kscans

Chapter 134 - Koji Abounds

Since reincarnating in this world, Yuri had unsparingly used the knowledge from his past life to improve his own. Tracing it all back, the cause was the firm misunderstanding that "I am the weakest person at the very bottom of the food chain around here." To survive as the weakest, could he afford to be picky about his methods? It's fine. It's all stuff listed in the Rural Life Guide that the god gave me...

And so, for these reasons, Yuri had been diligently pushing for cultural enlightenment.

Still, it was fine as long as Yuri was the only one reaping the benefits. But eventually, Yuri had a true encounter with this world. He met and began to interact with the people of this world. It was a third-kind encounter. Furthermore, by traveling to one of this country's foremost merchant cities, he came into deeper contact with this world's culture, and in return, he gave back that stimulus to this world in the form of new knowledge and new technology. Among those were several things that, depending on future developments, could even influence the future of this country.

And... on this very day, Yuri was about to bring forth the bud of yet another new technology to this world. To put it simply, Yuri had finally succeeded in cultivating bean koji.

"This is... koji... right...?"

Yuri's voice trembled as he confirmed the appraisal result with a look of deep emotion. After all, for the five years since his reincarnation, the efforts he had continued in order to somehow obtain miso and soy sauce, or their substitutes, had finally borne fruit. It was still but a small fruit, yet it could be called great progress.

Three years had already passed since Yuri had obtained soybeans, or rather, Soya Beans. But he had to start by increasing the number of Soya Beans. Once a certain number was gathered, he began trial production of miso, but...

"In the beginning, it just kept rotting... really, how many times did I think of giving up..."

He would leave boiled and softened Soya Beans in various places, hoping for koji mold to grow, but contrary to his expectations, the beans only rotted. He managed to make something like natto a few times, but since Yuri hated natto, it was immediately discarded. For Yuri, who had been plotting to brew alcohol someday, cultivating natto bacteria, also known as hi-ochi-kin, a cause of sake spoilage, was something he could absolutely not tolerate. And yet, the koji mold he sought would not grow at all. Yuri was on the verge of becoming cynical, wondering if this world had nothing but common bacteria and hi-ochi-kin... but two trials, one after the other, broke the stalemate.

The first was to follow the instructions of the upgraded Rural Life Guide and add wood ash to the boiled beans to maintain an alkaline environment. Many common bacteria cannot grow in an alkaline environment, but koji mold has alkali tolerance, so it can grow without issue. This method was apparently used in Japan since the Muromachi period, and as a result of adopting this kind of screening, one of them began to grow koji inside the constant-temperature laboratory. And the second was...

"...Yeah... it's properly producing amino acids. It seems to have been able to break down the soybeans too."

The second trial was to add the liquid from his fermented meat paste as a starter. The fermented meat paste, which he had started making in his first year of reincarnation, had become quite delicious through trial and error and improvements. The ones he made in the beginning had a strong smell and were hard to eat, but as a result of devising methods and ingredients, that strange smell is now negligible. On one of the Soya Beans to which he had given that liquid as a starter, the soybeans had been broken down and amino acids, the umami components, had been produced. It seemed that among the microorganisms that had propagated in the fermented meat paste, there was one that produced protease. On Earth, in fish sauce, the breakdown of protein was mainly carried out by the fish meat's own enzymes, but in the fermented meat paste Yuri made in this world, it seemed that salt-tolerant microorganisms were also involved in the protein breakdown. It was clear that what was involved in the breakdown was not a mold, and therefore, strictly speaking, it was different from what is called "koji" in Japan. But if it produced protease in the same way and broke down protein into amino acids in the same way, then in Yuri's mind, it was the same "koji." Whether it was a prokaryote or a eukaryote was, compared to that, a trivial difference.

"...Is it my imagination? The taste of this one seems a little better too... a little like fermented meat paste, maybe?"

It seemed that salt-tolerant yeast and salt-tolerant lactic acid bacteria, or something similar, had been added, leading to the production of alcohol, esters, and organic acids, which improved the taste. It was quite different from the miso he had eaten in his past life, but it wasn't bad in its own way. For now, he would preserve and cultivate these two strains separately. Depending on the situation, it might also be good to add the liquid from the fermented meat paste to the miso derived from koji mold.

"For now... yes, I'll propagate this 'koji,' then start a trial production of miso, and also... right, for the koji mold, I need to make it produce spores and preserve the starter culture."

Even though he had succeeded in cultivating bean koji, that was merely the first step in making miso. Whether what he made would be fit for consumption was still an unknown.

Incidentally, the reason he hadn't chosen barley koji was simple. He didn't have enough surplus of his staple food, barley, to divert to trial production. It was only recently that the barley yield had reached a satisfactory level. Until then, he didn't have much to spare.

"Let's see, after I propagate the 'koji'... I steam the Soya Beans, make miso balls, then add the koji and cultivate it... I have to let it rest for at least ten months, huh..."

As already mentioned, in order to select the appropriate microorganisms, it had been decided to refrain from heated brewing, at least for the time being. Therefore, this ten-month period could not be shortened. He planned to place the miso balls in his existing fermentation room and in a newly constructed fermentation storehouse. And even when the trial product was finished, he wouldn't know if it had the expected quality. It seemed there was still a long way to go.