Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

minchin (also written as mien chien) a Chinese food item, made of fermented wheat gluten.

After being kept in a covered container for several weeks, the gluten is overgrown with moulds (of as many as seven different genera) and bacteria. It is then salted and allowed to ferment for another two weeks before being cut into thin strips, like noodles, and used.