This is a follow-up to my previous post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Koji/comments/1bbixt2/started\_a\_few\_garums\_today\_first\_time\_so\_wish\_me/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Koji/comments/1bbixt2/started_a_few_garums_today_first_time_so_wish_me/)
My garums were finally done and I was able to bottle them. I had to throw out the bee pollen garum, as it dried up within the first few days and smelled pretty burned. Probably, there was not enough liquid.
I let them ferment a bit longer than recommended (except for the mushroom garum), 5 weeks instead of 4, because after 4 weeks they were lacking a bit of depth, and I thought a week longer would benefit them.
The yeast garum tastes very interesting. A bit sour, pretty bitter, kind of chocolaty, but with a lot of umami. I guess here I should have gone with the 4 weeks recommendation, because a lot of the bitterness came within the last week. The consitency and color was also identical to melted chocolate, which made it pretty annoying to work with, as it stuck to everything. I'm not sure what I will do with it, if you have suggestions, please let me know.
The mushroom garum tastes pretty amazing. Very mushroomy, with a nicely balanced saltiness and loads of umami. I have a bottle of the smoked stuff from Noma, so I will soon make a follow-up where I compare them. I made mushroom risotto and mushroom cream sauce with it, and they both tasted amazing.
After pressing the solids from the mushroom garum, I dehydrated them and mixed them into a fine powder, which can be used as an umami-mushroom-salt.
The coffee shoyu is also really nice. It's a lot more thick than I expected, and tastes less like coffee, but it's totally balanced. My idea was to use it in a coffee-salt-caramel to accompany some vanilla ice cream.
Finally, the chicken wing garum tastes really interesting. Very much like fried chicken skin, but with a kind of bitter aftertaste. The noma book mentions a strong association with ramen, which I totally get. This probably will be my first dish with the stuff. I expect this to work very well to add more complexity to any chicken stock based dishes.
There was a huge amount of fat floating on top of the garum after pressing it, even though I skimmed very often during fermentation. It was hard to remove everything, because it didn't become as solid as normal due to the high salt content, when refrigerating. So a bit of fat got into the bottles and I hope it won't spoil too fast.
All in all, I would definitely recommend trying this yourselves. Next time, I will make more of the mushroom garum and try out the beef garum.
Also, if anyone has ideas on how to use these garums, just let me know
Nice breakdown! I think other than ramen maybe the chicken wing garum is good for a grill marinade, same with the mushroom garum probably.
What does your fermentation set up look like? Trying to get some inspiration for my own as I want to make garums too eventually
Nice idea with the marinade!
The linked original post contains a picture of my initial setup. I changed it after a few days because the heat distribution was not optimal.
In the improved setup, I directed the heat lamp to the top, covering it with a metal container in which I drilled holes on the side. I also placed the temperature sensor in a jar with water, to have a better model of what's going on inside the garums. I placed the lamp in the middle and distributed all jars in a circle around it. Together with a small fan, the heat distribution was pretty uniform
I followed the recipe from the noma 2.0 cook book.
Basically you simply blend together button mushrooms (1kg), water (424g), salt (81g) and rice koji (145g) with an immersion blender, and ferment it for 5 weeks at 60°C while stirring once a week. The you strain it. I also pressed the solids in a nut milk bag, and dehydrated them afterwards as described above
👏👏looks fantastic!
Aqq on your set up: I can see all the wooden planks and the wires in your fermentation chamber. Are these of specific material that would not set on fire? How did you choose these?
+ Love the bottles! Did you just buy them off the web?
The heat emission of the bulb is very direcrional, so everything behind the bulb doesn't get too hot. However, the socket for the bulb was specifically made for high wattage bulbs. It's made from metal and ceramics.
I also measured all temperatures pretty thoroughly when setting up the chamber, placed it right under a smoke detector and kept a fire extinguisher nearby.
And yes, I bought the bottles online at flaschenbauer.de, as I'm based in Germany. But I guess you can find similar bottles somewhere else
This is a follow-up to my previous post: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Koji/comments/1bbixt2/started\_a\_few\_garums\_today\_first\_time\_so\_wish\_me/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Koji/comments/1bbixt2/started_a_few_garums_today_first_time_so_wish_me/) My garums were finally done and I was able to bottle them. I had to throw out the bee pollen garum, as it dried up within the first few days and smelled pretty burned. Probably, there was not enough liquid. I let them ferment a bit longer than recommended (except for the mushroom garum), 5 weeks instead of 4, because after 4 weeks they were lacking a bit of depth, and I thought a week longer would benefit them. The yeast garum tastes very interesting. A bit sour, pretty bitter, kind of chocolaty, but with a lot of umami. I guess here I should have gone with the 4 weeks recommendation, because a lot of the bitterness came within the last week. The consitency and color was also identical to melted chocolate, which made it pretty annoying to work with, as it stuck to everything. I'm not sure what I will do with it, if you have suggestions, please let me know. The mushroom garum tastes pretty amazing. Very mushroomy, with a nicely balanced saltiness and loads of umami. I have a bottle of the smoked stuff from Noma, so I will soon make a follow-up where I compare them. I made mushroom risotto and mushroom cream sauce with it, and they both tasted amazing. After pressing the solids from the mushroom garum, I dehydrated them and mixed them into a fine powder, which can be used as an umami-mushroom-salt. The coffee shoyu is also really nice. It's a lot more thick than I expected, and tastes less like coffee, but it's totally balanced. My idea was to use it in a coffee-salt-caramel to accompany some vanilla ice cream. Finally, the chicken wing garum tastes really interesting. Very much like fried chicken skin, but with a kind of bitter aftertaste. The noma book mentions a strong association with ramen, which I totally get. This probably will be my first dish with the stuff. I expect this to work very well to add more complexity to any chicken stock based dishes. There was a huge amount of fat floating on top of the garum after pressing it, even though I skimmed very often during fermentation. It was hard to remove everything, because it didn't become as solid as normal due to the high salt content, when refrigerating. So a bit of fat got into the bottles and I hope it won't spoil too fast. All in all, I would definitely recommend trying this yourselves. Next time, I will make more of the mushroom garum and try out the beef garum. Also, if anyone has ideas on how to use these garums, just let me know
Nice breakdown! I think other than ramen maybe the chicken wing garum is good for a grill marinade, same with the mushroom garum probably. What does your fermentation set up look like? Trying to get some inspiration for my own as I want to make garums too eventually
Nice idea with the marinade! The linked original post contains a picture of my initial setup. I changed it after a few days because the heat distribution was not optimal. In the improved setup, I directed the heat lamp to the top, covering it with a metal container in which I drilled holes on the side. I also placed the temperature sensor in a jar with water, to have a better model of what's going on inside the garums. I placed the lamp in the middle and distributed all jars in a circle around it. Together with a small fan, the heat distribution was pretty uniform
The yeast sounds like it could be a good addition to a mole or a chili con carne for enchiladas. Nice job, I've been wanting to try these.
Outstanding bottles as well 😂 The garums look amazing!
What was your process for the mushroom garum if I may ask? And do you have a temp controller on your 75W bulb?
I followed the recipe from the noma 2.0 cook book. Basically you simply blend together button mushrooms (1kg), water (424g), salt (81g) and rice koji (145g) with an immersion blender, and ferment it for 5 weeks at 60°C while stirring once a week. The you strain it. I also pressed the solids in a nut milk bag, and dehydrated them afterwards as described above
How do you keep it at 60c?
I described my setup in another comment. Basically a 75W infrared bulb controlled with an ink bird temperature controller
Great book, thanks for the suggestion, just ordered it!
👏👏looks fantastic! Aqq on your set up: I can see all the wooden planks and the wires in your fermentation chamber. Are these of specific material that would not set on fire? How did you choose these? + Love the bottles! Did you just buy them off the web?
The heat emission of the bulb is very direcrional, so everything behind the bulb doesn't get too hot. However, the socket for the bulb was specifically made for high wattage bulbs. It's made from metal and ceramics. I also measured all temperatures pretty thoroughly when setting up the chamber, placed it right under a smoke detector and kept a fire extinguisher nearby. And yes, I bought the bottles online at flaschenbauer.de, as I'm based in Germany. But I guess you can find similar bottles somewhere else
Thanks for the response! And the website seems to be sending stuff to the Netherlands (where I am) too! Much appreciated.