White Miso Paste
White miso (shiro miso) is a mild, sweet Japanese fermented soybean paste with a short fermentation time, used for delicate soups, glazes, and dressings.
How to buy
Look for "shiro miso" or "white miso" specifically -- it's fermented for weeks rather than the months or years of red (aka) miso, giving it a lighter color and sweeter, milder flavor. Check the ingredient list for soybeans, rice (often more rice than soy, which is why it's sweeter), salt, and koji; refrigerated tubs from the Japanese foods aisle are typically fresher than shelf-stable packets.
How to store
Keep refrigerated after opening, tightly sealed to prevent drying out, pressing plastic wrap directly onto the surface to limit oxidation; it keeps for several months to a year, continuing to slowly ferment and darken over time.
Culinary profile
- Flavor
- Mild, sweet, and only lightly salty with a gentle tang, much softer and less funky than red or darker miso varieties, which ferment longer and taste far more intense and savory.
- Texture
- A smooth, thick, slightly sticky paste that dissolves readily into warm, not boiling, liquid.
- Aroma
- Subtly sweet and faintly fermented, without the pungent, almost cheese-like funk of longer-aged dark miso.
How to prepare
- Whisked into broth — Dissolved into warm dashi at the end of cooking for miso soup, since boiling dulls its flavor and kills beneficial cultures.
- Mixed into glazes — Combined with sugar and mirin for a classic sweet miso glaze on fish or vegetables.
- Blended into dressings — Whisked with rice vinegar and oil for a savory-sweet salad dressing.
- Stirred into marinades — Used to tenderize and season fish or vegetables before broiling.
Classic dishes
American
- Miso caramel dessert — A modern fusion dessert balancing white miso's saltiness against caramel sweetness.
- Miso butter for corn on the cob — Grilled corn finished with a compound butter built on white miso.
Japanese
- Miso soup — A simple dashi-based soup finished with dissolved white miso paste.
- Saikyo-yaki — Black cod or other fish marinated in sweet white miso before broiling.
- Nasu dengaku — Grilled eggplant glazed with a sweet white miso topping, then broiled.
- Miso ramen — A ramen style whose lighter broths are sometimes built on white miso.
- Miso butter corn — Corn kernels sauteed with butter and white miso for savory sweetness.
- Miso salad dressing — A dressing whisking white miso with rice vinegar and sesame oil.
- Miso-glazed salmon — Salmon brushed with a sweet white miso glaze before broiling.
- Chawanmushi — A savory steamed egg custard occasionally seasoned with a touch of white miso.
- Miso mayo dipping sauce — Mayonnaise blended with white miso for a savory-sweet dip.
- Miso-glazed roasted vegetables — Root vegetables roasted and finished with a white miso glaze.
- Miso soup with tofu and seaweed — A classic version of miso soup built with soft tofu and wakame.
- Miso-glazed chicken skewers — Grilled chicken skewers brushed with a sweet white miso glaze.
Mediterranean
- Miso-tahini sauce — A modern fusion sauce blending white miso with tahini for savory depth.