So after another failure with the 3rd generation, I might find the right one with the 4th try.

Quickly what happened with the 3rd round. I f*cked it up by placing the rounds into a sushi mat (like I did before with my almond Roquefort) and being so amazed by its growing fluffy coat that I missed turning them from time to time. This resulted in a great ‘ koji coat ‘ but the bottom layer stayed naked. So I knew it won’t work out immediately when I placed them into the brine.

Of course, learning from the batch before I increased the salt % to 30. And because there was no protective layer on the bottom – the brine soaked the nut rounds too much. Managed to save them from falling apart by (cleverly LOL) using my hairdryer (having no dehydrator) to dry them off and it could age for another 3 days. BUT it was so salty on the test day that I did put them back on the top of the radiator to dry off – hoping to be able to use as a salty seasoning later on.

Also, I changed a few tiny bits in the 3rd round.

At this point I got a bit disappointed for the continued failures … so I decided I need to take a break and dive into some tempeh magic just try this kojeese one more time. #4 kojeese batch. And I think I finally nailed it.

Changed a few bits (using pasteurized miso, not my active one), brine stays on 25% and reduced the number of spores I used. Before I was just fussy about a perfectly covered ‘cheeze’ by my awamori mould – now I realised maybe that is simply too much of a mouldy flavour. So I took a step back and simplify. And here it is. The winner so far.

However, I promised to step into the world of tempeh for a while… i did launch a #5 round of kojeese to find out if I am able to maintain the consistency… or it’s gonna be b*tch again and show me something totally different again LOL.

If I’m lucky…. i might spread the ‘word (and spores)’ and start my new brand you can find in your favourite wine bars pretty soon. :) stay tuned.