by Tim Hall on Wed Nov 20, 2013 6:55 pm
Ideally you want the legumes fully soaked, then partially cooked, with no residual moisture on the surface. But it sounds to me like you have a problem with the starter...maybe it's weak. Another possibility is the beans, being left out to dry so long, started growing bacteria that inhibited the growth of the tempeh starter.
What you want to aim for is pulling the beans out of the cooking phase (whether boiling or steaming) such that they're hot enough to drive off any residual moisture on their own. Then you want to get them inoculated as quickly as possible (as soon as the beans come down to a suitable temp) to try to outrun the bacteria. Bacteria grows much more quickly than fungi, and if it takes hold first, the starter won't do much, if anything.
Also the flour you added is a good source of contaminating bacteria...which is why it's recommended to "toast" the flour first, to sterilize it. Also you probably don't want to add flour directly to the beans as a means of sopping up extra moisture (not sure if that was your intention). The additional flour is intended to give you more volume with the starter (i.e. flour added to the starter, and not the beans) so the starter can be better distributed through the beans.