{"id":12606,"date":"2024-06-24T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fitolympia.com\/?p=12606"},"modified":"2024-06-24T16:57:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T16:57:41","slug":"how-tofu-is-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fitolympia.com\/na\/how-tofu-is-made\/","title":{"rendered":"How tofu is made?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Look into any modern day tofu factory, and you will see the shiny gleam of machinery that is needed to produce tofu on a scale for mass consumption. Nevertheless, the principles of how tofu is made have remained intact over hundreds of years, and the process is so simple that you could make a batch even in the comfort of your own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For anyone used to eating tofu regularly, it\u2019s common knowledge that there really isn\u2019t just one way to eat tofu or even one type of tofu to choose from. Its unassuming form disguises a nutritional punch since the soy\u00a0protein\u00a0in tofu is considered a complete protein\u2014meaning it contains all nine essential\u00a0amino acids\u00a0that are not made by the human body. This is why tofu is a staple for many seeking a plant-based alternative to animal protein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As tofu is a soybean curd, the process of making it is comparable to how cheese is made, and it consists of 3 main stages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preparation of soybeans,<\/li>
Coagulation of soy juice to form curds, and<\/li>
Pressing curds to form tofu cakes<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
STEP 1. PREPARING SOYBEANS FOR \u2018MILKING\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Soybeans and their \u2018milk\u2019 are the very essence of tofu, which is why the first step is crucial to the quality of the final result. Tofu makers begin with soaking the soybeans for anywhere between 4 to 10 hours to soften the beans before grinding them into a soy slurry. Traditionally, this process of extracting soy juice would be done using hand-operated grinding stones called querns, but these days sophisticated machinery is the norm for efficiently grinding juice out of a large quantity of soybeans.\u00a0Next, the soy slurry is boiled to a temperature between 100\u2103 and 110\u2103 for 3-10 minutes to reduce the intensity of the juice\u2019s beany flavour, and any foam is skimmed off the top while the remaining solid pulp\u2014known as\u00a0okara\u00a0<\/em>in Japanese\u2014is filtered out from the liquid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fun Fact:<\/strong>\u00a0An\u00a0enzyme\u00a0in soy\u00a0protein\u00a0called\u00a0lipoxygenase<\/em>\u00a0is responsible for the \u201cbeany\u201d flavour of soy products. Boiling soybeans inactivates this\u00a0enzyme\u00a0and produces a blander tofu, but in East Asia where a stronger beany taste in tofu is preferred, soybeans are often ground cold to retain\u00a0lipoxygenase\u00a0<\/em>and the flavour compounds it helps produce.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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