Shio Koji as a meat treatment

[gfweb]

Recently I saw an article, probably in the NYT, on using this stuff to for want of a better term, speed-age meat.  The story is that it is fermented rice extract and has enzymes.

 

Any experience out in the eG universe?

 

 

[Vapre]

I got Koji Alchemy during the pandemic and got a few GEM Culture Koji Starters but never really got into it, had a few other hobbies get in the way. I know Rich Shih is one of the foremost experts on it (here's his site: OurCookQuest) and here's an ATK article about shio + meat: The Magic of Shio Koji | America's Test Kitchen

Edited yesterday at 02:54 AM by Vapre (log)

[AAQuesada]

There was a local Chef here in LA that did a Koji Pork chop that was super popular at the time. To me it had a bit of a cured / hammy flavor. 

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, gfweb said:

Recently I saw an article, probably in the NYT, on using this stuff to for want of a better term, speed-age meat.  The story is that it is fermented rice extract and has enzymes.

 

Any experience out in the eG universe?

 

 

No direct experience of using it but certainly of consuming it.

 

Shio (しお or 塩) means salt in Japanese. Koji (こうじ or 麹) can be rice, barley or soy beans infected with Aspergillus oryzae. Put the two together and you have shio koji which is indeed used as a tenderiser. It is a paste made from a mixture of rice koji, salt and water. It breaks down protein and starches. It also adds umami to dishes.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 08:57 AM by liuzhou (log)

[gfweb]

So I cut two chunks off of a flat iron steak.  One was marinated/incubated with koji for 4 hours.

 

I chopped off the end of the untreated steak for identification purposes.

 

The stuff looked like baby barf, a viscous liquid filled with rice fragments.

 

 

 

Left steak is koji treated.  It darkened like it was treated with sugar although the label on the koji had no sugar listed.

 

The taste was sweet too.

 

The promised funk in the meat was barely detectable. 

 

Unless I made some big mistake in method or choice of koji (certainly possible), I can't imagine using koji again.  I get a much tastier speed-age with @rotuts Red Boat and soy and none of the sweetness.

 

 

[ElsieD]

8 minutes ago, gfweb said:

I get a much tastier speed-age with @rotuts Red Boat and soy and none of the sweetness.

How does this work?

[gfweb]

1 minute ago, ElsieD said:

How does this work?

 

In my hands, I put the meat in a ziploc with a tbsp of soy and a tbsp of Red Boat 40.  I put it in the fridge and turn it occasionally for a few hours. Brother @rotuts may have improvements.

[liuzhou]

19 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

Unless I made some big mistake in method or choice of koji (certainly possible)

 

There is certainly a sweet koji (甘い麹 - amai koji). It does not contain sugar but the sweetness comes from the processing of the rice turning the starch into glucose. Maybe that's what you accidentally bought.

 

 

[gfweb]

30 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

There is certainly a sweet koji (甘い麹 - amai koji). It does not contain sugar but the sweetness comes from the processing of the rice turning the starch into glucose. Maybe that's what you accidentally bought.

 

 

 

 

 

here it is

 

[donk79]

Previous conversation

 

Doesn't look like any of us actually tried it then, but there are more links to articles. 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

here it is

 

Bizarre. I can't work out what that is. It mentions shio (salt) but I cant see the word koji anywhere on the container.

 

It does however   say it's for grilled food, simmered food, Japanese food, stir fried food.

 

Sorry.

 

 

[gfweb]

41 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Bizarre. I can't work out what that is. It mentions shio (salt) but I cant see the word koji anywhere on the container.

 

It does however   say it's for grilled food, simmered food, Japanese food, stir fried food.

 

Sorry.

 

 

amazon sold it to me as koji

 

maybe it isn't?

[liuzhou]

10 minutes ago, gfweb said:

amazon sold it to me as koji

 

maybe it isn't?

 

I honestly don't know. I can read every word and none say it's koji. Sorry

[gfweb]

27 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

I honestly don't know. I can read every word and none say it's koji. Sorry

 I appreciate the help.

[Slim W]

I have never bought Shio Koji but, I have used dried koji rice to "dry age" steaks, similar to this. https://blog.thermoworks.com/koji-aged-steaks/

We enjoyed it each time and I will do it again.

I've made Shio Koji and used it with vegetables, sauces and marinade to good effect.  I can't remember exactly which book or article mentioned that the commercial Shio Koji varies in quality. 

Making Koji and miso etc, seems interesting and is on a list of things to try.