Abstract
Following items were compared with 12 kinds of miso: 1) amount of water insoluble materials; 2) particle size distribution; 3) sensory evaluation of miso soup; 4) sedimentation velocity.
1) The amounts of water insoluble materials in miso ranged from 11.3 mg% (white, smooth miso) to 22.6 mg% (soybean, chunky miso). It was found that the more the amount of soybeans in miso was, the more the amount of water insoluble materials in it.
2) All kinds of miso used were possible to divide into two groups with their particle size distribution of over and below 0.149 mm.
3) The procedure to pass miso through the miso strainer had no or a little effect on sensory evaluation of miso soup prepared with smooth miso of the intermediate particle size, but, as to chunky miso and smooth miso of larger or smaller particle sizes, this procedure showed some increasing tendencies for smoothness and glutamatelike taste (Umami) intensity and also the reverse tendencies for saltiness and thickness.
4) There was the clear relationship between the particle size distribution and the sedimentation velocity, and the smaller the size was, the slower the velocity. From the results that, even though the miso of the similar particle sizes, there were the large variation of their sedimentation velocity, the sedimentation velocity would receive some other unknown effect other than the particle size.
