Fermentation Support Forum

Hi,

New member here. Apologies if this is a little basic. I've just made my first batch of tempeh. I know grey spots are normal and nothing to be worried about, however my batch has large grey patches on the underside and quite a bit of grey throughout. Two questions if anybody can help: why is this (that is, how would I achieve a whiter tempeh), and secondly how can I tell if the tempeh safe to eat?

Many thanks in advance.

Grant

Tempeh by shalkamon, on Flickr

There are many articles about why my tempeh looks like that. Here's one of them - https://www.foodfermented.com/tempeh-black-spots/

Did you make this tempeh based on a recipe, if so it would help to know the process you used.

Many thanks for the speedy reply

I used this method ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxG_S0Q-bAg&t=474s

Just to clarify, my concern was that there is more than spots here as dealt with in your link.. the grey seems quite pervasive. I wondered if this was still ok ...

It looks like your tempeh is quite thick. You can see in the article that the tempeh pictured is relatively thin. I like to keep mine to 1 inch or about 2 - 3 cm. This lets you better control how your tempeh incubates so that it doesn't overheat and spoil what you are making. The tempeh lifecycle goes from white to gray to black. Looks like yours was left to incubate for too long. Mine is ready after 26 to 32 hours total incubation time. The article does show what to look out for if you believe your tempeh is not fit to eat.

For more help why not join the Facebook group tempeh makers. We currently have 4.3K members and are a helpful bunch.

That's really helpful, thanks Arthur - I'll do that ...