Chapter 107. Short Story – Some Weird, Sour Thing That Resembles Amazake
Feeding the heroes something that tastes like home.
Right now, with me around, it’s manageable. But what if—because of some unforeseen reason—I’m no longer here? If that happens, I’d like to make sure there’s a way to cook Japanese food using only what’s available in this world. Somehow, there has to be a way.
To make modern Japanese food—I think what you need are:
Dashi broth, sugar, salt, vinegar, soy sauce, miso, sake, and mirin.
Of those, sugar and salt are relatively cheap. Salt, of course, is no problem, and if you don’t mind a darker type, you can get something like brown sugar here too.
I think I can make the soup stock if I can find some kind of seafood or mushrooms.
Vinegar is essentially just alcohol that’s turned sour, so if flavor isn’t a concern, there are similar things here already. If I pick one that’s mild and not too funky, it should be fine.
However, I think it would be quite difficult to obtain soy sauce, miso, mirin, and sake here.
It requires koji mold and the process is quite complicated.
Maybe somewhere in this world there’s a country similar to Japan, and if so, maybe they have kōji. But so far, I haven’t come across any. When I asked Nipopo-san about it, he shook his head. He did say he’d try to find it, so I have hope—but I have a feeling it’ll be tough.
If I could make it myself, I could use as much as I wanted, and even teach someone else how too—but that’s probably difficult.
Still…
Wait. I’m sure I bought some koji during the salt koji boom, didn’t I? Let’s check my purchase history…
Rice kōji – 300 g – 338 yen.
Yes! There it is.
With this, maybe I can make this work. I remember on TV, during a segment about sake brewing, they sprinkled kōji onto rice, I think?
So then… hmm. Well, let’s just try it.
“Mimi, It’s a little early, but could you please cook some rice?”
“Got it.”
After all the prep for the heroes’ feast, the kids in the house have learned how to cook rice now.
Wait—should it be steamed instead of cooked?
Close enough, I guess. But just in case—
“Use a bit less water and make it firm, please.”
“Are you making fried rice?”
Fair assumption since I’m asking for firm rice.
“That sounds good too, but I’m going to use it for something else this time.”
“What are you feeding us this time?”
Is kōji even food?
“Hmm… it’s not something you eat directly, really.”
While Mimi cooked the rice, I tried to recall the steps and gathered what I’d need.
If I remember right, they mix the kōji into the rice, wrap it up, and keep it warm.
That means I’ll need something to wrap it in, and something to keep it warm.
Would a plastic bag work? For a small batch, maybe.
Keep warm, keep warm … back when I used to sprout seeds for gardening in winter, I’d put the seed plugs inside a Styrofoam box, wrap a hand warmer in cloth, and place it inside.
Or use a PET hot water bottle in it.
Or put it under a kotatsu, or float it in leftover bathwater?
Another method I can try is keeping it in my pocket until it fermented, using body heat to keep it warm.
For a small test batch, I think it would be easy to put it in a belly warmer and use my body heat—body temperature is constant, after all.
While I was thinking about this, Mimi quickly finished cooking the rice. All that’s left is to steam it a little more. Thanks, Mimi.
I washed my hands, cleaned the utensils, wiped them down, and sprayed them with alcohol just to be safe.
For the test, I bought about 50 yen’s worth of rice kōji— It was white and flaky.
It’s dried rice koji.
Mimi’s rice looked just right. I take about 1 cup of freshly cooked rice that has been cooled slightly and mixed the kōji in.
Then I wrapped it in a clean cloth, sealed it in a plastic bag, and tucked it into a belly warmer. My stomach looked adorably round.
“It looks like something is about to be born.”
“I hope it grows up well,” I said, patting my belly.
It was still warmer than body temperature—actually, kind of hot.
And wearing a belly warmer in this season is very hot.
Would room temperature work instead?
Hmm, maybe not—it’s probably too cold. And I don’t think exposing it direct sunlight would be good either.
I’ll just endure the heat.
After about a day of lovingly nurturing my rice kōji, I opened it with high hopes.
And then…
A faintly sour smell wafted up. There was a hint of an alcoholic scent too. Somehow the whole thing looks yellowish and mushy —not rotten, but definitely… not right.
This was… well…
I remembered that TV segment about sake brewing—the rice was supposed to be covered in a fluffy white mold, wasn’t it?
No matter how you look at it, this was clearly not that.
This is, how should I put it, a failed batch of something vaguely resembling amazake.
“Can you eat it?”
Mimi sniffed it, wrinkling her nose.
“I’m not so sure about this one.”
Still, I should at least taste it to decide whether to continue or throw it out.
Before I could, Kirara stuck a spoon in it, scooped some up and licked the spoon.
I was too slow to stop her.
“Kirara! Spit that out!”
Too late.
She made a disgusted face.
“It’s sour… nya…”
Yeah, that’s lactic acid bacteria—or some other kind of stray bacteria. I wonder if Kirara is okay. It didn’t smell putrid, so I think it’s lactic acid bacteria.
Fermented foods really are difficult.
Should I have steamed the rice instead?
Was the temperature wrong?
The insulation time?
Or maybe there were germs on the cloth?
Actually, there is the question of whether koji mold can even survive in the dried, crumbly rice koji. It depends on the manufacturing process, but it may have been sterilized. For making things like miso, what you really need is the amylase enzyme that the mold produces, so even dead spores would be fine.
I’ve heard that kōji mold is delicate—Apparently, it’s as sensitive as a certain vampire. Even if it doesn’t completely die out, it probably won’t grow very well if I didn’t give it a perfect environment.
And even if I somehow managed to make good kōji…
What then? I only have a rough idea of how to make miso.
Can you make soy sauce by squeezing miso paste?
For sake, you use kōji to break down the rice starch into sugar, then add yeast. Maybe if I had sake lees, that would work somehow?
As for mirin… I’ve thought about it before, but I honestly have no clue. I guess it’s a kind of sake since it falls under alcohol laws in Japan.
I quickly gave up, thinking this was impossible.
If you do it carelessly and allow bacteria other than koji mold to grow, there is a risk of it becoming poisonous.
I’ll ask the heroes just in case— but do any of them know exactly how to make it?