10 ms·

Homemade tofu is incredible easy to make, it's only soybean, of course, water, heat, and Glucono delta-lactone

by leemailll 7y ago

onion2k 7y ago
"<doing the thing> is easy, you just need to know how to <do the thing>" isn't very helpful.
- leemailll 7y ago
  If you really want to try I can give you a recipe: 1. 180g dried soybean soaked in water overnight 2. drain the water then put in 1100ml water in a food processor 3. grinding for 1 min 4. filter the liquid 5. measure the liquid weight or volume for weight of glucono delta lactone, 3g per 1000g or 1000ml, dissolve it in water as little as possible, and then add to a large bowl big enough to contain the liquid 6. boil the liquid, after boiling turn to mid heat for 5min. Then filter. now you have soy milk 7. remove from heat, stir to dissipate heat 8. slowing pouring to the bowl added with glucono delta lactone, pouring toward the wall not the bottom of the bowl 9. cover the bowl with paper towel or cheese cloth, then the lid, waiting for 30 mins voila now you have Douhua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua), which often seen in China as a breakfast dish to get tofu, just drain the water out, to do so put the douhua in some container with holes at bottom and then add weight.
  - adrianN 7y ago
    Is the result much better than the stuff I find at the supermarket? Because that sounds like at least on hour of work.
    - leemailll 7y ago
      Well that depends on the kind of tofu you like, how firm it is? What kind of coagulant you like? Glucono delta lactone will make the tofu with a light sour flavor, some traditional way will not. Also water also play a role in. The recipe is easy but definitely not one suits every condition. It is a trial and error to fine tune it to your need. To be honest, this is one of the easiest dishes I ever tried, and also one hour work is on the short side
    - mikekchar 7y ago
      Let me put it this way... It's better in the same way that fresh home made bread is better than store bought bread. Now imagine that you live in a country (like Japan) where the average person thinks that a baguette is essentially a big hotdog bun that has been sitting on a shelf for 2 weeks. That's the equivalent of the tofu that you tend to buy in a supermarket in the US. It is possible to buy good store bought tofu, but usually it is unavailable unless you have a big Asian population nearby. Like bread in France, you really want to go to the tofu store in the morning for your tofu because day old tofu is tasteless and horrible (just like day old bread). Whether or not you can actually make great tofu at home without a lot of practice is debatable, but at the very least the average person can make something that is worlds apart from the lifeless, bitter chunks of woe that the supermarket calls tofu. If you get a chance to go to a real tofu restaurant in Japan or China, you should leap at the chance. It's just like your first trip to a boulangerie in Paris -- mind blowing.
      - mytailorisrich 7y ago
        I don't know in Japan but in China I have never seen a "tofu restaurant". Tofu, of which there are many types, is usually part of dishes and I doubt Chinese want to restrict themselves to tofu in a restaurant...
        mikekchar 7y ago
        Super interesting. I've never been to China, but I just assumed there must be tofu restaurants. But I guess Buddhism isn't such a powerful force in the country any more. In Japan, there are definitely tofu restaurants, but you have to look for them. Kyoto is quite famous for tofu, but there is a chain of very good tofu restaurants from Fukuoka (the name of which escapes me for the moment). You will also get amazing tofu if you ever eat at a shoujin ryouri restaurant (Japanese Buddhist vegan cuisine -- usually served at temples, but you can find the odd restaurant that's not necessarily part of the temple).
        mytailorisrich 7y ago
        In China every region has its own dishes so I think people would get tofu dishes based on that. For example Mapo Tofu is a very famous tofu dish and is a Sichuan dish. So although you may be able to order it in most restaurants these days because it is so famous people would probably suggest you go to a good Sichuan restaurant if you were keen to taste a good version. Conversely, in you find yourselves in a random restaurant the tofu dishes will probably depend on what cuisine that restaurant mostly serves.
- drhodes 7y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantfoods.org/demos/tofu/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantf... This is the best recipe I've found, but I haven't made it yet, still trying to track down a good deal on soybeans.
  - simtel20 7y ago
    Super interesting. I'm living in a part of brazil where there is no packaged tofu for sale, so I've made it myself quite a bit. This recipe diverges from most of those I've seen in that it doesn't require a boil before straining out the solid mass. I've got plans to make some more tofu this week, so I'll try this out. Thanks!
    - simtel20 7y ago
      Probably too late to edit the above comment, so I'll add a comment. Since I don't need to/intend to use the solid mass of the beans (that would require cooking it), this recipe worked. I blended the beans, strained the liquid and boiled that and I've got two blocks of tofu in the fridge. It's extremely gratifying to have my tofu making simplified like this.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
leemailll 7y ago
those who downvoting me must never tried to do it
mikekchar 7y ago
Glucono delta lactone is a super weird thing to make tofu with. I'm sure it works, but it's pretty unconventional. I'm actually quite curious to try it. Chinese tofu is usually make with calcium sulphate (gypsum) and Japanese tofu is usually make with magnesium chloride (nigari). Nigari is harder to use because it is quite bitter, but it has a very nice texture when done right (and balances the sweetness of the soy milk). Needs to be eaten quite fresh, though. Very good tofu requires a lot of knowledge and skill, but I'll agree that making something better than what you can get in the supermarket is about as hard as falling off a log. Edit: Just looked it up. Glucono delta lactone is used for making "silken" tofu, which is a fairly recent invention (in Japanese "kinu" tofu).
- leemailll 7y ago
  Glucono delta lactone is really common nowadays in mass production, you take a look at hmart (https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu), and calcium sulfate is often add with it to beat down the sour. As I know both of the chemicals you mentioned are used in traditional Chinese tofu making, and they are still in market. Somehow, they require a lot trials to get it right, so for nonserious stuff, glucono delta lactone is easier. Also my guess about the traditional way is hard is that is all related to the water hardness and other ions in water
  - Obsnold 7y ago
    I made silken tofu at home recently just using calcium sulfate and soy milk that I had also made from scratch. I found it very easy and it worked on the first try. I'm in a hard water area so I'm not sure if that makes it easier or not.
m0llusk 7y ago
For me the heating and blending was always tedious so I really enjoyed using my soy milk maker machine. This is similar to how using a rice cooker makes having rice with meals easier, but much more so since making the soy milk to start is more involved than cooking rice.
- _nalply 7y ago
  I just ordered a Tianyin Soy Milk Maker, hopefully it's not too trashy. Thanks for the idea!
mfoy_ 7y ago
The number of ingredients something has is not a good proxy for its difficulty. For example, tapioca only contains Cassava root, but here is how that is made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg Maybe provide more substantive comments in the future if you don't want down-votes?

Homemade tofu is incredible easy to make, it's only soybean, of course, water, heat, and Glucono delta-lactone

onion2k 7y ago

"<doing the thing> is easy, you just need to know how to <do the thing>" isn't very helpful.

leemailll 7y ago
If you really want to try I can give you a recipe: 1. 180g dried soybean soaked in water overnight 2. drain the water then put in 1100ml water in a food processor 3. grinding for 1 min 4. filter the liquid 5. measure the liquid weight or volume for weight of glucono delta lactone, 3g per 1000g or 1000ml, dissolve it in water as little as possible, and then add to a large bowl big enough to contain the liquid 6. boil the liquid, after boiling turn to mid heat for 5min. Then filter. now you have soy milk 7. remove from heat, stir to dissipate heat 8. slowing pouring to the bowl added with glucono delta lactone, pouring toward the wall not the bottom of the bowl 9. cover the bowl with paper towel or cheese cloth, then the lid, waiting for 30 mins voila now you have Douhua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua), which often seen in China as a breakfast dish to get tofu, just drain the water out, to do so put the douhua in some container with holes at bottom and then add weight.
- adrianN 7y ago
  Is the result much better than the stuff I find at the supermarket? Because that sounds like at least on hour of work.
  - leemailll 7y ago
    Well that depends on the kind of tofu you like, how firm it is? What kind of coagulant you like? Glucono delta lactone will make the tofu with a light sour flavor, some traditional way will not. Also water also play a role in. The recipe is easy but definitely not one suits every condition. It is a trial and error to fine tune it to your need. To be honest, this is one of the easiest dishes I ever tried, and also one hour work is on the short side
  - mikekchar 7y ago
    Let me put it this way... It's better in the same way that fresh home made bread is better than store bought bread. Now imagine that you live in a country (like Japan) where the average person thinks that a baguette is essentially a big hotdog bun that has been sitting on a shelf for 2 weeks. That's the equivalent of the tofu that you tend to buy in a supermarket in the US. It is possible to buy good store bought tofu, but usually it is unavailable unless you have a big Asian population nearby. Like bread in France, you really want to go to the tofu store in the morning for your tofu because day old tofu is tasteless and horrible (just like day old bread). Whether or not you can actually make great tofu at home without a lot of practice is debatable, but at the very least the average person can make something that is worlds apart from the lifeless, bitter chunks of woe that the supermarket calls tofu. If you get a chance to go to a real tofu restaurant in Japan or China, you should leap at the chance. It's just like your first trip to a boulangerie in Paris -- mind blowing.
    - mytailorisrich 7y ago
      I don't know in Japan but in China I have never seen a "tofu restaurant". Tofu, of which there are many types, is usually part of dishes and I doubt Chinese want to restrict themselves to tofu in a restaurant...
      - mikekchar 7y ago
        Super interesting. I've never been to China, but I just assumed there must be tofu restaurants. But I guess Buddhism isn't such a powerful force in the country any more. In Japan, there are definitely tofu restaurants, but you have to look for them. Kyoto is quite famous for tofu, but there is a chain of very good tofu restaurants from Fukuoka (the name of which escapes me for the moment). You will also get amazing tofu if you ever eat at a shoujin ryouri restaurant (Japanese Buddhist vegan cuisine -- usually served at temples, but you can find the odd restaurant that's not necessarily part of the temple).
        mytailorisrich 7y ago
        In China every region has its own dishes so I think people would get tofu dishes based on that. For example Mapo Tofu is a very famous tofu dish and is a Sichuan dish. So although you may be able to order it in most restaurants these days because it is so famous people would probably suggest you go to a good Sichuan restaurant if you were keen to taste a good version. Conversely, in you find yourselves in a random restaurant the tofu dishes will probably depend on what cuisine that restaurant mostly serves.
drhodes 7y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantfoods.org/demos/tofu/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20181012112119/http://www.plantf... This is the best recipe I've found, but I haven't made it yet, still trying to track down a good deal on soybeans.
- simtel20 7y ago
  Super interesting. I'm living in a part of brazil where there is no packaged tofu for sale, so I've made it myself quite a bit. This recipe diverges from most of those I've seen in that it doesn't require a boil before straining out the solid mass. I've got plans to make some more tofu this week, so I'll try this out. Thanks!
  - simtel20 7y ago
    Probably too late to edit the above comment, so I'll add a comment. Since I don't need to/intend to use the solid mass of the beans (that would require cooking it), this recipe worked. I blended the beans, strained the liquid and boiled that and I've got two blocks of tofu in the fridge. It's extremely gratifying to have my tofu making simplified like this.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

leemailll 7y ago

those who downvoting me must never tried to do it

mikekchar 7y ago

Glucono delta lactone is a super weird thing to make tofu with. I'm sure it works, but it's pretty unconventional. I'm actually quite curious to try it. Chinese tofu is usually make with calcium sulphate (gypsum) and Japanese tofu is usually make with magnesium chloride (nigari). Nigari is harder to use because it is quite bitter, but it has a very nice texture when done right (and balances the sweetness of the soy milk). Needs to be eaten quite fresh, though. Very good tofu requires a lot of knowledge and skill, but I'll agree that making something better than what you can get in the supermarket is about as hard as falling off a log. Edit: Just looked it up. Glucono delta lactone is used for making "silken" tofu, which is a fairly recent invention (in Japanese "kinu" tofu).

leemailll 7y ago
Glucono delta lactone is really common nowadays in mass production, you take a look at hmart (https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu https://fresh.hmart.com/meat-seafood-produce/dairy/egg-tofu), and calcium sulfate is often add with it to beat down the sour. As I know both of the chemicals you mentioned are used in traditional Chinese tofu making, and they are still in market. Somehow, they require a lot trials to get it right, so for nonserious stuff, glucono delta lactone is easier. Also my guess about the traditional way is hard is that is all related to the water hardness and other ions in water
- Obsnold 7y ago
  I made silken tofu at home recently just using calcium sulfate and soy milk that I had also made from scratch. I found it very easy and it worked on the first try. I'm in a hard water area so I'm not sure if that makes it easier or not.

m0llusk 7y ago

For me the heating and blending was always tedious so I really enjoyed using my soy milk maker machine. This is similar to how using a rice cooker makes having rice with meals easier, but much more so since making the soy milk to start is more involved than cooking rice.

_nalply 7y ago
I just ordered a Tianyin Soy Milk Maker, hopefully it's not too trashy. Thanks for the idea!

mfoy_ 7y ago

The number of ingredients something has is not a good proxy for its difficulty. For example, tapioca only contains Cassava root, but here is how that is made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qTxKdjagg Maybe provide more substantive comments in the future if you don't want down-votes?