My journey with Koji, a mold used in traditional Japanese fermentation, began after watching a YouTube video, How to Dry Age a Steak in Two Days. Intrigued by the recipe, I tried it. The process involves coating a steak with a ground, Koji-inoculated rice, letting it rest uncovered in the fridge for two days, rinsing it, and cooking as usual - Sous Vide followed by a quick sear. The result? A $20 HEB ribeye transformed with incredible umami, rivaling a 30-day dry-aged steak from an expensive restaurant. What is this wonderous discovery I had made? Who else knows about this? What else can this mold do? These questions kept me awake for nights on end, as I’m sure they will for you. Like Cristopher Columbus discovering land that had already been discovered, I share with you my findings:
You may not be familiar with Koji, but you are with its products. Most commonly used in traditional Japanese cooking, Koji is used to make soy sauce, miso, and sake. The universe of Koji is characterized by obsession. There are chefs, Ted Talks, Books, and the ever sought after KojiCon, all revolving around the same thing—mold. This particular mold is grown most commonly on rice, wheat and nuts, though many other methods exist. You can make Koji yourself, just soak some rice in water and keep it warm for a couple of days and voilà, a brand-new ingredient that adds a deep umami flavor to whatever you’re preparing. Not convinced? Aside from making everything it touches delicious; it also has a variety of health benefits. Its most impressive being digestive aid. Koji mold breaks down complex carbohydrates in your food into smaller amino acids which are absorbed into the body with less effort and higher efficiency, while at the same time unlocking a deeper flavor in your dish that was previously inaccessible. It gets the digestion process started early, easing the strain on our body. It’s kind of like how spiders inject digestive enzymes into their prey, digesting their food before they eat it. Gross, but impressive.
If you can improve your food, what’s stopping you? Asian fusion restaurants, ever popular in the city of Austin all do the same thing, take a familiar dish, and introduce Umami. Loro’s Smoked Salmon with Ponzu Sauce, JOI’s Chicken and Truffle Dumplings and Kemuri Tatsu-Ya’s Brisket with Miso BBQ Sauce are a few examples of this. Have you ever heard the phrase “MSG makes anything taste good”? That’s because its sole purpose is to enhance umami—a flavor that transforms ordinary dishes into something unforgettable.
If you don’t have time for Koji to take its effect, Shio Koji is a liquefied Koji marinade that works immediately. Shio Koji can be purchased in most grocery stores or made by mixing equal parts Koji rice and salt water, then left to ferment for a week. Shio Koji works the same as Koji, breaking down complex macronutrients into smaller pieces, but it is a more accessible way to utilize Koji. Add a tablespoon to your soups, your eggs, your ground beef or your vegetables before cooking and watch your boring weekday dinner transform into a work of umami art.
This method of preparing food, which is just the tip of the iceberg, is underutilized in America. People have been cooking with variations of Koji for centuries, most commonly in Eastern societies. Kasu in Japan, Tapai in Indonesia, Doubanjiang in China, and Bribri Chicha in Costa Rica are just a few examples. What can these molds do? Why aren’t we using them? What do they know that we don’t? The questions are endless and we’re late to the game.
You may be thinking “why should I care? Mold is gross and I don’t want it around my food.” Let me ask you this: do you know why carrots are orange? Originally, carrots grew purple, yellow, or white, like the “fancy” carrots you may have seen at Central Market. Orange carrots were bred by the Dutch in the 16th century to pay tribute to a French Royal Court known as the House of Orange. The French Elite liked this so much, they began breeding only orange carrots throughout the land, wiping out the more nutritious, healthier colorful carrots. Centuries after the French monarchy pushed their agenda, we still eat their self-serving, masturbatory, mutilation of a carrot, deprived of the health benefits of eating colorful carrots. We must not focus on what makes a food popular or unpopular. Carrots are orange because some king liked it, and people don’t cook with mold because someone, somewhere, decided it was gross. It’s time to move past these outdated notions, embrace experimentation and discover new possibilities. F*** the patriarchy, eat the mold.