Hatchō miso
fermented soybean paste (mame-miso) · Condiment
Top 10 pairings
Hatchō miso is the connoisseur's miso — a pure-soybean (mame) paste from Okazaki in Aichi, made with no rice or barley kōji at all and matured for two years or more in tall cedar vats weighted with a cone of stacked river stones. The long age and low moisture leave it very dark, dense and firm, with an intense, almost chocolate-deep savouriness, little sweetness and a faint, drying astringency. It is the backbone of Nagoya cooking.
Picking a good onedrag
Sealed, even, sweet-maltyFuzzy, sour, off
Open and in useEveryday bestKeep it cold and take clean spoonfuls. Whisk it into soup off the heat, and salt the dish only after it's in.
Smell at the open tubSavoury core clean, caramel flat
The surface in the tubWhite film or dark top: skim it
The paste on a spoonCoarse, or liquid on top: stir it in
Read the tubBlend or no grain named: everyday
These cues are Miso's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.