Standard dehulled soybean tempeh (2020-08-25)
Test: Tempeh starter, inoculation time, inoculation method
Standard recipe (according to Miso, Tempeh, Natto (Shockey). Cupboard above fridge vs. waterbath with immersion heater.
- Material: Soybeans from Indian shop, Herkulesgatan, Gothenburg: 25 SEK/kg 500 g dry soy beans
- Soak: Soak in water for 8h, dehull. Soak in water for another 8 h (total soaking 16h).
- Cook in water for 50 min, cool down, steam off.
- Inoculation: Add 2 Tbsp (4 Tbsp/kg) apple cider vinegar, mix. Blow dry with hair dryer. Mix with 1 tsp (2 tsp/kg) tempeh starter (topcultures). Spread in tray or in perforated plastic bag.
- Growth:
- Above fridge in perforated plastic bag. Start: 25-08-2020, 10:00. End: 26-08-2020, 17:00. 31 hours incubation. Temperature was about 30°C. Opened door at ~9:00 since it was at 32°C.
- In non-stick tray floating in waterbath, heated with immersion sous-vide cooker. Start: 25-08-2020, 10:00. End: 26-08-2020, 17:00. 31 hours incubation. Temperature was set to 31°C, then to 32°C at 20:00. Turned off at 9:00.
Cupboard-incubated: Didn't grow as fast in the beginning as the waterbath-incubated one, but caught up in the end. Very homogeneous growth, very nice dense block. Passive warming, not as controlled.
Waterbath-incubated: Grew faster. Fluffy top, very nice dense block. Don't use nonstick pan, the tempeh took off the coating! Use stainless steel next time! Immersion sous vide was quite loud, esp. over night.
Soybeans - try to modulate texture (2020-11-05)
Soak for 24h: 250g soy beans
Chop in food processor until most beans have been chopped, 4-5 pulses (although that results in many very small pieces and some that are still intact beans). Rinse and boil for 20 min. Drain, add 1 Tbsp vinegar (4 Tbsp/kg), let dry in oven at 40°C (takes foreeever to dry). Mix in 1/2 tsp LUVI starter (2 tsp/kg), fill in bag and incubate in oven at 30°C (start: 21:00). Take out of oven 20h later. Leave it outside on the countertop for another 5 hours. Total incubation: 22h. Very nicely firm cake, very good mycelium growth, looks clean and very appealing.
Interesting that the soybeans take so much longer to cook than e.g. black beans. They remain very dense and crunchy (like carrot) for a long time, whereas other bean varieties get starchy already after 5 min boiling, even the whole beans with hulls. The soybeans also don’t seem to get soggy and there’s no gradient visible between outside and inside of the bean or between small pieces and intact beans being cooked earlier or mushier. Also, no difference between small bean pieces and whole beans in terms of done-ness.
Freeze half, heat-treat the other half (wrapped in aluminium foil, 85°C for 30 min in the oven). Boiling in 200 mL water + 60 mL light soy sauce for 2 min on each side. The soy cake holds up perfectly. Store in fridge until use.
Cooking: Very nice to slice and held up well, but the taste was slightly bitter and the texture was quite beany. I didn’t find it very pleasant, Duncan said it was good. Could it be that the soybeans need to cook much longer (last time I cooked them for 50 min!)?
Soybean tempeh chopped and hulled (2024-12-20)
Soak for 24h: 2x 500 g soy bean
First batch: Chop in Thermomix
To try to dehull - though it mostly chopped the beans rather than dehulling. Rinse and boil for 30 min. Drain, add 1 Tbsp vinegar (4 Tbsp/kg), let dry in oven at 50-70°C (for 2h). Mix in 1 tsp LUVI starter (2 tsp/kg), fill in bag and incubate in oven on heating mat set to 30°C. Fermented quite quickly and got warm (up to 33C), so I took it out to cool, and then even put on the balcony over night. Continued to let ferment a bit inside at room temperature to get nice dense cake. Slight dark sporulation visible in some spots.
_Half-chopped and half-whole soy beans, pre cooking.
Mixed with starter and filled into bags, ready for fermentation.
Second batch: Dehulling by hand
No chopping in Thermomix. Rinse and boil for 40 min. Drain, add 1 Tbsp vinegar (4 Tbsp/kg), let dry in oven at 50°C (for 1h). Mix in 1 tsp LUVI starter (2 tsp/kg) + 1/2 tsp Fermentation culture starter. Fill in bags and incubate in oven on heating mat set to 30°C. After approx. 12h, heating mat turned off because the blocks produced enough heat. Then even taken out of oven and just put on counter top to finish off.