We have a Soyjoy soy milk maker. I would like to try my hand at making tofu. I have a recipe and I have experience at making cheese. My question is about the coagulant. I know you can use Nigari (natural magnesium chloride) or natural calcium sulfate and I know the proper amounts for those, but I do not have any on hand right now. (know of cheep source?) I have also heard that you can use Epsom salt, lemon juice, and vinegar. I would like to give one of those a try, but I don't have any idea how much to use to a batch. Does anyone have any experience and advice to share? Thanks

-- Adrienne (AdrienneA_Grass@hotmail.com), July 18, 2001

Answers

I have been doing tofu for years and have always used lemon juice. It lends a bit of taste that other coagulants don't. How much? Not really important. For a batch which uses two quarts of dry beans,I use four cups of coagulant, of which about a cup is lemon juice. The secret to really good tofu is putting enough pressure on it while it's being pressed. I use 30 lbs. of weight on a 10" diameter press made from an old pretzel tin with holes punched in the bottom. If I had 40 - 50 lbs. the tofu would be even better. Finding the right amount of ingredients to fit the equipment you have was more trouble than anything else. Pay particular attention to the amount of time you spend simmering the milk. 6 minutes is not long enough and 8 minutes is too long and the "boil" has to be exactly that - a rolling boil followed by 7 minutes of simmering just below a rolling boil. Good luck and good eating!

-- John James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), July 19, 2001.