Tofu misozuke blue cheese update!
** A quick primer if you've never had or made tofu misozuke. I'm no expert, but I have a pretty good understanding:
- in its simplest form, coat tofu in miso paste and ferment in a sealed container, draining and flipping every 5 days or so.
- wrap in cheesecloth to remove the miso easily
- optionally salt or include a sake soak, I did neither (some places say you must use sake, I assure you that's not the case)
I inoculated the tofu in Penicillium roqueforti by coating the outside of the tofu in P. roqueforti diluted in distilled water before I wrapped it in cheesecloth. The bacteria needs oxygen, so I wasn't sure if it would work. I also wasn't sure if the miso would compete with it or not...
What ended up happening is the places where the miso wasn't really well covered, the P. roqueforti made it's way to the surface for air and flourished... 99.9% OUTSIDE the cheesecloth 😆 in the second photo, there's the cheesecloth with miso on top and the tofu on the bottom.
But, this was all a test, and because I inoculated the tofu directly, what I have is a creamy block of tofu misozuke that's got a definite hint of blue cheese flavor. It's quite interesting and I'm happy with this test. In photo 3, you can see I took some of the bloomed blue and speckled it on the creamy tofu. Now I'm not going to seal it fully and let the air flow in the cheese fridge and see if we can grow something more significant!
If you're curious about the texture after 12 days, that's the last video. Ignore the ash in that block that cuts through the middle, it's purely cosmetic.
#plantbased #oilfree #tofumisozuke #craigstestkitchen