Hackoh
JAEN

The Secrets of Fermentation

Episode 1

So what is fermentation?

Why do miso and yogurt both taste so good?

Mugi sits at the table, holding a bowl of miso soup in both hands and drinking. Another dish stands beside it.
MugiMmm, that’s good.
MugiI wonder why miso tastes so good.
Mugi looks up and finds Hakkoh-chan floating in the air beside her.
MugiWhoa!
Hakkoh-chanHi. Something smelled good.
MugiWho are you?
Hakkoh-chanI’m Hakkoh-chan.
Hakkoh-chanIf it’s about fermentation, leave it to me.
MugiFermen... what?
Hakkoh-chanThat miso of yours started out as soybeans.
MugiWhat, this did?
Hakkoh-chanYou mix soybeans, salt and koji together,
Hakkoh-chanleave it half a year, and it becomes miso.
MugiHalf a year?!
Between the soybeans and the finished miso, a great many tiny living things are at work.
Hakkoh-chanWhat turns it into miso is living things you can’t see.
MugiLiving things?
Hakkoh-chanAbout a thousandth of a millimeter across.
MugiThere’s no way I could see that.
Hakkoh-chanRight. That’s why nobody noticed them for so long.
Two kitchen shelves hold a basket of bread, cheese, a dish of pickles, a bottle of soy sauce and a pot of yogurt. All of them are fermented foods.
Hakkoh-chanBread, cheese, pickles: all the same thing.
MugiAll of them?!
Hakkoh-chanYou just can’t see them. They really are there.
MugiSo tiny living things are making it taste good.
Hakkoh-chanThat’s it. That’s fermentation.
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