The Asian Answer to Cheese: Fermented Soybean Cakes

Soybeans are also fermented to make protein-rich solid foods that are used as main ingredients in a variety of ways. Of the ones discussed here, tempeh and nattō are made from whole beans, while fermented tofu starts out as soy milk.

Tempeh, which comes from the island of Java in Indonesia, is one of the few soybean products that is not originally from China or Japan. It consists of whole soybeans that are soaked, hulled, partly cooked, and then seeded with a mold, Rhizopas oryzae or Rhizopas oligosporus. A little wine vinegar may also be added. The beans, which are still intact, are spread out in a layer and fermented for a couple of days at about 30ºC. As a result, the mycelium from the fungus grows into the beans, so that they are more or less glued together into a cake but maintain the texture of the individual beans.