Tempeh, making it

larry_stewart said:

I still haven't gotten around to making the Natto yet. Looking forward to it though. How much dry beans did you initially start with before hydrating them ?

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4 cups dry soy beans. They about double when cooked.

When I grow up, I want to be like you two!

@Kathleen join the party!

wow. that's a job

I should have taken advantage of the almost 100 deg F heat and fermented tempeh and natto when I had the weather to do it!
I have both on my to-do list. I want to have them on hand, especially natto to add to meals, and a spicy breakfast sausage using tempeh.

I started a batch of natto that will be done tomorrow night.

The big bag of soybeans I have cook best 4 cups beans and 5 inches of water at 34 minutes on LO in the IP, then natural release around an hour later. Drain and put them right back in the pot. Let cool until just warm, not hot. (don't let them touch unclean surfaces, you don't want extraneous bacteria invading the beans) Mix in the 1 cup of cooled boiled water with some natto starter. Begin fermenting.
The natto will be done at 7 pm tonight. I put the cooked beans w/water/natto starter in the IP, using the dehydrating mode at 80 deg F for 24 hours. I put plastic wrap or foil on top of the beans and then a plate to hold it down.

At noon I looked at the beans under the plastic/plate and the beans on the edge were drying out, so I stirred them into the wetter beans to equalize the moisture. It was starting to smell like natto and get that stringy texture. That's what I wanted to see.

It makes 4 pints. I had to have a little with veggie rice tonight. They say it is addictive, and I agree. Not from the salt in soy sauce, it is a savory flavor but smelly a little like aged cheese. I had it with a dash of soy sauce and a little horseradish. Yum. They say to eat it with spicy mustard-I don't have any but I'm going to try that, it sounds good too. Or have it on buttered bread. Japanese eat it for breakfast w/rice and raw egg yolk.

How much Natto starter do you use with the above bean amount?

larry_stewart said:

How much Natto starter do you use with the above bean amount?

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I'm using 1 tsp mixed in the cooled boiled 1 cup of water.
I've also used 1/2 tsp of it and it works exactly the same.
I am using crushed dried ground previously made natto for the culture powder. (of which there is much available)
I've also used the packaged powder natto culture I bought, that only calls for 1/4 tsp.
For that volume of beans, it all seems to work exactly the same and be very successful in all regards (smell, taste, texture, visual).

Wednesday morning: I started some tempeh 40 hours ago (monday late afternoon).
4 cups dry whole soybeans
Water, IP 34 minutes on low, 40 minutes natural release, drain.
I poured them onto a parchment lined 1/2 sheet pan to surface dry. They weren't all drying enough so that all the surfaces of the beans were not shiny. I put them in the oven at 250 deg F, for on and off an hour, and stirring them. Once the bean surfaces and parchment were dry they were ready. Let them cool to room temperature.
I put them in a clean bowl and mixed them with 4 T white vinegar (not active vinegar been there done that) to lower the ph and prevent the wrong bacteria from growing.
Then I tossed them with 1 and 1/2 T tempeh starter. This starter was dehydrated dried previously made tempeh (that I had made). This has to be mixed thoroughly. I washed my hands then doused them in white vinegar before I mixed the beans.
(many of the recipes say to dehull the beans and split them so the carbs that feed the tempeh mold/fungus are exposed. I did not dehull them or split them this time.)

I had 4 1-gallon zip lock bags and I punctured them with a tack every cm or so in the bottom of the bag, about 5 inches up, both sides.
I put about 2 cups of the beans into each bag, they are loose and dry on the outside. The insides of the beans are moist so some steam moisture starts to show inside the bags. Formed them into loose logs that are flat, about 1.5 inches thick in the bottoms of the bags. I used office clips to roll up the extra plastic bag against the logs of beans.
I was going to ferment them in the IP but it just seemed awkward (to get a good shape to the logs) so I put them in the dehydrator.
I set the dehydrator to 85 deg F and left them.
--at 15 hours the next morning, almost no change, only a tiny bit of possible mold/fungus between beans here and there. I was worried but que sera sera.
--at 24 hours-we forgot to check them last night.
--at 40 hours-this morning the entire outsides and probably insides are white. There are tiny black dots where the air holes are which are normal.
--some recipes say it takes 36 hours to 72 hours to be done. (72 hours would be tomorrow afternoon)
They might be done now. I'll let them go the rest of the day and see how they look and decide whether to take them out or not.

I know when I do it, it's usually ready between 36 and 48 hrs. Some times get nervous, cause I see no activity for thefts day then all of a sudden it turns white. My dehydrator only goes as low as 90F, but I haven't had a problem. I do rotate them ( when I remember ) every 12 hours or so. When done, I steam them for 20 minutes then freeze for later use.

@larry_stewart thanks for the reminder, I can steam them and then store them. That's what I'll do.
I was surprised there was hardly any mold starting at 15 hours. I thought 'oh no I blew it maybe I didn't get enough starter on it or I didn't mix it well enough' and then by the next morning it was looking great!

blissful said:

@larry_stewart thanks for the reminder, I can steam them and then store them. That's what I'll do.
I was surprised there was hardly any mold starting at 15 hours. I thought 'oh no I blew it maybe I didn't get enough starter on it or I didn't mix it well enough' and then by the next morning it was looking great!

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I dont make it often enough, that I always forget when I start to see the mold. I get nervous every time. I need to refer back to this thread every time. make to jumpstart my memory

I'm going to have to refer back here myself for that same reason! I took some pictures and I have more to take.

office clips holding the bags rolled up against the tempeh.

My steamer isn't big enough, so I'm steaming it over my big roaster on racks.

Even though the probability that I would ever do this is fairly low, it's interesting to follow along, reading your descriptions.

taxlady said:

Even though the probability that I would ever do this is fairly low, it's interesting to follow along, reading your descriptions.

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I Hear ya. 10-20-30-40-50-60 years ago the probability that I would willingly give up cheese was about 1 in a million. My family were deer hunters, my now ex's family raised cows, the probability I'd give up meat was 10 out of a million. ....I could go on, but you probably get the point. Sometimes it's just fun to learn how things are done. If you lose electricity for 10 years and someone wants to know how to ferment something, you probably have the gist of it.

When covid hit, and stores were closed and shopping was difficult, the firs thing. bought was a sack of soy beans. I figured they are dry and will last for a long time. I could make soy milk, tempeh, tofu.. It was the only thing I really stocked up on. I love seeing how things are made, even if I only make them once, just going through the process fascinates me. It's the experimental, scientific kid in me.

@larry_stewart, that makes sense, stock up. Soybeans are richer (higher fat) than most legumes which is why they are often a favorite. It seems like a lot of people here like their kitchen as a lab for science experiments. Why not. It's fun and often edible. It's the ones that use their fridge for science experiments that I worry about. When covid hit I bought 2 lbs of yeast for baking bread, I'm just about done with the last of it within the next few months.

I cooked up the first slab of tempeh today, diced it in 1/2 inch cubes. Cooked it in water with nutritional yeast, fresh minced garlic, nu-salt, onion powder, garlic powder, bead molasses, and a little honey. Cooked until all the water was absorbed or evaporated. They tasted great. To serve it, a vegetable 'stir fry' over 3 grain mix. It was good, we both liked it a lot.