Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I've made homemade "normal" tofu (momen in Japanese, i guess i mean firm, fryable tofu) with nigari for a long time. I don't usually do it mostly because it takes so much soymilk and yields so little. Also, lots of waiting, pressing, PITA. I usually just buy firm if I want it, and just do without silken tofu.

Recently it's getting warmer here and I saw a post about toufu fa as a nice summer food (a puddingy soft tofu with syrup on it). see http://simplyafoodblog.wordpress.com/20 ... /_mg_5573/
I decided to try it, and WHAT AN AMAZING SURPRISE!!
#1, super easy, and no waste like with nigari tofu
#2, frigging delicious
#3, it is absolutely silken tofu if you don't add sweetener to it.

The only trial was the endless search for calcium sulfate to coagulate it. Finally I found it in a dentist supply house, and was ready to go.

There are many recipes that are quite similar- i used one that used 2C soybeans, 6c + 1c water, and 1t calcium sulfate + 1T cornstarch. Unfortunately we were out of cornstarch so I think I used arrowroot. It still came out perfectly.

My only suggestion would be to add the coagulant to the milk once it's in the container you want it to set in- it firms up so fast it's like lightning, too fast to even pour it out.

If you aren't thrilled with the results you've gotten from making firm tofu, totally try this- it's so easy. And now I can make the recipes that I need silken tofu for (ricotta, etc. with a minimum of work [just making the soymilk, although i suppose you could use readymade soymilk])

Thanks for the post torque- this sounds pretty interesting. Ease leads to productivity!

Thank you for this post. I need silken tofu for ice cream, and for pies from Vegan Pie in the Sky, too, and I have to buy it abroad. I just ordered some gypsum.

rhelune, if you have any questions or problems let me know. i was really apprehensive about it (there are about 10000 pages about how difficult it is to do) - maybe i got lucky, or more likely I'm not comparing it to this elusive tofu pudding that everyone is unable to duplicate, and so less critical!

Thank you.

Can I make silken tofu from store-bought soya milk? I have never made it myself (except once with a borrowed Soylove machine that does everything by itself).

i don't see why not, and there are plenty of recipes that suggest doing just that! if you were making it for pudding you could conceivably use sweetened soymilk or even flavored. omfg.
rhelune, i don't know what you have access to but i dont think making soymilk from powder would work (that's what i'm often reduced to)- stuff in a carton, though, should be fine.

(good timing- i made it again last night and forgot to dissolve the gypsum and the starch in water before adding and just threw it in- suffice to say, just don't do that. Dissolve in a little bit of water and then mix, or you'll have to do it all again later to recover your tofu.)

Not sure if I can find soya milk powder, but I'll try with store-bought soya milk, both sweetened (perhaps vanilla) and unsweetened. Thank you for the warning. Tomorrow I'll pick up gypsum at the post office. I'll probably have a few more questions.

I tried to make it like this, because I have no heatproof ramekins for steaming:
http://simplyafoodblog.wordpress.com/20 ... ne-recipe/
but with store-bought soya milk, 1 litre and 1.4 g gypsum.

But, after 20 minutes it was the same. Then, I added 1.4 g more gypsum, so the ratio is closer to this:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/08/how- ... how-176178

whisked, simmered for 10 more minutes (80°C, induction cooker). What I now have is less than 1 mm layer of silken tofu on top of soya milk. I decided to let it cool completely and see what happens.

ETA: That must be Weepy silken tofu. I need to try simmering it in a double boiler.

the last time i did it, i had about an inch of tofu on the bottom. (this was when i forgot to mix it in water and just threw the powder in)

it sounds like something fundamental is wrong, because when i do it right, it sets up almost immediately- you can't even whisk it. that was how i knew there was something wrong right away.
if i were you i would do a smaller test run and try again. there is the possibility that you have the wrong kind of gypsum (one of the links above had a discussion about it). i wonder if there is some ingredient in the store bought soymilk that's interfering?

I never wrote what happened later. In the morning I added another 1.4 g of gypsum and boiled it in jars in water bath. I needed to remove tofu skin from top of it.

At the bottom there were some curdles. I decided to drain it like regular tofu (which I never made before), so I put it in my nut milk bag and squeezed it. Everything came out of the bag. Everything was thin, so I used some of it in a smoothie and left the rest at the room temperature.

It was thick in the evening, but because it was soured. Since I didn't control the culture (didn't add yoghurt) and it smell odd, I threw it away.

I need to try again, but I don't know what to do now, when to stir it, what temperature to heat milk to, before or after. I use this gypsum: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Youngs-Brew-G ... 0668697688

it just sounds very, very "off". you had some teeny curdles, so maybe there's something happening, but not enough. i don't have a good idea bout how much 1.4g is- maybe it's not enough? i also didn't really boil it after adding the coagulant- the soymilk was hot, i stirred in the starch and the gypsum, and BAM it was coagulated.

This may not be what you want to hear-- but I've noticed from tofu that when I use split, shelled soybeans that the tofu doesn't coagulate. I have NO idea why (maybe there is some sort of heat treatment that kills some enzyme or something? no idea). But i don't buy split soybeans any more, and have never had problems with the tofu coagulating again. I wonder if there is something about processing that might change its ability to coagulate. i notice that the recipes suggesting using premade soymilk are all calling for fresh Asian brands. Maybe try it with homemade soymilk (which is really not the huge PITA it seems)?

I would try it with homemade soya milk, but, that one time I made it with Soylove, it tasted horribly, I made chocolate pudding with it, but had to throw it all away.

IIRC, 1.4 g is 1/2 tsp, but I use scales.

I forgot to ask: how much cornstarch should I use? I haven't seen it in the recipe.

the recipes all call for different types of starches- i've used arrowroot and corn so far.

this is the recipe i used as a base
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2008/06 ... LnwBeTAfhc

this post has almost boundless research- this guy has done a million trials and variations, and i bet you could troubleshoot your problems by reading about his experiments.
http://ieatishootipost.sg/2009/07/how-t ... uring.html