AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 



107 



" Bean-sauce — Shoju — is almost as indispensable to the Japanese 

 as rice, and its use is as general as that of tea and tobacco. The 

 rich man and the beggar use it in the same way, merely with ; 

 difference in quality, as the chief relish to their meals, and it mus: 

 be present in every house — indeed, at every meal." 



7. Miso is a thick fluid, white or red sauce, easily divisible ii 

 water. Shiro-mame, or yellow-white Soja-beans, salt, and wato 

 bear a part in its production, and besides them Koji, too, 01 

 fermenting rice. The proportions in which these substances ari 

 employed is not always the same, nor the means of applying them 

 The beans are usually left to swell for half a day in water, thei 

 boiled soft in a large kettle, and finally ground up to a paste 

 This paste is then mixed with common salt, Koji, and water 

 and the resulting combination set aside in a cool place for i; 

 year or more. Miso does not spoil, and is said to be at its best 

 when three years old. Its use is universal, especially in soup, but 

 also in various other articles of food, in many respects resembling, 

 that of Shoyu. An analysis of Komaba gave 50-40 per cent, oi 

 water, 8*25 percent, of fibre, I2"50 percent, of ashes (salt), 061 pel 

 cent, of sugar, 1080 per cent, of legumine, and i8*i6 per cent, oi 

 soluble hydro-carbons. 



8. Tofu, called in English bean-curd, in German and French, 

 less appropriately, BoJinenkdse and fromage de pois} is a valuabk 

 article of food made in Japan and China from yellow Soja-beans. 

 It consists of fresh coagulated legumine, so that the English term 

 suits it better than the German. Its preparation is simple. 



The yellow Soja-beans are put to soak, in cold water for from 

 twelve to twenty-four hours, or a shorter time in warm, and then 

 ground between the stones of a hand-mill, water being added to 

 assist maceration. It becomes thus a thin mass, in which the 

 quantity of water exceeds that of the beans about ten times. This 

 is next filtered or pressed through a fine sieve, and the remnant 

 put through the mill a second time. Ten volumes of this filtered 

 stuff are now diluted with three volumes of hot water, and heated 

 to boiling-point. This is done in a kettle, which is only about 

 half filled. When cool again, the mass is filtered through a 

 woollen sack, and the process ends with pressing it under the lever. 



As in our soups from leguminous plants, the legumine is now 

 found dissolved in the filtrate. To coagulate and separate it, there 

 is added Shio-no-nigari (salt-bitter), i.e. brine from sea-salt, consist- 

 ing principally of chloride of magnesium. Care is taken to have 

 the precipitation take place slowly and quietly. (In China, accord- 

 ing to St. Julien, burnt gypsum is also added.) When the liquor 

 has cleared it is dipped out carefully, while the stuff precipitated 

 is placed in four-cornered wooden forms with punctured, movable 

 walls, which are lined with a cloth. This is folded together over 



\ See Ritter, " Mittheil. der deutsch. Ges. Ostasiens," 5 Heft, p. 4 ; and St. 

 Julien, " Industries de I'Empire Chinois," Paris, 1869. 



