Black Bean Tempeh

[cpb]

Dear all,

I wonder if you could share your experience with black bean (or other bean) tempeh. Do you "split" the beans prior to inoculation or is it ok to incubate the whole beans (aka is the hull soft enough to be penetrated by Oligosporus)?

When searching the web images of black bean tempeh often appear to be made of whole beans?

Thanks for your help.

Chris.

[grumps]

After cooking I dried them off for three minutes with a hair dryer and then sliced them with a Kitchen Aid slicer. Then added the culture.
( same as below: Soybean tempeh with skins )

[cpb]

Thanks for your direction. But is there no problem with "contamination" by splitting the beans after having cooked them (e.g. contact with other non-optimally sterilized tools)?

[grumps]

There is no problem as long as everything is kept reasonably clean because the culture will snuff out anything that wants to grow in the tempeh.

[cpb]

Cool, i will try that as soon as my new rotary slicer is in the mail :)

Do you soak the beans over night prior to cooking or do you directly pressure cook them?

[grumps]

Lately I put beans in boiling water, shut the heat off and let them sit for 4 hrs. Then drain, use fresh water and cook until they are almost soft. So the soybeans are then cooked for 60 min after the hot soak.
The black beans I soaked in room temp. water for 8 hrs., drain and set aside. Bring the proper amount of water to a boil, and then add the black beans for 25 min. and simmer. The black beans need to be accurately timed since they tend to get too soft very easily.
I try to avoid pressure cooking because if I share my recipes, not everyone has a pressure cooker.