A Foreigner on the Tongue. Domestication of Miso through Practice in Swedish Home Kitchens
(2026) TKAM02 20261Division of Ethnology
- Abstract
- Miso has become increasingly visible outside Japan through restaurants, supermarkets, and growing interest in fermentation and umami. Yet the availability and recognition of an ingredient do not necessarily mean that it has become part of everyday cooking. This thesis examines how miso is understood, used and reinterpreted by young adult home cooks in Sweden, and what this reveals about the everyday domestication of foreign ingredients. The study draws on qualitative research with nine participants, primarily through semi-structured interviews. These materials are complemented by sensory elicitation, kitchen observations, Swedish online recipes and comments. Practice theory, drawing mainly on Warde, provides the main analytical... (More)
- Miso has become increasingly visible outside Japan through restaurants, supermarkets, and growing interest in fermentation and umami. Yet the availability and recognition of an ingredient do not necessarily mean that it has become part of everyday cooking. This thesis examines how miso is understood, used and reinterpreted by young adult home cooks in Sweden, and what this reveals about the everyday domestication of foreign ingredients. The study draws on qualitative research with nine participants, primarily through semi-structured interviews. These materials are complemented by sensory elicitation, kitchen observations, Swedish online recipes and comments. Practice theory, drawing mainly on Warde, provides the main analytical perspective, supported by Barthes’ semiotic approach to food and Sutton’s work on sensory knowledge. The findings show that miso's domestication is uneven. Miso soup provides a widely recognizable form through which the ingredient becomes associated with Japanese food, but this familiarity can also narrow expectations of what miso can do. Encountering miso as paste creates further challenges involving product variation, quantity, storage, recipes and the need to imagine future uses for the remaining package. Comparison with more established condiments such as soy sauce, fish sauce and chili products further shows that ingredients compete for occasions of use. The thesis argues that foreign ingredients become domesticated not simply through exposure, acceptance or purchase, but through the development of practical and sensory competence. Miso becomes more integrated when cooks can compare it with familiar ingredients, substitute it, adjust it and improvise with it. I describe this as practical proximity: the point at which an ingredient comes to mind as a possible response to what a dish needs. Domestication therefore does not require miso to lose its Japanese associations, but to acquire enough relationships within everyday cooking to become usable again and again. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9250823
- author
- Fujiike, Reiji LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- TKAM02 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- miso, domestication, home cooking, practice theory, foreign ingredients, seasoning, sensory knowledge, food globalization, anthropology
- language
- English
- id
- 9250823
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-15 13:23:59
- date last changed
- 2026-09-15 13:23:59
@misc{9250823,
abstract = {{Miso has become increasingly visible outside Japan through restaurants, supermarkets, and growing interest in fermentation and umami. Yet the availability and recognition of an ingredient do not necessarily mean that it has become part of everyday cooking. This thesis examines how miso is understood, used and reinterpreted by young adult home cooks in Sweden, and what this reveals about the everyday domestication of foreign ingredients. The study draws on qualitative research with nine participants, primarily through semi-structured interviews. These materials are complemented by sensory elicitation, kitchen observations, Swedish online recipes and comments. Practice theory, drawing mainly on Warde, provides the main analytical perspective, supported by Barthes’ semiotic approach to food and Sutton’s work on sensory knowledge. The findings show that miso's domestication is uneven. Miso soup provides a widely recognizable form through which the ingredient becomes associated with Japanese food, but this familiarity can also narrow expectations of what miso can do. Encountering miso as paste creates further challenges involving product variation, quantity, storage, recipes and the need to imagine future uses for the remaining package. Comparison with more established condiments such as soy sauce, fish sauce and chili products further shows that ingredients compete for occasions of use. The thesis argues that foreign ingredients become domesticated not simply through exposure, acceptance or purchase, but through the development of practical and sensory competence. Miso becomes more integrated when cooks can compare it with familiar ingredients, substitute it, adjust it and improvise with it. I describe this as practical proximity: the point at which an ingredient comes to mind as a possible response to what a dish needs. Domestication therefore does not require miso to lose its Japanese associations, but to acquire enough relationships within everyday cooking to become usable again and again.}},
author = {{Fujiike, Reiji}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A Foreigner on the Tongue. Domestication of Miso through Practice in Swedish Home Kitchens}},
year = {{2026}},
}