Koji encompasses mold-inoculated grains (often rice) and soybeans. It is used as a fermentation starter in Japanese cooking for umami-forward products like miso, shoyu, and sake.

You may not have heard of shio koji before. It's a marinade native to Japan, made from fermented rice, that breaks down the proteins in meat gently.

2 Guys & A Cooler. How to make Koji Rice. Posted: May 6, 2025 | Last updated: July 10, 2025. More for You ...

Using a mother spore he brought back from a 2019 trip to Kyoto, Ratino makes seven different strains. A recent project: dry-aging Spanish mackerel for ten days, brushing it with liquid koji, and ...

Wrapped in cloth, the rice would rest for 55 hours, its temperature rising with the heat of koji fermentation to nearly 108°F. For most sakes, koji rice is 20% of all the rice in the brew.

Sake, or nihonshu, is made by fermenting steamed rice with koji mold, which converts starch into sugar. The ancient brewing technique was recognized under UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage ...

Sake brewer Mie Takahashi stirs mixture of steamed rice with koji mold and water in a tank at her Koten sake brewery in Okaya, central Japan, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024.