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Tofu


liuzhou

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"-----but the fermentation resulted in a new desirable product."

 

Perhaps when they were fermenting soy beans, they discovered soy sauce?

 

dcarch

 

Unlikely.The history of soy sauce in well documented.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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nentofu.jpg

 

Remember the soft tofu? 

 

Here it is after being frozen, then defrosted.

 

frozentofu.jpgfrozentofu.jpg

 

It has developed a honeycombed look where the water in the tofu and crystallised. On thawing, much of the liquid drains away, leaving a firmer (relatively) tofu. The mouth feel is also different, being more bite resistant. Not easy to see in the pictures, but the colour has also changed to a less pure white.

 

Frozen tofu is usually served sliced with hotpots, often unthawed. The heat of the hotpot broth thaws and cooks it in seconds.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

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History of Tofu and Tofu Products (965 CE to 2013)

William Shurtleff, Akiko AoyagiISBN: 978-1-928914-55-6

Publication Date: 2013 May 20

 

For anyone who is interested, this book is available as a free download (PDF) from here.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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  • 8 years later...

I've always enjoyed tofu since introduced many years ago. Usually just medium firm in soups though I enjoy the very fresh at Viet markets and the comforting super soft warm with ginger or pandan syrup. I lived near artisinal makers - literally  10 minute walk and stupidly never explored. https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/the-migrant-kitchen/tofu-so-good-people-eat-it-plain-with-a-spoon-meiji-tofu-in-gardena  But today with my regular House Foods tofu my usual gentle squeeze produced mush I gave t a quik marinade n olive oil turmeric and garic powder and baked high heat. Taste is great but t looks like hard scrambled eggs. Very odd to me.

IMG_2002.jpg

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I kind of forgot about this topic. There are still many more tofu types. Here's another.

 

Sichuansmokeddried.thumb.jpg.09ba451b09be57afbdb243a539894622.jpg

 

Dried smoked tofu from Sichuan.

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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...and another.

 

Shaoyanghardbeandrysmokedtofu.thumb.jpg.beb2d39b750ba189507822410f402710.jpg

 

This one's from Shaoyang, a city in Hunan. It is a firm type, again smoked but over firewood and given a much heavier smoke than the Sichuan type above. It heavy smoke is typical of Hunan, not only for tofu, but meats and sausages, too.

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Fancy a cup of tea with  your tofu. No problem.

 

This is medium firm tofu braised in tea, then left to marinade in the tea for a few hours, before being dried. This particular sample is from Sichuam, but it's also made elsewhere.

 

teadried.jpg.133bebbc4e12abb0856624eab9b8cfc4.jpg

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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JapaneseTofu.thumb.jpg.d01be1bd9dbcf2b4d5f543513adbfc21.jpg

 

This one is a bit odd, at least to my mind. Here it is always sold as ‘Japanese Tofu’. I guarantee you it has never been anywhere near Japan. It is actually 蛋豆腐 (dàn dòu fu), ‘Egg Tofu’. Now I’m not denying that Japan also has ‘egg tofu’ but so do many any other places.

 

As the name suggests, it is a mix of egg and tofu. Usually sold here in these plastic prophylactics.

 

_20231116204401.thumb.jpg.f4b4990944f5e14276505938c3e3add2.jpg

 

Squeezing your mouthful out of its condom, you are rewarded with this semi-erect sausage of eggy tofu. It is slightly firmer than silken tofu (which did originate in Japan) but marginally more handleable with care.

 

It is usually eaten in restaurants, particularly during celebratory banquets but using many different cooking techniques. It can be eaten raw, fried, roasted, toasted, boasted and ousted. The most common, in my experience is a very light fry on scallop shaped discs and served with soy sauce. I find it OK but wouldn’t go searching for it.

 

_20231115172809.thumb.jpg.d106b114c0c20c49fe7a69c2a5f37cbf.jpg

 

 

 

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Next  up, hard dried tofu.

 

This is what it says - ultra-dried to the point it becomes dense and chewy. Often served as a snack item.

 

It comes in two varieties.

 

sichuan-hard-dried.thumb.jpg.55257f11f35112d07463fbd1f92b5fdb.jpg

This one has also been smoked.

 

and

 

hard-dried-5-spice.thumb.jpg.345261e59dc2ccbdc5203ea16d3fb7af.jpg

 

This one has been treated with 5 spice  powder.

 

Both from Sichuan.

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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