Two people on the last digest asked about making soymilk/tofu. I used to do
this all the time, back when I had a lot more time and less money. I
started with a recipe for tofu, and I'll look for it if anyone is
interested, but can't guarantee that I can find it. Basically, though, to
get to the soy milk stage, it involved soaking the soy beans overnight, and
then putting the soaked beans in the blender with new water and blending,
blending, blending. I think the ratio of water:beans was about 2:1. After
it was all thoroughly blended, I strained it through cloth, like an old
pillowcase, twisting and squeezing at the end to get all the liquid out.
That left me with soymilk and ground soybeans. I used the ground beans to
make soysage, or added them to other things for fiber, protein, etc. I made
tofu with part of the soymilk and used the rest of the soymilk for
cooking/baking. I didn't actually get to the point of drinking it as a
beverage, but I used it in many recipes in place of milk, including things
like quiches, and was quite happy with it.
I don't remember exactly how to make the tofu, but I know that it involved
heating the soymilk and then adding vinegar to separate the curds from the
whey.
This was all quite time-consuming--I devoted a good portion of a day to it,
once a week--but it was extremely cost-effective, since I bought organic
soybeans through my co-op for about next-to-nothing.
I've been trying to remember the name of the cookbook I used--it was one I
had borrowed from the library. I THINK it was just called _The Tofu
Cookbook_ and I have no idea who the author was, but if anyone is really
interested, I could try and find out. (In fact, I may try to look for it
anyway--as I recall, it was a good source of many different ways of using
soybeans!)
Lindsay
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