Homemade (home-cultured) tempeh

bEt

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Has anyone cultured your own tempeh at home? Some sites online that mention tempeh-making are:

veganlovlie.com
makethebesttempeh.org
tempehtation.uk
putumayokitchen.com

Some of these sites I found by typing something in the search engine like
Homemade tempeh split peas
Or
Homemade tempeh in glass dish

I began my tempeh culturing journey when I found some oligosporus starter super cheap at a local Asian grocery. After a few failures, some successes, and more failures, I was hooked.

The tempeh culture is a fungus. It was "domesticated" in Indonesia.
One survey in Indonesia found that those elderly people who ate the most tempeh did better on a word recall test than others of the same age.

The tempeh culture needs a little bit of air to grow. It needs some moisture but not too much. It needs a temperature around 80°F, which I think is around 26°C.

This is how I make tempeh:

1. Soak my grain(s) or legumes for up to 48 hours or none at all. If they sprout, so much the better, but it is not necessary by any means.
2. If your beans have hulls (anything besides split peas or other beans sold with hulls already removed), try to break most of the hulls. I smash them with the plastic lid end of a jar. If the beans break up too at the same time that's OK. You do this because the fungus can't grow through those tough bean jackets.
3. Rinse and cook in way too much boiling water for about 1/3 as much time as you normally would.
Add a tablespoon of vinegar (any type) to the water, either at the beginning or after it is cooked. The vinegar diluted in the cooking water should give just enough acidity to discourage unwanted organisms while not being too acidic for the tempeh fungus to grow.
Drain off the water and dry the beans. Sometimes just stirring them in the still-hot pot is enough.
4. Wait for them to cool to at least lukewarm. If they are too hot when you add your spores, the heat can kill the spores. Cooled to room temp is fine.
5. I avoid plastic when I can. Some people culture their tempeh in plastic bags with little holes punched to give the tempeh enough air. Traditionally tempeh was cultured wrapped in banana tree leaves. What works for me is a glass pyrex dish with a ceramic or glass plate placed on top. I add the spores after the beans and/or grains are in my culturing dish. I add more culture than most people because I can get it cheap.
6. If there is any water pooled or puddled anywhere after you mix in your spores, add some rice flour, other flour, or oatmeal or any dry grain you have on hand until the puddles are soaked up. The tempeh needs some moisture but too much invites other organisms you don't want.
7. Your goal is to have a loose, fluffy appearance to your mix. The fungus needs pockets of air to grow into and through. When you stir it, it should seem amost like uncooked beans, nothing like cooked oatmeal.
8. Give the fungus a heat source at about 25°C or 78°F. An electric blanket that has at least 4 settings may work when set on the lowest setting. Some people use electric seed-starter warming mats or mats designed to keep pet reptiles warm. Provide some insulation. I do this by keeping it in a small drawer. Try to keep the temp between 80°F and 60°F or 16°C. At lower temps it will grow more slowly. Too hot and it will die of the heat. Too cold and condensation can invite other organisms you don't want, especially if it is much lower than 55°F or 12°C.
9. Wait about 30 hours. The fungus mycelium should begin to grow through and around. Eventually it will be fluffy and white and hold the beans together like a cake. You can harvest as soon as you like or let it grow more.
10. Cook again. The most popular way to cook tempeh is to fry it but I love it boiled or braised. If the fluffy the texture offends you, you can tamp it to condense it. The tempeh you can buy in the store has been vacuum packed.
 
I should add that if anyone tries this, black spots on your tempeh are normal, OK to eat. But any red, pink, yellow or orange spots could be dangerous and you should throw out the whole cake.









I'd love to hear if anyone tries this :)
 
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Hi, have never made tempeh. However I do think fermented soy is much much healthier than non-fermented.
Tempeh, natto, soy sauce are fermented. I do not eat anything fried, steaming is best. cheers.
 
Hello VeganRachel, thank you for your rerply! I also avoid frying, usually only try it if I'm trying to cook for someone else. If I'm only feeding myself I'll most often cook homemade tempeh in a pan with just a tad of water at the bottom, not quite steaming, maybe it is called "braising"? But I will eat a lot of things other people would find boring, strange, or just not tempting enough.
 
Has anyone cultured your own tempeh at home? Some sites online that mention tempeh-making are:

veganlovlie.com
makethebesttempeh.org
tempehtation.uk
putumayokitchen.com

Some of these sites I found by typing something in the search engine like
Homemade tempeh split peas
Or
Homemade tempeh in glass dish

I began my tempeh culturing journey when I found some oligosporus starter super cheap at a local Asian grocery. After a few failures, some successes, and more failures, I was hooked.

The tempeh culture is a fungus. It was "domesticated" in Indonesia.
One survey in Indonesia found that those elderly people who ate the most tempeh did better on a word recall test than others of the same age.

The tempeh culture needs a little bit of air to grow. It needs some moisture but not too much. It needs a temperature around 80°F, which I think is around 26°C.

This is how I make tempeh:

1. Soak my grain(s) or legumes for up to 48 hours or none at all. If they sprout, so much the better, but it is not necessary by any means.
2. If your beans have hulls (anything besides split peas or other beans sold with hulls already removed), try to break most of the hulls. I smash them with the plastic lid end of a jar. If the beans break up too at the same time that's OK. You do this because the fungus can't grow through those tough bean jackets.
3. Rinse and cook in way too much boiling water for about 1/3 as much time as you normally would.
Add a tablespoon of vinegar (any type) to the water, either at the beginning or after it is cooked. The vinegar diluted in the cooking water should give just enough acidity to discourage unwanted organisms while not being too acidic for the tempeh fungus to grow.
Drain off the water and dry the beans. Sometimes just stirring them in the still-hot pot is enough.
4. Wait for them to cool to at least lukewarm. If they are too hot when you add your spores, the heat can kill the spores. Cooled to room temp is fine.
5. I avoid plastic when I can. Some people culture their tempeh in plastic bags with little holes punched to give the tempeh enough air. Traditionally tempeh was cultured wrapped in banana tree leaves. What works for me is a glass pyrex dish with a ceramic or glass plate placed on top. I add the spores after the beans and/or grains are in my culturing dish. I add more culture than most people because I can get it cheap.
6. If there is any water pooled or puddled anywhere after you mix in your spores, add some rice flour, other flour, or oatmeal or any dry grain you have on hand until the puddles are soaked up. The tempeh needs some moisture but too much invites other organisms you don't want.
7. Your goal is to have a loose, fluffy appearance to your mix. The fungus needs pockets of air to grow into and through. When you stir it, it should seem amost like uncooked beans, nothing like cooked oatmeal.
8. Give the fungus a heat source at about 25°C or 78°F. An electric blanket that has at least 4 settings may work when set on the lowest setting. Some people use electric seed-starter warming mats or mats designed to keep pet reptiles warm. Provide some insulation. I do this by keeping it in a small drawer. Try to keep the temp between 80°F and 60°F or 16°C. At lower temps it will grow more slowly. Too hot and it will die of the heat. Too cold and condensation can invite other organisms you don't want, especially if it is much lower than 55°F or 12°C.
9. Wait about 30 hours. The fungus mycelium should begin to grow through and around. Eventually it will be fluffy and white and hold the beans together like a cake. You can harvest as soon as you like or let it grow more.
10. Cook again. The most popular way to cook tempeh is to fry it but I love it boiled or braised. If the fluffy the texture offends you, you can tamp it to condense it. The tempeh you can buy in the store has been vacuum packed.
Thank you for sharing. I love tempeh and have tried making my own. I know tempeh must ferment at about 85 degrees, and therefore
do not like plastic bags or plastic containers to do so. I live in a climate where I need a hot plate to get the tempeh mix to this temp.
However, i thought tempeh needed holes punched in a container lid to function? your idea of the plate on top is great, but that does not
allow air to flow. I guess that is okay?. I have also found recipes for tempeh made with lentils and even pumpkin seeds, it does not have
to be made from organic soybeans.
 
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I did not think the plate on top would work, but I tried it anyway and I got a tempeh cake, so I kept it up. In the hot summer I grow the tempeh outside in the shade. Right now I grow it in a dresser drawer with an electric blanket on the lowest of 4 settings for the heat source. The blanket is sort of folded so it is both under and over the dishes. In the drawer, if I find water condensation, usually after it has been growing for a while and after the blanket has auto-shut-off because I've been away or asleep (it is the temperature drop, I think), I will sometimes take the plate off for at least a while and just leave it with the blanket still pulled up over the top, like it is with the plate on. I haven't yet tried taking the plate off when I have it outside, because of bugs etc. But I guess I could tie a cloth on top instead. Maybe I'll try it. In the Fall it got tricky to have it outside because the nights got cooler and there was condensation.

I haven't actually ever made tempeh with soybeans, as I've not bought any. Usually with black beans or with split peas because I bought those in bulk and need to use them up.

Taking the skin off the beans takes the longest of any step. The longer they soak the easier it is. I recently read about using the plastic 'dough' blade on a food processor to help take them off and I tried it. It makes small pieces out of some of the beans but that didn't affect the tempeh. It didn't take all the skins off but it took less time than usual to go through and take a few off than to do it all by hand.

I'm so glad to hear you tried it! I admire your sprouting, but I'm not sure I'd be able to figure out the logistics of how to make that work in my present situation. I have read of someone making tempeh out of sprouted lentils; that does sound like the best of both worlds.

Was the hot plate too hot? I would be afraid it would be too hot and kill the spores. There is a difference between what the ambient temperature should be and what the temperature of the actual tempeh is. The tempeh will create it's own heat after a while; it really doesn't need too much heat. The main thing is keeping it kind of consistent, so you don't get a big drop and invite the condensation. Did your tempeh grow? The first time I tried it I set it in a plastic bag on top of a water heater which ended up being too hot and most of the spores died. Good thing I was using free beans and cheap starter!

Thank you for letting me know you tried it . . . you made my day! :)

And if anyone is feeling more adventurous than me, I saw some instructions for a Korean version of Natto:

 
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I did not think the plate on top would work, but I tried it anyway and I got a tempeh cake, so I kept it up. In the hot summer I grow the tempeh outside in the shade. Right now I grow it in a dresser drawer with an electric blanket on the lowest of 4 settings for the heat source. The blanket is sort of folded so it is both under and over the dishes. In the drawer, if I find water condensation, usually after it has been growing for a while and after the blanket has auto-shut-off because I've been away or asleep (it is the temperature drop, I think), I will sometimes take the plate off for at least a while and just leave it with the blanket still pulled up over the top, like it is with the plate on. I haven't yet tried taking the plate off when I have it outside, because of bugs etc. But I guess I could tie a cloth on top instead. Maybe I'll try it. In the Fall it got tricky to have it outside because the nights got cooler and there was condensation.

I haven't actually ever made tempeh with soybeans, as I've not bought any. Usually with black beans or with split peas because I bought those in bulk and need to use them up.

Taking the skin off the beans takes the longest of any step. The longer they soak the easier it is. I recently read about using the plastic 'dough' blade on a food processor to help take them off and I tried it. It makes small pieces out of some of the beans but that didn't affect the tempeh. It didn't take all the skins off but it took less time than usual to go through and take a few off than to do it all by hand.

I'm so glad to hear you tried it! I admire your sprouting, but I'm not sure I'd be able to figure out the logistics of how to make that work in my present situation. I have read of someone making tempeh out of sprouted lentils; that does sound like the best of both worlds.

Was the hot plate too hot? I would be afraid it would be too hot and kill the spores. There is a difference between what the ambient temperature should be and what the temperature of the actual tempeh is. The tempeh will create it's own heat after a while; it really doesn't need too much heat. The main thing is keeping it kind of consistent, so you don't get a big drop and invite the condensation. Did your tempeh grow? The first time I tried it I set it in a plastic bag on top of a water heater which ended up being too hot and most of the spores died. Good thing I was using free beans and cheap starter!

Thank you for letting me know you tried it . . . you made my day! :)

And if anyone is feeling more adventurous than me, I saw some instructions for a Korean version of Natto:

I have also read a recipe where somone did NOT take the skins off and said it turned out fine, and, those that made
tempeh with pumpkin seeds. It is satisfying to make your own food. I also make vegan banana bread, delicious.
You can also buy tempeh at Sprouts, the chain farmers market. Its' very good.
 
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