New To Baking With Miso? Here's The Type You Should Use

When one hears the word miso, the most common thought that arises is the hearty Japanese soup that may kick off a lovely meal of sushi. You might even use miso as a flavorful glaze for salmon or add it to pasta water for better buttered noodles. While it may seem out of left field, one can also employ miso to take pizza sauce to the next level or use it in baking as well. But what exactly is miso? Glad you asked — it's a flavorful paste which makes magic out of the combination of fermented soybeans, koji, and salt. There are over 1,300 types of miso to choose from around the world to work with, but in simplistic terms, it commonly comes in white, red, and yellow iterations. 

For those who like to dabble in the kitchen, miso can be a very diverse and delicious ingredient that adds a dash of salt, savoriness, and even sweetness to a dish. Well, what if you're new to baking with miso, where does one even begin? With white miso, it turns out.

We caught up with miso-master chef Emily Yuen at the 2025 New York City Wine & Food Festival's Taste of Tomorrow event to pose this very question. Chowhound asked Chef Yuen point blank — what kind of miso should budding cooks should start with. She had the answer at the ready, "white miso, because it's not as salty as the others." She followed by noting to use it as you would butter, in small amounts, and then there would be no need to add additional salt to your dish when baking.

Chef Emily Yuen was born in Vancouver, and has honed her culinary skills across kitchens in London, Australia, Singapore, and New York, which she currently calls home. Along the way, she has used miso as a key ingredient plenty of times and it has shown up in unexpected ways in her dishes. At chef Yuen's latest venture — her Greenpoint, Brooklyn eatery Lingo — she fuses Japanese and American cuisine in playful and scrumptious new ways. Perusing the menu, miso shows up as a headlining flavor for a black cod main as well as a sando, a butter for mushroom toast, a soup, and even a caramel ice cream that tops apple tart tatin pancakes during brunch time.

Once you've become more comfortable in using miso, you can start to get more experimental like chef Yuen has. One miso she's particularly fond of using is the red hatcho miso powder. She noted, "it reminds me of mole — chocolatey, red, deep. Whenever I'm creating a dish with this miso, I always think of mole dishes." You could also use the sweeter saikyo miso when baking, or mix different types of miso together the way she does. For instance, "a red and white mix creates different layers," she says. Begin baking with white miso and then feel free to switch it up.