Homemade soy milk and high protein tofu

[Gary350]

Watch the video it explains it best. I never had a soy milk maker like the video I boil soy beans in a crock pot like soup beans for several hours then put them in the kitchen blender on high speed, video shows the rest. It is easy. I built a wooden frame to set the cheese cloth in to form the tofu in blocks like they do in cheese making. Wooden frames 6"x6"x1 1/2" tall work good. Make as many wood frames as you need for a large recipe. 1 wooden frame is a lot of tofu. You can add flavor before molding into tofu blocks, raisins, nuts, herbs, seeds, red pepper, other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evo6Q7zpa5w

This is now I make tofu. Cook soy beans in crock pot until they are soft. Put soy beans in kitchen blender with enough of the hot water to run it on high speed about 3 minutes in the kitchen blender. Be careful run blender on low speed at first then speed it up faster little by little. Add more water if you need to. Pour the liquefied beans back into the 160 degree water make sure it is 160 degrees than add lemon juice to separate beans from water wait 20 minutes. Add herbs, nuts, seeds, etc if you like. Put cheese cloth in wooden frame pour stired liquid then pour into the mold. Catch the soy milk put it in a container to drink. Put the wooden top on the mold set a quart jar of water on top return later to remove the tofu.

[applestar]

Your post made me curious because I hadn't heard of using lemon juice before, though I understand it could be used in principle. I watched a few videos, and started to think I might want to try making some -- I have black soybeans in the pantry which as it turns out, to my surprise, makes good soy milk.


...and I do have fresh lemons and limes, but I wanted to learn more...

...and came across this interesting article -- here's an excerpt of its summary but the article goes into more detail. Gypsum mentioned here is food grade (didn't know there was such a thing).

Tofu Coagulant Guide: What to buy and where to find it - Viet World Kitchen
https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/20 ... guide.html

What tofu coagulant is easy for home cooks to use? Gypsum and nigari are the best (and equally good), with Epsom salts coming in third. An acid such as lemon juice or vinegar produces grainy tofu that’s slightly sour tasting. Go with a type of salt!

I realize you might be avoiding salt, though, and plenty of videos recommended using lemon juice. I will probably try lemon juice (maybe lime juice, too just to compare) and epsom salt since those are what I have. (Hm. I *might* have nigari somewhere in my pantry, too. I don't suppose they can get "old"....) The article briefly mentions that you can also use previous tofu's whey... and all of these result in different texture and flavor, with some tofu makers using combinations for unique style tofu.

[pepperhead212]

I use gypsum to coagulate my soy milk. I get it in small packets at the Asian market for very little - I'm sure it costs less than lemon juice, given the cost of lemons.

[applestar]

Is that the market in Pennsauken on Rt...38? I still haven't tried going there.

[Gary350]

Lemon Juice or vinegar both work it is an acid chemical reaction with the soy beans in the cook pot that makes the tofu curds form in the water. You can do the same thing to a gallon of milk, heat it to about 180 degrees then pour in 1 or 2 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice milk curds form to make white cheese, scoop the cheese out or pour it through cheese cloth. I vote for lemon juice because of the lemon flavor.

I know about using Epson salt and gypsum, I don't like the idea of eating Epson salts and gypsum makes food taste gritty like extremely fine sand in the food. Gypsum is, plaster, dry wall mud, sheet rock, dry wall board. Research shows gypsum in garden soil improves plant growth especially certain plants like sweet potatoes, I have tried gypsum in my garden I can not tell any growth difference only thing I notice is gritty tasting vegetables.

[pepperhead212]

Is that the market in Pennsauken on Rt...38? I still haven't tried going there.

I think I got it in one of the markets in Philly, before that one on Rt 38 was there, though they probably have it, too. I've had it a long time, and use it very seldom. It does last forever.

[Gary350]

I checked with Farmers Co-op in town Saturday they have no soy beans to sell this time of the year but will in spring when farmers need seeds to plant. Farmers co-op has soy bean meal for sale year round $12.50 for a 50 lb bag. Soy Meal is ground up soy beans, this is like buying corn meal instead of corn seeds. Soy meal will make soy milk and tofu much easier you will not have to cook beans all day 30 minutes to an hour will probably be enough. I saw soy beans in a store 2 weeks ago some place in town $10 for 1 lb don't remember where, farm supply is the best deal.

[applestar]

If you are thinking of making soy milk from the meal -- Be sure to check on their food grade level, because I read that there is a big difference in fertilizer grade, feed grade, and human consumption food grade. Especially in a pre-ground state, there's no way to verify for contaminants, let alone chemical residues, and you won't be able to wash them like you could the beans.

[applestar]

OK my first attempt -- made with black soy beans and lemon juice. This is about 1 inch thick.

It turned out a bit unappetizing grey. It might have made a difference if I rubbed the black skin off of the soaked beans like I saw in one of the videos. But then the interior beans are green, so the tofu might have turned out green-ish?

It tastes great! Very fresh. The hint of lemony flavor is pleasant. Maybe I should have added salt to compensate for not using a salt coagulant since I'm tasting the lack, though it might just be a matter of expectations.

...I made Okara and Hijiki (black seaweed) with the spent ground up skin and beans. Very yummy.

[applestar]

I found the thread where this belongs
— If you already saw this post elsewhere in the “smoothies” thread before, and it has disappeared, it’s because I moved it here

.....This is an aside, but seriously, Helpful Gardener members have discussed all kinds of topics over the years, and I still come across some discussions I had not read before .....


I mentioned elsewhere that I bought some dry soybeans specifically marketed for making soymilk. I have not been in the habit of buying or making soymilk since I’m allergic and my DDs are persnickety about trying new food or drink. I believe I tried buying them once or twice before and had to throw them out.

But they do like tofu and edamame (green shelled soybeans), so I’m going to grow soybeans, and I’ve started practicing making soymilk from those dry beans. I’ll advance to tofu-making in the near future.

Anyways here is my very first try at making soymilk from scratch. Soaked, rinsed, ground up in blender with filtered water, then strained. *At this point, it was refrigerated for 2 days due to life getting in the way* Then gently heated until the “grassy raw soybean smell is replaced by sweet tofu smell, stirring constantly, and then for another 5 minutes.”

For this drinking soymilk — which yielded approx. 3 cups — I added about 1/4 tsp sea salt and 2 Tbs home made vanilla sugar. Both DDs drank it hot, DD2 asked for 2nd serving.



I managed to keep it from getting too hot and starting to form protein skin/yuba, but the instructions said to just skim off the yuba and eat/use them separately in recipes. I froze the okara/leas after straining the soymilk, to be experimented with later. I’ll have to make something good with that so my family will eat it. One recipe I have saved is banana chocolate steamed cake/pudding, but it’s good for savory recipes too, and one typical use is to make soyburgers (but I’m not sure if that will go over well here....)

[applestar]

I thought this was interesting, too.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24803698

Effect of sprouting of soybean on the chemical composition and quality of soymilk and tofu. - PubMed - NCBI
J Food Sci Technol. 2014 May;51(5):915-21. doi: 10.1007/s13197-011-0576-9. Epub 2011 Nov 3.
Effect of sprouting of soybean on the chemical composition and quality of soymilk and tofu.
Murugkar DA1.

Abstract
The effect of sprouting of soybean and preparing soymilk and tofu on the yield, nutritional quality, anti-nutritional profile, colour attributes, organoleptic quality and texture profile (tofu) of four commonly used varieties of India were studied to assess the feasibility of using sprouting as a non-chemical, non-thermal tool to improve quality of soy products. Soymilk was prepared from sprouted and unsprouted seeds with process parameters of 121 °C for 25 min. Coagulation of soymilk was done with 3% CaSO4 at 80 °C. Products from sprouted varieties showed an increase in protein (fb) of 7% in milk and 13% in tofu across varieties; a reduction in fat (fb) of 24% in milk and 12% in tofu; in trypsin inhibitor (db) of 73% in milk and 81% in tofu; in phytic acid (db) of 59% in milk and 56% in tofu across varieties. Tofu from sprouted seeds had higher protein and whiteness index but tofu strength was around 43% lesser than its unsprouted counterpart. Taste acceptability showed an increase of 10% and 6.3%; flavour of 23.2% and 11.6% and overall acceptability of 9.9% and 4.4% in milk and in tofu respectively from sprouted varieties. The improvements in composition and quality parameters was seen in all the varieties tested showing that sprouting could be beneficial for product development across varieties. The time and temperature used for production of soymilk was conventional (121 °C for 25 min). Evaluation of time and/temperature reductions could be tried out to reduce the heat requirement and intensity, which could result in better nutritional and functional quality products.
KEYWORDS:
Nutrients; Organoleptic quality; Phytic acid; Soymilk; Sprouting; Texture; Tofu; Trypsin inhibitor
PMID: 24803698 PMCID: PMC4008751 DOI: 10.1007/s13197-011-0576-9

...there’s a very useful-looking diagram attached to the abstract that I think requires permission to use, so you’ll have to go look on your own.

[applestar]

...and I thought this article was a pretty good no-nonsense approach to the very confusing on-line debate about soy - benefits vs. harm. I saved this excerpt in case I have the ambition to go read the indicated report at some point in the future (there is a hyperlink in the article)

https://drhyman.com/blog/2010/08/06/how ... your-life/

How Soy Can Kill You and Save Your Life - Dr. Mark Hyman

If you want an excellent, unbiased, scientifically sound review of all the relevant human data on soy, I recommend reading the 100-page report from the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality entitled, The Effects of Soy on Health Outcomes, which reviewed thousands of studies based on rigorous criteria for scientific validity. Its conclusion was this: There is no evidence of significant benefit or harm based on the quality of evidence that exists today.