Spontaneous fermentation is the oldest form of 'cooking'. Long before man understood the chemistry of how microorganisms preserved his food and heightened its flavor while making him healthier, he learned to control and manipulate the process. Each culture developed their unique specialties based on indigenous ingredients. Early travelers borrowed techniques from their neighbors and assimilated them to what was available back home.
In this spirit, I've taken the time-honored process of making miso and adapted it to the bounty of ingredients that are available in the modern world to make these trial batches. The choices were not arbitrary— they needed to fit the protein/starch profile that koji requires to feed upon. In some cases, soybeans were added to the base ingredient to boost the protein content. Many borders were crossed, but no bridges were burned.
No doubt, some will fail, and some will succeed, but that's part of the fun of discovery. Ultimately, flavor will dictate which ones will be pursued.
Playing with Fire and Water 
They all look so beautiful. Do you have any food safety concerns with this approach? I ask because we pretty well know traditional fermented recipes are safe from long experience, but I’m curious how you get to a comfortable place experimenting with these radically different options? Obviously if they smell or look wrong, you’ll know not to eat them but any risk of subtler bugs?
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This is just BRILLIANT. I can’t wait to hear how these turn out!
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Inspiring. I have some koji in the fridge that I really need to use.
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This is a very cool experiment. I would think the starches would ferment pretty quickly, and the winners will be the legumes. It would have been cool to include a boiled peanut batch too.
I can’t wait for the result!
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I love fermentation and do a lot of it, this is something I have never tried though.
Thanks for the idea!
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When you give the Aspergillus oryzae spores a happy environment in which to thrive, they leave no room for rival microorganisms to take hold. Also, the high levels of salt is a good deterrent.
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Phoebe Salsbury
Im grateful for the article.Thanks Again. Will read on…
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It’s been over a year, in fact, almost two years. How did your Miso Adaptations turn out?
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Richard, thanks for the reminder, I’d completely forgotten to get back here with an update.
As GregK predicted the legumes were the clear winners in terms of flavor, particularly those made with dried legumes. I wrote off the corn and sweet potato as failures— after 3 months they looked and smelled wrong and I didn’t have the nerve to taste them. My favorites were roasted peanut (like salted peanut butter, but more complex and funky) and spicy black bean (very creamy texture, a few spoonfuls in a feijoada =amazing!)
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