One of the very unique Japanese food is natto. They are fermented soy beans with a very pungent smell. The smell is described as ammonia, rotten food, dirty socks etc. and isn’t a pleasant smell. In addition to the unpleasant smell, the texture is sticky, gooey and slimy. It sounds awful but why do we eat them? They have lots of probiotics and also Vitamin K2.
I personally eat them because I love them! I grew up eating natto and love the smell and the texture. I used to buy natto from a Japanese supermarket but now I make them at home. It’s surprisingly easy to make them and lot cheaper to make them at home.
Shall we begin making them?
I’ll show you the step-by-step instructions but the shorter version of the receipe and the list of ingredients are available at the bottom of this blog post. I made a small portion this time. You can double, triple the recipe if you’d like.
- Soak soy bean in triple the amount of water for at least 12 hours at the room temperature.
This is before soaking them in water.
This is after one day of soaking. You need lots of water.
2. Drain water and rise beans before cooking them. Discard the soaking water. Cook them with triple the amount of water until they are tender. Transfer them into a bowl. I usually use a pressure cooker to cook. I like them soft so I cook them little long. You can see some beans were split.
3. While cooling beans, make natto culture water.
When you just open a store-bought natto, it looks like this.
You want to stir them until it gets formy and slimy.
Pour little warm water over the store-bought natto and mix well.
Remove bean and keep the liquid.
4. When beans become about 104-113 degrees Fahrenheit (40-45 degrees Celsius), pour the natto culture liquid over the soy beans and stir well.
5. Keep the beans at a warm place for 24 hours. Stir occasionally.
Some people just keep them where it’s warm (sometime outside). I use a yogurt maker to keep it warm. I heard natto culture become most active at 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) so I keep mine at around that temperature. Natto culture is very strong so it can resist heat well. During fermentation, it could go up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) and still okay.
6. When it’s done, you’ll see the texture turns sticky. Once it’s cool, store in the refrigerator overnight to promote further fermentation.
You can store natto in the refrigerator for up to one week or freeze them. I like to eat them as is but sometime I used them in sushi roll or miso soup. Maybe I can share some recipes using natto in the future.
I hope you give it a try! One you get used to the smell and the texture, you might start loving them like I do!
- ½ cup dry soy beans
- 1 table spoon natto
- 2 table spoon warm water
- Soak soy bean in triple the amount of water for at least 12 hours at the room temperature.
- Drain water and rise beans before cooking them. Discard the soaking water. Cook them with triple the amount of water until they are tender. Transfer them into a bowl.
- While cooking beans, make natto culture water. Pour little warm water over store-bought natto and mix well. Remove bean and keep the liquid.
- When beans become about 104-113 degrees Fahrenheit (40-45 degrees Celsius), pour the natto culture liquid over the soy beans and stir well.
- Keep the beans at a warm place for 24 hours. Stir occasionally.
- Once it's cool, store in the refrigerator overnight to promote further fermentation.
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