I made my first batch of tempeh and it turned out pretty good.
I got my starter from Cultures for Health. If I like it enough to keep making it, I'll probably order from a place with larger volume for less cost.
I asked my friend to send me some dry soybeans in a package she was already sending, as they aren't available in stores here and to order them is pretty expensive and a larger quantity than I wanted. So she did ... except that she's not much of a bean person, and she though that garbanzo beans and soybeans are the same thing. (I'm now canning a pound of garbanzos ...)
Sigh.
Garbanzo beans have pretty tough hulls that require an extra labor-intensive step, which I was not feeling up to, and so I reached for the black beans. I use a lot of black beans in a lot of things. Their hulls are soft and don't require the dehulling step.
I followed the seller's directions, along with some info on-line. The big issue is incubation. Tempeh wants to be kept at 87 degrees Fahrenheit for an extended period of time. My kitchen is generally 59 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a big difference.
I followed one person's advice to use an Instant Pot. I had been testing this method for awhile and found that it will hold temps at about that with some water in the bottom. So, after soaking the beans for about 20 hours and then cooking them for about an hour and 15 minutes, I mixed in the vinegar and starter. Stir it well. Disperse it.
The instant pot is small and it was frustrating to figure out how to put all those beans in there. I used two plastic ziploc sandwich bags with some holes poked in with a knife. I had to rig up two shelves, and the bottom bag was considerably warmer, so I'd switch them every so often.
After 12 hours, the tempeh is to be making much of its own heat. I didn't see that happen then, but at 18 hours the bottom bag was up to 98 degrees so I turned off the heat. Three and a half hours later they were below the temp range so I turned it back on. Then I got frustrated and rigged up a friend's clamp lamp in my oven, but that wasn't great either. Just the oven light on with the door closed was too cool. The lamp on made it too hot and one bag kept getting hotter than the other. (It's a 60 watt incandescent bulb; a 40 might have worked better.)
It was a lot of babysitting and adjusting temperatures and propping doors and all that, but then I finally saw some mycellium action which was a little exciting. OK, super exciting.
At 46 hours, the tempeh was formed into blocks, the mycellium pretty solid. I was keeping a close eye for sporulation, wanting that to start to let me know for sure it was done. But, I needed to use my oven for something else, so I called time. I let it cool to room temperature and into the fridge.
The next day I took it out to take to work to share with co-workers, and I noticed there was some light gray around the holes, telling me that I had actually pulled it at the right time and that the incubation had worked pretty well despite the temperatures ranging pretty far outside the optimal range.
I fried it in some butter and my co-workers called it fabulous.
And then I looked up a better incubation method, and I ordered a proofer. I don't really need it for baking bread (sourdough seems to rise fine in my cold kitchen), but I can also make yogurt in it which will be considerably nicer than the cooler method I'm using now (which always ends up in me splashing water all over). And it folds up, so not much kitchen space taken, which is nice.
It started at 7 pm on Friday and I ended it at about 5 pm on Sunday. A weekend of babysitting fungus. At least it was pretty tasty. Fresh tempeh is SO much better than store-bought, there's no comparison.
I got my starter from Cultures for Health. If I like it enough to keep making it, I'll probably order from a place with larger volume for less cost.
I asked my friend to send me some dry soybeans in a package she was already sending, as they aren't available in stores here and to order them is pretty expensive and a larger quantity than I wanted. So she did ... except that she's not much of a bean person, and she though that garbanzo beans and soybeans are the same thing. (I'm now canning a pound of garbanzos ...)
Sigh.
Garbanzo beans have pretty tough hulls that require an extra labor-intensive step, which I was not feeling up to, and so I reached for the black beans. I use a lot of black beans in a lot of things. Their hulls are soft and don't require the dehulling step.
I followed the seller's directions, along with some info on-line. The big issue is incubation. Tempeh wants to be kept at 87 degrees Fahrenheit for an extended period of time. My kitchen is generally 59 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a big difference.
I followed one person's advice to use an Instant Pot. I had been testing this method for awhile and found that it will hold temps at about that with some water in the bottom. So, after soaking the beans for about 20 hours and then cooking them for about an hour and 15 minutes, I mixed in the vinegar and starter. Stir it well. Disperse it.
The instant pot is small and it was frustrating to figure out how to put all those beans in there. I used two plastic ziploc sandwich bags with some holes poked in with a knife. I had to rig up two shelves, and the bottom bag was considerably warmer, so I'd switch them every so often.
After 12 hours, the tempeh is to be making much of its own heat. I didn't see that happen then, but at 18 hours the bottom bag was up to 98 degrees so I turned off the heat. Three and a half hours later they were below the temp range so I turned it back on. Then I got frustrated and rigged up a friend's clamp lamp in my oven, but that wasn't great either. Just the oven light on with the door closed was too cool. The lamp on made it too hot and one bag kept getting hotter than the other. (It's a 60 watt incandescent bulb; a 40 might have worked better.)
It was a lot of babysitting and adjusting temperatures and propping doors and all that, but then I finally saw some mycellium action which was a little exciting. OK, super exciting.
At 46 hours, the tempeh was formed into blocks, the mycellium pretty solid. I was keeping a close eye for sporulation, wanting that to start to let me know for sure it was done. But, I needed to use my oven for something else, so I called time. I let it cool to room temperature and into the fridge.
The next day I took it out to take to work to share with co-workers, and I noticed there was some light gray around the holes, telling me that I had actually pulled it at the right time and that the incubation had worked pretty well despite the temperatures ranging pretty far outside the optimal range.
I fried it in some butter and my co-workers called it fabulous.
And then I looked up a better incubation method, and I ordered a proofer. I don't really need it for baking bread (sourdough seems to rise fine in my cold kitchen), but I can also make yogurt in it which will be considerably nicer than the cooler method I'm using now (which always ends up in me splashing water all over). And it folds up, so not much kitchen space taken, which is nice.
It started at 7 pm on Friday and I ended it at about 5 pm on Sunday. A weekend of babysitting fungus. At least it was pretty tasty. Fresh tempeh is SO much better than store-bought, there's no comparison.
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