The cultivation of Tempeh Girl tempeh starts with organic North Carolina soybeans. We crack the beans and inoculate them with Lactobaccilli and ferment them for 24 hours to naturally lower the pH of the beans to give the tempeh culture a competitive edge, just like they do in Indonesia, the birthplace of tempeh. Tempeh Girl is one of the only US tempeh producers to preferment their beans.
Then we cook the beans and inoculate them with a Rhizopus culture. During the 44 hour incubation time the culture knits the beans together into a solid slab with delicious results. The finished product has an intoxicating mildly mushroomy aroma and is frozen fresh for best flavor.
Tempeh should be cooked before consuming. It is best to steam or boil it before marinating and or browning. Please do consider brining it to moisten the tempeh and enhance browning. Tempeh really absorbs strong flavors and is often better the next day. Enjoy often!
Here's a great 1 min interview that my son did at the Grand Opening of the shared use kitchen: