Cooks Illustrated recipe too Salty

Question

The other night I made the "Bejing-Style Meat Sauce and Noodles" from the most recent (May-June 2018) issue of Cooks Illustrated. Usually their recipes come out quite good, even if they are often a bit involved.

I've done Asian-style food before but it is not something I do a lot. It's a basic recipe where you brown some ground pork, add some scallions, garlic and mushrooms (ground up in a food processor) to the mix and once browned add the sauce:

• 5 Tbsp red miso paste
• 5 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 1/2 cup water

I've never cooked with miso before but everything else is familiar. Unfortunately the resultant sauce, especially when cooked down a bit as the recipe calls for is just much to salty. Not to the point of being inedible but still just too much.

Wondering if anyone has some thoughts on what to do with this sauce mixture to lessen or dilute the saltiness without losing the umami that the sauce ingredients provide?

Answer 1

The first thing that caught my eye was the soy sauce. However, I think the real culprit here is the miso.

From Wikipedia:

Typically, miso is salty, but its flavor and aroma depend on various factors in the ingredients and fermentation process. Different varieties of miso have been described as salty, sweet, earthy, fruity, and savory.

About red miso, from the same article:

Akamiso (赤味噌) or red miso is aged, sometimes for more than one year. Therefore, due to the Maillard reaction, the color changes gradually from white to red or black, thus giving it the name red miso. Characteristics of the flavor are saltiness and some astringency with umami. It is often a much stronger-tasting miso. Factors in the depth of color are the formula of the soybeans and the quantity used. Generally, steamed soybeans are more deeply colored than boiled soybeans.

(Emphasis mine.)

The base ingredients for miso can vary widely. Also from the Wikipedia article:

The ingredients used to produce miso may include any mix of soybeans, barley, rice, buckwheat, millet, rye, wheat, hemp seed, and cycad, among others. Lately, producers in other countries have also begun selling miso made from chickpeas, corn, azuki beans, amaranth, and quinoa. Fermentation time ranges from as little as five days to several years. The wide variety of Japanese miso is difficult to classify, but is commonly done by grain type, color, taste, and background.

• mugi (麦): barley
• tsubu (粒): whole wheat/barley
• genmai (玄米): brown rice
• moromi (醪): chunky, healthy (kōji is unblended)
• nanban (南蛮): mixed with hot chili pepper for dipping sauce
• taima (大麻): hemp seed
• sobamugi (蕎麦): buckwheat
• hadakamugi (裸麦): Highland barley
• nari (蘇鉄): made from cycad pulp, Buddhist temple diet
• gokoku (五穀): "five-grain": soy, wheat, barley, proso millet, and foxtail millet

I would try a different variety or a mixture of more than one. An example from the Wikipedia article:

Chougou (調合) or 'Awase' (合わせ) miso, or "mixed miso" comes in many types, because it is a mixture or compound of other varieties of miso. This may improve the weak points of each type of miso. For example, mame miso is very salty, but when combined with kome miso the finished product has a mild taste.

Do a little research and find one or more varieties of miso that suit your taste.

Answer 2

Nutrition sodium (mg)
(I just used the first hit on Google)

miso   3700 
soy    4395   
hoisin  258 
mmolasses 7
total  8876

If you use the US nutritional guidelines that is close to daily allowance if serving 4.

Drop down on the soy and let people add soy to taste. Even low sodium soy sauce is still pretty high in sodium.

Look for lower salt miso as suggested in another answer.

Answer 3

Miso can also come pre-mixed with dashi concentrate (e.g. the brand HonDashi). Be sure you didn't use this kind.

Answer 4

You could try substituting koikuchi for the soy sauce. (Less salty more rich Japanese Soy Sauce [Warning: slightly sweet]) I'd say do that and or add more water but that will lessen the flavour.

Answer 5

One option that should'nt ruin the taste/umami is to put a half a potato in and let it heat at a low temp for a bit. Potatoes naturally soak up salt and when you remove the potato, the salt will go with it.