that some processes going smooth and being straightforward for others while some people continuaesly struggling with it in the very same circumstance... chapter from Notes...
This was my very first attempt to make the famous misozuke, the ‘popular’ vegan tofucheese. So i believe i followed all the necessary steps - reading a lot online and from my little fermentation library. The book says you get firm tofu, press it down for a few hours so u squeeze out most of its water content. Then u get a couple of ingredients, some of them are optional. You definitely need miso paste. I think it’s way better using fresh homemade miso than shop-bought one; however, it’s difficult to maintain the consistency, as in my case,e i have different salt ratios in different misos. I experienced that it’s better to use higher salt content long-term misos (more stable) than young ones in this case. After miso, you can use sake or other seasonings like spices and herbs, optionally seaweed to cover your tofu from the outside.
Now, the next chapter was the problematic one. I had a container with a lid and paper towels on the bottom to soak up any juices. By the book: you need to keep your tofu in the fridge with the lid on and check it every week, changing the towel and turning the blocks. Monitor for any moulds and other disruptions. Well… my miso started to smell interesting. I’m trying to find the right expression… but it was a bit like nail polish. Smell of ‘toluene’ / maybe ‘acetone’ ish, bit boozy but not something that you want your food to smell. I continued to care for the misozuke in the same way, turning and changing the towel, and the smell just got stronger and stronger. After a month, it wasn't reassuring. And i had no clue what. I did taste it, and apart from the nail polish in the nose, it was very tasty. But it was impossible to eat like that.
Footnote: i’m wondering if this was a suffocation problem. As we have many wild yeasts and bacteria around, some of them can easily produce acetaldehyde from ethanol. While our wild yeast from hands, seaweed, miso, spoon can find the way to create just enough booze so once the acetobacter, for example, finds its way to the ferment, it will try to do its job by creating vinegar. ALTHOUGH we’ve been told to keep our misozuke in a closed box at the back of the fridge so Mr. Acetobacter can’t breathe properly, so kind of stuck halfway with acetaldehyde production - in between turning alcohol to vinegar in an airless container.
Or even some lactobacillus are able to dehydrogenase alcohol (Lactobacillus GG ATCC 53103) in the right circumstances, and maybe the amount of mirin we add to the miso to cover our tofu is just enough ABV to create those disturbing chemical compounds.
So i made a plan B. As always. I took a piece out and dug it in a salt bed. Why not :) and i just left another piece at the back of my fridge, out of the box, sitting on the back of the shelf. Hoping that the ‘toxic’ aroma will just disappear. Forgot.
A month later, i found the one in the salt bed, which was on the top of my fridge. I dug it out. The smell has gone. I scraped ALL the salt off the surface (it was covered in foraged kelp) and tasted it. Yeah, hell, it was salty. So i just left it out on a plate, out of the way.
After a few days, i had a look at it and realised that some pretty awesome salt crystals started to grow out from the kelp (which was wiped off from the previous table salt bed). Guess the kelp surpassed the limit of its possible salt intake and now being left out alone, the inner salt started to slowly and beautifully climb out and form crystals. The misozuke was still pretty stupidly salty but crumbly enough, so i ended up using it as a great seasoning instead of salt, because it tasted very, very nice.
BUT did i forget something? Hm… yes! The other miso at the back of my fridge yes! I think it must have been half a year from the time i made these misozukes when i found the other one. And i have to say it blew my mind.
It was left in the fridge without any covering, so it started to dry out. It actually dried out completely and had this shiny and cured egg yolk look, like some sort of weird candy… And it was rock hard. In a good way, it made me able to grate it and use it as the very best vegan parmesan cheese ever. It was so spot on.
p.s.> since i had tried to do this a few times, and that smell was creeping back on me. When i ve got a tip that my tofu/miso probably suffocated in the box and i need to let it breathe, so hopefully no weird gas can regenerate. This trick helped me out.