Koji Butter

A three-element compound butter built around fermentation: cultured butter, miso, and ajo negro (black garlic). Miso is the soybean paste fermented with koji (Aspergillus oryzae), the East Asian master mould that drives umami through enzymatic protein and starch breakdown — long-aged miso accumulates one of the highest free-glutamate loads in the natural pantry. Ajo negro is whole garlic heads held at controlled humidity and warm temperature for thirty to sixty days; under those conditions the pungent volatile sulphurs of fresh garlic break down into melanoidins, S-allylcysteine and concentrated dark sugars — the unmistakable balsamic-and-dried-fig register of black garlic Folded together into cultured butter, miso glutamate dissolves into the aqueous phase while the lipid- bound aromatics bind to the butterfat: twin delivery routes for sustained umami without seasoning weight.