The combination sort of fell together. In current fashion, salt and chocolate have been paired together like bacon and eggs. Similarly, miso—a fermented soybean paste—has also been used in many culinary arenas from savory to sweet. I was looking to fashion a miso-like product, but not miso. Cocoa’s savory affinity as well as the fermentation and roasting of cocoa beans provided the spark with which I would then soak cocoa nibs, the cracked roasted fermented cocoa beans, in soy sauce. After soaking for several days, I puréed the two ingredients into a miso-like paste. The cocoa’s complexities married with the salinity and savory nature of the soy sauce to blend into what I have called new miso. No, it is not miso, though we are harnessing flavors and aromas in the style of miso to have a distinctive cooking base. We used it recently to coat Espelette pepper noodles with butter and pickled ginger juice and served it with basil-infused snails and slow-cooked leeks.
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