Did you know that tempeh is ludicrously easy to make? Healthy? and useful in a diverse range of foods?
Tempeh offers more bite than tofu, for those that find the gelatinous texture of tofu unappealing, and has a substantial flavour of its own (depending on how far the fungus is allowed to break down the beans).
You can even make tempeh from non soy legumes or even peanuts!
To make tempeh you need some spores, usually called tempeh starter when mixed with rice flour. You cook your intended ferment, let it dry, add a bit of vinegar and spores and mix to coat. The acidic environment keeps many nasties away and helps the fungus establish.
Make bricks with air holes (pieced ziplock bags are popular and leave it somewhere 22-35 degrees (around 30 is best) for 12 to 48 hours and enjoy.
You can continue to make your own starter by letting some sporulate and harvesting the spores.
Cheap, easy, low waste, vegan, and healthy. What’s your excuse?
ooh this has been on my to-do list for a while! i love tempeh but it’s too expensive to buy regularly. ty for the reminder
on the subject of non-soy tempeh, mary’s test kitchen has done several experiments https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMowKEL0e_pQ . also check out her “will it tofu” and “will it cheese” playlists
This is my motivation also. I cannot pay health food prices for poverty staple meals.
Tempeh is delicous. But also i read this thread as “Ferment your temper”, and i was like shit, im angry enough already.
https://hexbear.net/post/147346 hell yeah I’m with you
wait that was FIVE years ago? what year is it?
I stand on the shoulders of very tired giants.
If you have an older oven just turning on the light can be enough to raise the temperature a few degrees in there.
Just put tape on the nob or something as a reminder there’s something in there…
Couldn’t you do a sort of double-boiler thing with an electric stove turned to the lowest setting?
I’m pretty sure even the lowest setting is gonna be too hot. Those cheap heating pads for seed germination is probably a good alternative.
That often gets too hot in my experience. Those halogen lightbulbs are gnarly.
If you’re comfortable the fungus is probably comfortable too. Warm room is basically the low end of the requirement and it’ll make its own heat once it’s got started.
Tempeh rules and is super easy to make. I approve this message
But I don’t like fermented foods
Kinda a wild statement given the enormous variety. Like half of all sauces are fermented.
I’ve never met a fermented food I liked
You don’t like Worcester sauce? soy sauce? black bean sauce? broadbean sauce? Tabasco? pickles of any kind? anything derived thereof etc?
Worcester sauce
Never tried it
soy sauce?
Not a fan
black bean sauce? broadbean sauce?
Never heard of these
Tabasco?
Mid at best
pickles of any kind?
I’ve never had a fermented pickled cucumber. I’ve had fermented cabbage which I would describe as among the worst things I’ve ever tasted.
I think you’re being a bit silly, but you should branch out in foods more from your sauces list. The world is full of delicious flavours and it’s tragic to have never eaten SEA and EA food.
I have eaten plenty of foods, I just happen not to like some of them. This is an acceptable fact of life.
Ah yes you hate vanilla
I mean I’d never choose it over basically anything else
It’s one of those things that smells way better than it tastes. Like flowers.
Idk I was just gonna gotcha on all the food additives that are fermented but you seem to legit just eat very few things so I guess I got got instead ;)
No, they got got. I’m literally holding an empty vanilla bottle right now and periodically sniffing it. Delighting in its presence.
Then it’s probably real vanilla and not rotten log which is used as the vanilla flavor
What an intriguing character.
Do you not have any taste for sour things? Maybe an easily disrupted digestive system?
I love sour things, and my digestive system has nothing to do with it. Alcohol tastes like poison, soy sauce tastes like liquid salt, kimchi tastes like ass.
The plot thickens. So it’s more of the “fresh” sour things that you like, rather than the “aged” flavors?
Not trying to grill you or anything, my mind just went into “what would I make for her if she was my guest” mode.
Yeah I suppose that’s a way to look at it. Sour fruits are good. Interesting you categorize it as “aged” because that word does usually indicate something I’m not going to be a fan of. Like in tea, super aged puer is a good example of something that just tastes like something you’d only consider if you had no other options (obviously some people love that stuff though)
But strictly speaking since this has been taken very seriously by a lot of people, I have to admit I do like some things that have been fermented. Vinegar is something I almost can’t get enough of, and it’s both fermented and sour. But to me it tastes like acid (positive) rather than alcohol or literal fecal matter which are the two categories I place most fermented foods I’ve tasted into.
Tempeh doesn’t taste fermented. Theres no sour to it.
You don’t like bread(non-flat)?
What is with you guys trying to insist that a bunch of shit that is not fermented food is actually fermented food, such as pickles and bread? Is it really such an affront that someone might not like a certain type of food that you have to find a way to insist that their preference is actually wrong?
Wikipedia article on fermentation:
“Food as a substrate for fermentation is the most common and oldest anthropogenic use of fermentation as it was a method to preserve food. This includes cereal, dairy products, rice, honey, bread, and beers”
How is non-flat bread not a fermented product?
Yeah sure some fermentation technically happens in the process of making bread, which is done to affect the texture/shape and doesn’t really give the bread the fermented alcohol flavor which is obviously the thing I generally don’t like in fermented foods and is why absolutely no one thinks of a regular loaf of bread as a “fermented food”
Like I challenge you to search “list of fermented foods” and find any list which includes “all bread”
You’ll find sourdough listed, which is my least favorite kind of bread.
why would you classify foods as fermented based on whether they have a certain taste or not? lots of people think of a regular loaf of bread as a fermented food.
challenge you to search “list of fermented foods” and find any list which includes “all bread”
Without having tried or knowing anything about tempeh, is it vinegary/alcoholy? I would expect that such a short fermentation (similar to that of sourdough bread) wouldn’t affect the flavour that much.
I have no idea, I was just responding in a lighthearted humorous way to the imperative sentence in the title
Someday I’ll probably try tempeh
it is not vinegary or alcoholy (unless it’s been fermented wrong and then it’s unsafe to eat)
it doesn’t taste like “fermented food” but the fermentation changes its taste. it has a deep yet subtle flavor, just slightly earthy/fungal yet still beany. a bit like a very mild cheese but less umami, no creaminess or saltiness.
same thing happens to bread, the reason bread tastes different from a cracker or wheat tortilla is that some of the starches have become something else by the power of yeast
i like a variety of fermented foods but i will defend to the death your right to not like them
I can’t do this, I’m too tempehremental
Self crit is the first step to self improvement.
What’s your preferred source for tempeh starter, and how well does it keep?
whereever then just sustain your own.
Spores keep basically indefinitely in the freezer
You’re supposed to cook hot pockets one at a time
:beani-salute:
