The easiest way to make our tempeh is to start with dry roasted, non GMO or organic soy bean halves (unsalted). This saves you all the work involved in dehulling and cooking regular soy beans.
Pour 24 oz. of soybean halves into boiling water, remove from heat and let them sit for 24 - 48 hrs. The beans will expand to twice the size - so use enough water.
The incubation time for the tempeh is 22 hrs. So count back about 23 hrs. from when you want to take it out of the incubator and make the substrate - the soybeans, a small amount of pearled barley and the tempeh culture (called Powdered Tempeh Starter - see our "Notes").
Version 1: Boil 4 oz. of pearled barley for 35 min. and during this time reheat the soybean halves ( using fresh water) so that they are just starting to boil at the end of the 30 minutes.
Then drain them both and put them into a large bowl.
Version 2: After pre soaking the soy bean halves, drain and refill with clean water, about an inch higher than the beans and bring to a boil. Add the pearled barley and simmer for 35 minutes. Drain and put in bowl.
Use a hairdryer, stir the beans until they are dry.
Moist beans will make bad tempeh. Make sure you dry them well.
When dry add 7- 9 g ( a "really" heaping tsp) of the tempeh culture and mix well. (When the culture is still fresh, use only 7 g)
Place the substrate into the pan and spread it as evenly as possible.
At the end pat it down to flatten it.
Now it is ready for the incubator.
The incubator should be up to operating temperature when the substrate is placed in it so that the temperature is 90˚F right from the start. After about twelve hours the tempeh will start making its own heat and at the end of the 22 hrs the temperature will be somewhat higher (this batch reached 93˚F)
After 22 hrs the tempeh is finished and the mycelium should be thick and white. If it goes longer or the temperature was higher, the mycelium will sporulate and this will show up as dark areas - which is fine if you don't mind it.
Cover the pan and pasteurize at 200˚F for 30 min.
This will stop the culture from continuing to grow.
The tempeh shrinks a bit during pasteurization.
The tempeh can be cut any way you like - here we made 2lbs 10.5 oz round patties(15) and the left over part we cut into small pieces for tacos, chili etc.; the "grated" tempeh weighed 17 oz.
