Home Brewing of a Sort!

  Tonight I checked one of my books and discovered I have at least recipes to make my own soy sauce.  I took a look at the recipe and it doesn't seem too hard.

Cook up some soybeans, mash them, add a bit of salt, add the koji (starter) and let it set for a while in a container with an airlock.

That does not sound too hard but I know that it can't be THAT easy or everyone would be making their own.  Well, after a bit more research, it turns out that just finding the proper type of koji can be a challenge.  Add to that, the fact that it can take up to a year for the materials to ferment to the proper stage and that explains it right there.

Discovering that the length the soybean/koji mixture ferments determines the type of soy sauce was the extremely interesting.  If you want a light soy sauce, it takes a couple of months but if you want a deep, dark, heavy soy sauce, you need to let it go a full year.

I also found out that the koji starter can be used to make sake, certain types of pickles, miso, and a couple other things. I think that the term koji refers to the rice or barley that was inoculated with the appropriate strain.  That is so cool. 

The whole process interests me.  Now will I try to make my own?  I am seriously thinking of it but it won't happen right now because I live in a tiny one bedroom apt and I'm trying to figure out where to put the items for fermentation.  I have enough trouble finding space for the kimchi I make.  In fact I have two more cabbages I have to cut for kimchi this weekend.   Kimchi in soup is fantastic.