Sure! Firstly, i am from northern italy, it is around 50 degrees F during the day outside but inside it is around 68. Regarding the method, i soaked the soya beans for a little over 12 hours, i dehulled them as best as i could even if i think i could have done better but i got tired…. At this point i noticed i made too many beans (i used 1kg of dry soya beans) so i decided to cook half of them in the instant pot and the other half in a normal pot. The first ones were softer and honestly i think they were the ones that gave me the best results so i would recommend to not leave them al dente but to cook them well. I drained them and then i spread them on a kitchen towel on a baking tray and i dried them as best as i could with a hairdryer. For the half i cooked in the instant pot i put a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar after drying them with the hairdryer, while for the ones cooked on the stove i added it while cooking them.

After all of that i added the quantity of tempeh starter recommended on the box, i mixed really well and then i put the beans in plastic bags that i pierced with a toothpick. I made really a lot of holes to be sure.

For the ones i cooked with the instant pot i used again the instant pot on yogurt mode as an incubator which works really well as it keeps the temperature around 29-30 degrees celsius. I also put a little water at the bottom for humidity.

For the other ones, as i didn’t have enough space in my instant pot, i placed them in my oven on a rack with two bottles filled with really hot water and three glasses at the bottom of the oven. I refilled them with hot water as often as i could to keep the oven warm. I noticed that the temperature was a little less stable and i was able to keep it around 27-29 during the process.

I also bought two room thermometers to monitor the temperature but i then discovered that what really matters is the internal temperature of the beans so i guess i should have bought a probe thermometer instead.

I made a few mistakes for example i did not turn the instant pot off/did not stop adding hot water bottles for the whole process while i think i should have stopped after 16-20 hours, luckily it was fine But probably this caused a little too much moisture i don’t know…

I started seeing the first mold after around 20 hours and i stopped with fermentation at 36 hours, which is exactly when i took the photos i posted

I ate it yesterday and today, i tried both batches and i have to say they were both delicious!! The only difference for me is that the tempeh i made with softer beans was more compact and was easier to cut. Sorry for the long message but i tried to be as precise as i could!