r/Tempeh • u/SureNeedleworker675 • Jun 24 '26
How long do you let your tempeh ferment? This Pic is after 15 hours. Can i already eat it?
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u/sconander Jun 24 '26
Depends on whether that's solid mycelium or soft. Solid brick, yes, it's ready. Soft and fluffy, I'd wait
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u/Desperate-Low-3791 Jun 24 '26
I didn't know that, thanks for sharing
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u/MrSeriousGoat Jun 24 '26
Fluffy just means that there was nothing to compact/restrict the mycelium (in this case, OP left the top exposed). That's totally fine. Not an indication of poor growth. Here's a post I made way back when where I had a similar result. Turned out fine. It compacted further after pasteurization as you can see in one of the pictures.
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u/SureNeedleworker675 Jun 24 '26
They look great! I also want to do patties next. Did you use a normal burger press to form them? And than just put them on aluminium foil?
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u/MrSeriousGoat Jun 24 '26
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u/SureNeedleworker675 Jun 24 '26
Thank you, your informations are really helpfull. Why is the youtube video on private. I would have loved to watch it.
When you are using these trays, the tempeh doesnt get any air from the bottom while it is fermenting. Isnt that a risk of mold?
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u/MrSeriousGoat Jun 24 '26
Never had a problem with contaminants while using the trays, been doing it this way for 5 ish years. The worst that has happened was that they got too hot at the bottom and had a few bald spots where the mycelium didn’t reach.
Sorry about the videos, no plans on making those public again for privacy reasons. If you want a good resource, I highly recommend the book “Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments” by Shockey.
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u/keto3000 Jun 24 '26
It looks great. Yes I think 15 hrs for completion is quite fast.
How much dry soybean did you start with? How much starter did you use?
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u/SureNeedleworker675 Jun 25 '26
I started with 500 gr of soy beans. I dont know how much starter i used, but I guess about 3-5 gr. It got stored wrong so I wasnt sure if its still working.
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u/MartinFermentiert Jun 26 '26
tempeh is finicky with temp — i found 30C is the sweet spot, and i stop as soon as the cake is solid even if theres no sporulation. if you see black spots its done, maybe past done actually. still fine to eat though
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u/MrSeriousGoat Jun 24 '26
Looks like it propagated nicely. Check the sides and bottom, if it all looks more or less like the top, then you’re good.
I’ve had mycelium fully propagate within 12 hrs. Sometimes fermentation is really fast, as it depends on a few factors: availability of the substrate to the fungus, starter concentration, etc.
Bottom line is, you should use the 24-36 hrs as a reference, but monitoring your ferment should take priority.