Another amino post, this time koji/soy. Not a super glamorous pic I'm afraid! My first time attempting a koji culture for ages, and while it started off fine, it started sporulating quite quickly, within 36 hrs. See the green colour in the third pic. This happens for a variety of reasons, but in this case it was either too dry or too hot.
Basmati rice . First ferment in the new chamber setup. Got a useful stainless perforated gastronorm pan for this job, taking it out and resting on an aluminium baking sheet when the temp started spiking about 36hrs in.
Busy day in lab Mountfields. Processed 3 lots of : borlotti bean, marrowfat peas (aka mushy), pinto beans. On the table also are dried aspergillus sojae rice left over from the miso batch, some soy miso I made a few months ago and some I've finally put into brine with dried chili and red dates.
So attempt number 4 at rice and I think I've mailed the process. Previous versions suffered from poor temp and humidity conditions, as well as overcooking the rice. This white powdery surface texture is exactly how it should be. Now to figure out what I'm going to do with the stuff! Meat curing, sake, mirin, soy, miso, cheese...