Types of Miso

The color, taste, texture, and saltiness of miso depend on the exact ingredients used and the duration of the fermentation process.
Miso can range in color from white to brown.
The darker the coloring, the more robust the flavor and saltiness.

The six popular types of miso are:

Hatcho miso (made from soybeans only)
Hatcho miso （八丁味噌）is a type of miso made in the Tokai region (now the 3 prefectures of Aichi, Mie and Gifu).
It was traditionally said to have been served to the emperor and is held in high regard.
 It’s an all-soybean miso, which is about medium on the sweet/strength/saltiness scale, and is a good general purpose miso.

hatcho miso

Kome miso (made from white rice and soybeans)

Mugi miso (made from barley and soybeans)

mugi miso

Genmai miso (made from brown rice and soybeans)

Natto miso (made from ginger and soybeans)

Regional Differences
Each region of Japan has its own type of miso according to the area's climate and eating customs. Shiromiso is a white miso made from rice native to Kyoto, hatchomiso, a sweet soybean miso particular to Aichi Prefecture, and Shinshu, the most widely eaten miso, is a salty, red-coloured paste, produced chiefly in Nagano Prefecture.

Major types of miso by color
Shiromiso (白みそ）or ‘white’ miso is the generic term for golden-yellow to medium brown miso.
 It is milder than other kinds of miso, with a slight sweetness.
It’s the most versatile one for cooking purposes - you can use it for miso soups, miso marinades, and so on.
If you can only afford one kind of miso budget-wise or space-wise, get a good shiromiso that is labelled ‘medium sweet’.

Saikyo miso (西京味噌) is a golden yellow miso that was traditionally made in the Kyoto/Kansai region.
 It is naturally sweet - the sweetness comes from the sugar produced as a byproduct of the fermentation process, similar to amazake (甘酒).
Makes a good dipping sauce or condiment, and is used as a sweet flavor in baked goods and so on by some Japanese vegan cooks.
Does not keep as well as other miso types since it’s lower in salt, so you must refrigerate it.
 It’s very expensive!

Akamiso （赤みそ）or ‘red’ miso is the generic term for miso that is a dark reddish-brown in color. It is usually (but not always!) more salty and assertive in taste than shiromiso.
 If you see a red-brown miso that is labelled a inakamiso (田舎味噌）or ‘country’ miso, you can be pretty sure that it will be strong in flavor and fairly salty.

Awasemiso (合わせ味噌）or ‘blended’ miso is just that, miso that combines two or more different types of miso together.
This is also a good general choice if you don’t want to assemble a miso collection.

Moromi miso (もろみ味噌）is a mildly salty, chunky miso, usually with added grains of rice or barley that is meant to be eaten as a condiment rather than in cooking.
 It’s used rather like a dip on raw vegetables and things like that.

What is Miso

History
Originally from China, miso, in the fermented form that we know it today, was first produced in Japan in the Jomon period (6000-300 BC).
It was a luxury food eaten by Buddhist monks and nobles, but by the 16th century it had become an everyday part of most people's diet.
Industrial production of the food began in the 17th century.

Miso is made from soybeans, sometimes rice and occasionally barley. The ingredients are steamed, mixed with a starter and left to ferment for between 6 months and five years.
Miso is a delicious fermented food that has been eaten in China and Japan for many centuries.
Miso and other fermented foods and drinks help build up the inner ecosystem and assure the digestive tract is amply supplied with beneficial bacteria.
These bacteria help digest, synthesize, and assimilate nutrients so necessary for good health and anti-aging.
They also strengthen the immune system, keeping it at the ready to fight infection and cancer.

Miso is a fermented soybean paste with a salty taste, a buttery texture and a unique nutritional profile that make it a versatile condiment for a host of different recipes,
and a foundation for traditional miso soup.
In addition to soybeans, miso can include rice, barley or wheat.

Miso is made by adding a yeast mold known as koji to soybeans and other ingredients and allowing them to ferment for a period of time ranging from months to years, depending on the specific type of miso being produced.
When the fermentation process is completed, the mixture is ground
into a paste similar in texture to nut butter.

Food flavors as medicine

In TCM food is categorized by flavors.

Warming acrid: 

spearmint, rosemary, scallion, garlic, all onion members, cinnamon bark and branch, cloves, fresh and dried ginger root, black pepper, hot peppers, cayenne, fennel, anise, dill, mustard greens, horseradish, basil, nutmeg

Cooling acrid:

 peppermint, marjoram, elderflower’s, white pepper, radish and its leave

Neutral acrid: 

taro, turnip, kohlrabi.

Salty: 

salt, seaweed, soy sauce, miso, pickles, umeboshi; barley and millet (although primarily sweet).

Sour: 

Hawthorne berry, lemon, lime, pickles, rose hip, sauerkraut, sour apple (crab apple), sour plum

Sour-bitter:

 vinegar

Sour-acrid: 

leek

Sour-sweet:

 aduki bean, apple, blackberry, cheese, grape, huckleberry, mango, olive, raspberry, sourdough bread, tangerine, tomato, yogurt.

Bitter:

 Alfalfa, bitter melon, romaine lettuce, rye

Bitter-acrid:

 citrus peel, radish leaf, scallion, turnip, white pepper.

Bitter-sweet:

 amaranth, asparagus, celery, lettuce, papaya, quinoa

Bitter-sour:

 vinegar

Sweet: 

Apple, apricot, cherry, date, fig, grape, grapefruit, olive, papaya, peach, pear, strawberry, tomato, beet, button mushrooms, cabbage, carrot, celery, chard, cucumber, eggplant, kuzu, lettuce, potato, shitake mushroom, spearmint, squash, sweet potato, yam, almond, chestnut, coconut, sesame see and oil, sunflower seed, walnut, amasake, barley malt, honey, molasses, rice syrup, whole sugar.

Cooling Heat

Cooling Foods which reduce heat signs:

Apple, banana, pear, persimmon, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomato, all citrus, lettuce, radish, cucumber, celery, button mushrooms, asparagus, Swiss chard, eggplant, spinach, summer squash, Chinese cabbage, bock choy, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, zucchini, soy milk, soy sprouts, tofu, tempeh, mung beans and their sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, millet, barley, wheat and its products, amaranth, kelp and all seaweed, spirulina, wild blue-green, oyster-shell calcium, wheat and barley grass, kudzu, yogurt, crab, clam.

Food and Temperature

Foods categorized by temperature

 

Every condition can be divided into a thermal temperature of hot or cold. 

One should emphasize foods that are the opposite of the thermal nature you are diagnosed with. 

For example, if you have too much heat in the body you should emphasize cooler foods.

 It is possible to have a mixed pattern of hot and cold, and these situations are best sorted out by your Chinese medical practitioner.

Eliminating Summer Heat

Foods that eliminate summer heat

lemons, apple, watermelon, cantaloupe, papaya, pineapple, musk-melon, mung beans (in soup), summer squash, zucchini, cucumber, radish juice, bitter melon soup, watermelon juice.

Eliminating dryness

Foods that eliminate dryness

soy (tofu, tempeh, soy milk, miso), spinach, asparagus, millet, barley, salt, seaweed, white fungus, apple, tangerine, pine nut, persimmon, peanuts, pear, honey, barley malt, sugar cane, whole sugar, oyster, clam, mussel, pork, and pork kidney.

Eliminating Dampness

Foods that eliminate damp

lettuce, celery, turnip, rye, amaranth, aduki beans, wild blue-green micro-algae, asparagus, white pepper, alfalfa, pumpkin, vinegar, papaya.

Moving Wind

Foods that eliminate wind

These foods are best when you are getting a cold or flu. One should, although, pay attention to the thermal nature (hot and cold) of the condition and the foods chosen. 

If you are getting a cold (but feel hot and have other heat signs from a Chinese medical perspective) then one should emphasize cooler release the exterior foods.

Wind-Cold: oats, pine nuts, shrimp, ginger, fennel, basil, anise

Wind-Heat: celery, kuzu, mulberry, strawberry, peppermint

Neutral: black soybeans, black sesame seed, fresh flax oil

Internal Wind: celery, basil, sage, fennel, dried or fresh ginger, anise, oats, black soybeans, black sesame seed, kuzu, pine nut, coconut, fresh cold-pressed flax oil, shrimp.

Moving Blood

Blood movers

Tumeric, scallions, nutmeg, spearmint, chives, garlic, vinegar, basil, peach seed, weak, ginger, chestnuts, rosemary, cayenne, eggplant, white pepper, aduki beans, sweet rice, butter.

Moving Enery-Chi

Qi movers

Spearmint, rosemary, scallions, garlic and all onion family members, cinnamon bark and branch, clothes, fresh and dried ginger root, black pepper, all hot peppers, cayenne, fennel, anise, dill, mustard greens, horseradish, basil, nutmeg, peppermint, marjoram, elder flowers, white pepper, radish and its leaves, taro, turnip.

Food and movement

Foods that promote movement

When things get blocked up in the body Chinese Medicine diagnoses is stagnation. 

Although sometimes there is a deficiency that needs to be strengthened to eliminate the stagnation (above category), most of the time, things just need to be moved, invigorated, or opened up.

Remember any type of pain in the body is caused from stagnation (or blockage).

TCM Food Cures: Gout

Green papaya means to unripe papaya.

The skin is still green in color.
Papaya takes about four months to fully mature and ripen.

The healing effects will change when it is fully ripe.

Green papaya has more enzymes at this stage.
Green papaya should be harvested when the papaya is approximately three months old.

The fruit needs to be firm and the “papaya latex” contains high digestive enzymes.

The active enzyme is papain.

Papain possesses a very powerful digestive action superior to pepsin and pancreatin. 

Changes in intestinal alkalinity or acidity do not interfere with the unique digestive activity of papain. Papain breaks down meat fibers.

 It is able to render nutrients available to the digestive process. 

This emphasizes the need for papain in the diet of meat eaters as well as vegetarians.

Papain, one of the most powerful plant proteolytic enzymes.

It is a catalytic agent that will act in protein digestion in an acid, alkaline or neutral medium. 

This is of vital importance for those with enzyme deficiency problems as well as for those with low hydrochloric acid output in the stomach. 

Pepsin produced in the stomach required for protein digestion is activated only in an acid medium. This requires a healthy output of hydrochloric acid which is insufficient in most people. 

Due to the powerful proteolytic action of papain, a more active digestant than pepsin, a major digestive problem for most people will be helped by the daily ingestion of green papaya 

 

1 medium Green Papaya

1 tbsp oolong tea

Water to cover the papaya

 

Cut green papaya into small cubes.

Bring to a boil.

Add tea leaves.

 Simmer for 10 mins.

Drink this tea throughout the day during a Gout crisis and about 3 x when preventing a gout crisis.

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Tonifying Essence

Essence (jing) Tonics:

Mussel, lentil, lamb kidney, chicken, microalgae (chlorella, spirulina, wild blue-green), fish, liver, kidney, brain, bone marrow,  and cereal grasses, milk, ghee, nettles, royal jelly, beef, millet, wheat, black sesame seed, black soybeans, chestnuts, mulberries, raspberries, strawberries, and walnuts.

Tonifying Yang

Foods that tonify yang:

Animal: anchovy, mussel, trout, chicken, beef, lamb,

Fruits: cherry, citrus peel, date,

Grains, seeds, and spices: oats, spelt, quinoa, sunflower seed, sesame seed, walnut, pine nut, chestnut, fennel, dill, anise, caraway, carob pod, cumin, Sweet brown rice (and its products, i.e. moshi)

Vegetables: parsnip, parsley, mustard greens, winter squash, cabbage, kale, onion, leek, chive, garlic, scallion, cooked beans with ginger (e.g.  black beans, lentils, aduki beans), hot peppers are warming only in small pitches, otherwise they have a strong cooling effect. This is also true of concentrated sweeteners.

Tonifying Yin

Foods that tonify yīn:

Grains and legumes: millet, barley, wheat germ, wheat, rice, quinoa, amaranth, seaweeds, micro-algae (especially chlorella and spirulina), tofu, black beans, kidney beans, mung beans (and there sprouts).

Animal: Cow’s or goat’s milk, yogurt, cheese, etc., chicken, egg, clam, abalone, oyster, sardines, duck, beef, pork.

Fruits: persimmon, grapes, blackberry, raspberry, mulberry, banana, watermelon

Vegetables: beets, string beans, kuzu,

– one should cook daily soups, stews, congees (some sort of watery medium).