Finished my “Tomiso”
Also posted on r/koji:
Hi all, I posted a few months ago about my “Tomiso” I put together and here are the results! I’ve copied my organic thoughts and process below. I am very happy with the results! The base flavor is very much miso but it also deeply tastes like a meaty red sauce! Has a very good depth of flavor going on, exactly what I was looking for. I like a smooth texture so I finished in my food processor. I think it’s going to be perfect for my red sauce applications and can confirm it was a great addition to a recent bolognese.
Overall this project was a success, though it definitely required more attention and maintenance than my traditionals. Every 2-4 weeks I would need to remove my top cover and scrape off some mold. I was pretty cautious here and removed a full layer each time. As you can see from the final photo, this resulted in some significant loss. I think my salt (~10%) was a little low and the residual tomato moisture was a tad higher than would be ideal. Next time I’ll remedy with more salt and reduce the tomato more. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to take on a more complex miso!!
Original:
“I wanted to build a miso that would work as a good base/supplement to tomato based sauces and this is what I came up with. I tried to stick closely to some of the core red sauce ingredients , tomato, garlic, onion (in this case shallot), and anchovies while building some good umami.
I halved Roma and some cherry tomatoes and “sun dried” them in my oven at 250° F for somewhere between 6 and 8 hours. Dried so the large ones still had some life in them and the small ones were fully sun dried. I then processed them into a mash with the other non soy ingredients to be added to the soy/koji/salt. I also added some dried porcini to get some more glutamates in there, I think those and the anchovies will give a really good boost.”