Miso for example. Or sourdough. Why can’t we add juices to starters or ginger and mushrooms to miso and ferment.
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Miso and sourdough have soybeans or grains, which microorganisms can thrive in and grow over a long period due to carbohydrates. Fermentation is where the carbohydrates (sugar) get converted to acid or gas as a byproduct (microorganisms such as yeast/bacteria/mold will consume the sugar). pH and acidity are also important since they can change the environment, allowing the desirable microorganism to thrive and prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. Kimchi is a low-pH food that is usually able to ferment for a long time. The food being fermented and the preservation method also is important when considering which foods can ferment for a long time. For example, meat and seafood can’t be fermented for a long time due to the possibility of bacteria (such as E.coli or Salmonella) contaminating it.
Some ingredients are not typically added because it introduces new microorganisms that can interfere with the fermentation process. To my knowledge, I believe you can add ginger or mushrooms to the fermentation of miso. Still, good hygiene and monitoring of the fermentation process are necessary to keep the process safe.
Salinity and pH are the main factors here. When making miso, it is very salty. Very few things can survive the salty environment, it just so happens a beneficial bacteria that ferments does. Same with making sour kraut or kimchi, you are submerging the cabbage in a salt water bath, protecting it from everything except lactobacter, a bacteria which consume sugars and makes lactic acid. This acid (lowering the pH) + the salinity keeps this environment very clean. I have kept cabbage/kraut in its bath for months and months without any issues or spoilage. The salinity and low pH preserve it. Same with pickles and pickle brine.
Now, if you are fermenting more liquid things, the salinity is going to be lower since it is more liquid and that means more things can grow unless you bump the salt back up, but for some thing you don’t want to add salt because you dont want a salty final product.
Ginger is added to sugar water to make a ginger bug which is the starter for a fermented ginger beer, but having no salinity, you got to watch it carefully since other garbage can grow in it. You need to have sterilized everything before you started. Wine makers and beer makers go through this all the time because fermenting juices/malts, there is no salinity and the pH isn’t that low so so much can grow in it. With beer, you are at least boiling the malt so you are killing everything before you throw in your brewer yeast, but many wines do not. Wine components are often sterilized with sulfur based agents and some additives to the juice to keep other things at bay until the brewers yeast can take over.
You add these kinds of things to your miso, you are adding this chance for other things to grow. If you want a flavored miso, just mix in the flavor at use time. Fermenting will chew up the sugars and the flavor you know, you will not recognize. I learned this making ‘Root Beer’ Beer.
I brewed this amazing Root Beer base with plums, raisins, winter green, molasses, cherry root, cherries and nutmeg. It was amazing and a deep rich brown. Popped it into my fermenting barrel. Done 5 days later. You cannot taste any Root Beer flavors any more and it was now the color of urine. The yeast processed every damn sugar in there, even the caramel color from the molasses it processed. Learned to just make the root beer, carb it and throw a shot of rum or vodka in it. Fermenting killed the flavor.
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