Using a fermented salt product verses using plain sea salt in dishes using a salt that has been added to a fermented product allows the use of sea salt and the benefits of cultured/fermentation.

Shio Koji…
We use shio-koji instead of salt in almost all of our cooking now, so it goes pretty quickly. Easy to make with 3 ingredients… rice koji, sea salt, and filtered water. This is a very salted product as salt should be the amount of salt may be reduced or more water added.

Here is the recipe for shio-koji. It only takes about 15 minutes to prepare and then a little more than a week to ferment:

• 500 gm fresh rice koji
• 170 gm sea salt
• 650 cc water
• Put the koji in a bowl and rub with your hands to break apart any clumps.
• Add the salt and mix with your hands, kneading the salt and koji together. Myoho always emphasizes that it’s important to put your heart into mixing the shio-koji- think positive thoughts and give appreciation for the koji- the finished product will be more delicious and satisfying.
• Mix until the mixture becomes slightly sticky and it clumps when squeezed.
• Add the water and stir well.
• Put in a loosely lidded container and let it sit at room temperature for 10-14 days until the rice grains become smaller and the mixture has a slightly salty sweet aroma. Stir the mixture well once a day. Here is the full Blog post for making shio koji.

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Salted Black Beans…

Next we have salted black beans. Called Chinese douchi – Fermented Black Beans in China. Use this condiment in many recipes especially Latin inspired dishes like tacos, burritos, or even nachos. It includes Chinese black beans or standard black beans, rice koji, and sea salt of your choice. Ratio is 4 parts beans, 1 part rice koji, and sea salt at a rate of at least 3% by weight. Feel free to use more sea salt if desired or even better use fresh made shio koji(salt koji).

The beans can be left whole or mashed into a paste.

We hope you will use these wonderful recipes vs. plane sea salt. See more at Organic-Cultures Blog for shio-koji and mock dry aged steak.