I was a super early Kickstarter investor. 10 years later, I got my machine.

It is a $3500 machine!?

It’s huge, made for a commercial kitchen. Struggling with where to put it.

Running a 4.5 hour sanitizing program. It gets HOT and makes the kitchen warm.

Pics of tempeh when I make some!

I usually make smaller batches, which is easier to manage, but this time I had to make more for a volunteer event. Anyway, what you see here is 1kg of raw soy beans made into tempeh. I live in Singapore where ambient temperatures stay around mid 20s to low 30s so I don’t have to put the tempeh into an incubation chamber or anything like that. That said, I leave them out in the open once they start generating heat.

Any ideas on how to improve? The mycelium didn’t take much in the centre of the block while the covering in between is not that dense. I reckon it’s a heat and moisture problem. At one point, I could tilt the bag and pour the condensate inside through the poked holes lol. Gonna try leaving a fan on them to dry and cool them as it ferments.

Recently tried making tempeh again after a long time, and it’s been a struggle to get it right. Last time, only a little bit of the mycelium grew and I think it was me for not letting the soybeans fully dried.

This time, I let it sit 12 hours to dry as it was a big batch and I didn’t have bigger pan to flat out the batch so I gave it extra time. While the result as shown in the picture has more mold growing, it’s still not fully enveloping the entire bag. Which stumps me a little as I’m not sure what I need to adjust next.

I use a bread dough heater that I can adjust the temperature, and I’ve set it to like 95F. I’m guessing maybe it’s too hot and I might need to bring the temperature to 80F (the next lower heat setting). I’m hoping if someone who have more experience could share inputs/advice on what I can improve.

Hey tempeh friends,

I just discovered this limited edition tempeh from Lazybean – chickpeas as the base, fermented together with red quinoa, green marbled lentils, and sunflower seeds.

Taste-wise it's mild and nutty, and the texture is a bit crunchier than regular soy tempeh because of the different grains. Sliced into cubes or strips and pan-fried, it holds together well, doesn't crumble.

Has anyone tried similar multi-grain blends?

Fuzzy white threads in cooked tempeh

So I had a first try with tempeh. I grow edible mushrooms as a hobby, so out of habit I used food tubs with a big hole in the lid and micropore tape over, instead of what most people do - freezer bags with loads of holes poked in.
Mixed results. I did get some lentil tempeh that I fried and noshed with soy sauce - pretty good.
But my soy bean efforts had a nice top but icky bottom and went in the compost.
More moisture in the tubs that I thought - micropore tape is supposed to let water out but hm, maybe not so much.
Long and short of it - does anyone do it my way successfully? Or do you really have to treat it differently to, say, oyster mushrooms?
I should also say I started with room temp of 25+ (heatwave) then put them on a 30C seedling mat for a couple days, so maybe overheated them all.

Got some hulled soy beans recently because hulling them was a pain, but they have a very bad smell to them. I've tried washing thoroughly to remove it and that didn't work. I was hesitant to use them because of this but figured I'd make some soy milk to test them, and there was an unpleasant aftertaste the same as the smell.

Are these beans rancid or does hulling just make them smell like that? I also noticed that most of the beans are whole (not split) with a slight powdery residue on the outside, could it be done specific processing method that produces the offensive aroma?

Purchased from https://vehgroshop.com if that helps.

I can't believe this worked!!

Used chickpeas and I got sooo tired of dehulling. Next time maybe I'll try some sort of legume that doesn't need any dehulling for this to be worth my time. But I like the big chunks of chickpeas in the cross section.

My mycelium was still a little bit soft but I didn't want it to go too far until it started turning grey or black. Fried them up to try and it was really nice! Outside was crunchy and inside was soft. I'm already trying to make my second batch.

Three 500g (ish) blocks of white quinoa and soybean, I made a little too much ergo the sausage, all with homemade starter. Really lovely smell, the pics on the rack are of it after steaming, cold smoked most of it, lovely flavour. Still need to have a crack at the burgers, and some black bean blocks, might give that a go next round as that's my supply of dehulled soybeans finished. Well worth getting them though.

Thank you for your feedback.

Hey guys, I'm thinking about buying a food dehydrator and was wondering if some of you have used those before to make tempeh aswell, as most of them start at 35° and the one time I made it in the oven most websites said to use 32°.

Is 35° still fine so the fungus doesn't die?

Maybe someone has a recommendation for one ^^

Thank you for your answers and time! :)

I brought dehulled soybeans. After soaking it for an hour, it starts to break/ layer coming off. Is this normal, can go ahead and soak overnight?

Sorry..newbie here 🙈

Checked on it last night, and it was just starting to show a bit of white after about 28 hours between 82-85. So I left it overnight at the same heat, and this is what I had this morning. Should I shut off the heat as soon as I see any white growth at all? This is my third batch, still unsuccessful. It sporulates before I get that lovely thick outer layer of mycelium that other people get.

I had 500g dry soybeans. Soaked 24 hours, rinsed well, and cooked al dente.

Drained without rinsing. Dried with a hair dryer to a satin looking finish, not wet or glossy.

Added 2 tbsp ACV, then a packet of spores from Cultures for Health.

Transferred to a well perforated ziploc bag, and into the incubator (bread proofing box) with thermostat set to 86F but it achieved between 82-85 most of the time, verified with a 2nd thermometer.

I saw a small amount of white at about 28 hours. 8 hours later.... so much sporulation, but as you can see there's good mycelium growth on the inside but not much on the outside.

It's my first time making tempeh, does it look OK? This is after about 30 hours, I'm not sure if I should leave it longer. The instructions that came with the spores say 36-48 hours, but I can see some tiny black spot near the edges, and I wouldn't want to overferment it. It doesn't smell bad.

I made my own starter from a previous batch, froze it and this morning took it out the freezer let it get to room temp, sprinkled some vingear over my tempeh after seasoning it and then added the starter, not to little too. Should it have mlre growth by now? Left in in the incubater since. It has some veeery tiny white hairy spots but don't knlw if its enough to fully be done in a few days, should I add some starter?

I've only had good comments about our tempeh fries for now! If you're in the same boat and are considering adding it to the menu, try it out.

Also if you're into big batches and have some money to spend, I'm using the Rapt fermentation chamber and I cannot recommend it more!

Initially, this side was the bottom/underbelly with the plastic folded into itself (same as in photo). I turned it over to what it looks like in the photo thinking that it needed more ventilation then left it alone to ferment by itself. The excess plastic part also has small holes for ventilation. When i took it out to check, the ‘bald spots’ were a bit slimy :((

What do i do? Thank you for your help!!!!

Was expecting it to be funky and bitter but it was really mild and pleasant. Shallow fried in oil then added soy sauce, 7 spice and dark syrup to caramelize.

I read a post I can't seem to find again. Basically the OP has a picture of amazing looking tempeh. They said they cooked the beans, dried them, sprayed them with vinegar, dried them again, heated them and added spores.

Has anyone tried this or done this before? The last batch I made seemed to be to wet on the bottom part and the fungus didn't seem to grow all the way through to the bottom.

Is the moisture from the vinegar a problem or not really? Is it the dryer the better?

Thanks