FermenteaWhere food goes to change

Recipes

1504 records with their sources, across 11 categories.

All legumes and seeds56Legume, seed and plant-protein ferments31Adjacent and excluded10Koji, mold starters and mold-ripened ferments7Fermented, enzyme-ripened and mixed seasonings2Garum and fish sauces2Not yet classified2Grain and starch ferments1Smoked salted and dried foods1
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Recipes

22 recipes

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Illustrative close-up of a coarse pounded fermented soybean base for tungrymbai; exact appearance varies and this is not a photograph of the documented village batch.

Tungrymbai

A Khasi and Jaintia fermented soybean food from Meghalaya: cooked beans ferment naturally in leaf-lined baskets above a fire, giving a sticky, pungent, savoury mass.

Meghalaya · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
Cambodian Sieng: whole golden-brown fermented soybeans preserved in light salt brine.

Sieng

A Cambodian fermented soybean food in which cooked beans ferment into a sticky alkaline mass, then are preserved and matured in salt brine, sometimes sweetened with sugar.

Cambodia · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
Photograph of Shiokara natto (hama natto, tera natto).

Shiokara natto (hama natto, tera natto)

A Japanese family of salted, dark, non-stringy natto made from whole soybeans, roasted grain and salt water, with names such as hama-natto, Daitokuji-natto and tera-natto. Not the sticky Bacillus natto.

Japan
· Legumes and seeds
A mound of finished Kinema, sticky whole soybeans, on a green leaf in a ceramic plate.
Elevated risk

Kinema, warm-cloth home batch

A home kinema made from overnight-soaked white soybeans, cooked, drained hot, wrapped in cloth and insulated to ferment for about a week.


Legumes and seeds
Illustrative Northern Thai thua nao khaep: a small stack of flat, dry brown fermented-soybean discs, one tilted upright to show its thin profile; visual interpretation, not a verified batch.

Thua nao (dried)

Northern Thai fermented soybean shaped while still soft into flat cakes and dried, so the bacterial soybean ferment becomes a durable, shelf-stable seasoning reserve.

Northern Thailand
· Legumes and seeds
Glossy brown Japanese natto beans with their characteristic sticky strings, lifted with chopsticks above a small ceramic bowl, with white rice nearby.
Elevated risk

Natto

Natto is a Japanese fermented soybean food with a sticky coat and long strings, made by steaming soybeans and inoculating them with a natto Bacillus starter, then keeping them warm.

Japan
Legumes and seeds
Glossy brown Hawaijar soybeans resting in green leaves inside a shallow bamboo basket.
Elevated risk

Hawaijar

A sticky fermented soybean food of Manipur, made by packing cooked soybeans in leaf-lined bamboo baskets and keeping them warm, related to but distinct from Bekang and Akhone.

Manipur, India
· Legumes and seeds
Illustrative finished Ugba: thin, irregular brown African oil-bean strips in a pale bowl; visual interpretation of the documented form, not a photograph of a specific batch.
High risk

Ugba, Nigerian fermented African oil bean

Sliced cotyledons of the African oil bean, boiled soft and fermented in banana-leaf parcels into the sharply savoury Nigerian condiment and salad ingredient known as ukpaka.

Nsukka, Enugu State · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
A pale ceramic dish of dark, whole fermented soybeans representing a documented dried bacterial-type douchi sample.

Bacterial-type douchi

A Chinese fermented soybean condiment in which Bacillus-led bacteria, not moulds, drive the fermentation. Documented in Zunyi, Guizhou, and kept separate from mould-led douchi.

China
· Legumes and seeds
Illustrative serving of soft whole pale-brown fermented soybeans representing Apatani Peruyaan, shown in a plain ceramic bowl; exact batch appearance is not documented.

Peruyaan

An Apatani fermented soybean food from the Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh: cooked beans are wrapped in ginger leaves and left near the hearth until sticky and savoury, then eaten with rice or as a chilli-seasoned chutney.

Ziro Valley · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
Illustrative deep-brown, coarse pe poke soybean wafers on a pale plate, one piece broken to show the dense interior.

Pe poke

A Myanmar soybean ferment in which cooked beans turn sticky through alkaline bacterial fermentation, then are eaten fresh or seasoned, flattened and sun-dried into savoury wafers.

Myanmar · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
Plain glossy natto in a small dark blue ceramic bowl, with fine sticky strands between cooked soybeans.
Elevated risk

Natto with half-pack starter in a yogurt maker

Pressure-steamed soybeans are mixed with half a retail natto pack, held in a yogurt maker, and chilled; the creator reports a yield of about 300 g.

Modern method
· Legumes and seeds
A small ceramic bowl of plain glossy natto, with cooked whole soybeans bound by fine translucent sticky strands.
Elevated risk

Natto with frozen retail starter

This video account makes natto from soybeans using frozen retail natto as a starter and a yogurt maker. It reports one home batch but leaves the starter mass, soak-water temperature, cooling controls and storage after chilling unstated.

Modern method
· Legumes and seeds
Finished whole-bean Japanese natto in a shallow ceramic bowl, showing its characteristic sticky strands.
High risk

Natto with a documented Bacillus subtilis starter

Steamed soybeans fermented by a named strain of Bacillus subtilis into Japan’s sticky, strongly savoury whole-bean food, bound by the thread-forming polymer the bacteria secrete.

Japan · Modern method
· Legumes and seeds
Finished Japanese natto in a ceramic bowl with delicate sticky threads; plain rice is softly out of focus.
Elevated risk

Natto with retail starter and an oven-light incubator

A 250 g soybean batch uses one of nine retail-natto portions and a towel-wrapped oven-light setup; the thermometer location and starter-pack mass are unknown.

Modern method
· Legumes and seeds
Finished Japanese natto in a ceramic bowl with delicate sticky threads; plain rice is softly out of focus.
Elevated risk

Natto with liquid starter in a foam box

Liquid natto starter is mixed through pressure-cooked soybeans and incubated in a warmed foam box; the creator gives no incubation temperature.

Modern method
· Legumes and seeds
Dark irregularly molded dried Ogiri-okpei condiment pieces on a pale plate.
High risk

Ogiri-okpei from Prosopis seeds

Ogiri-okpei is a Nigerian condiment of cooked Prosopis africana cotyledons left to ferment spontaneously in leaf-lined containers, then ground and dried.

Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
Finished natto made from whole soybeans in a dark ceramic bowl, with characteristic sticky strands.
High risk

Natto with a packaged starter

A two-cup soybean batch uses one Cultures for Health Natto Spores packet, a shallow perforated cover, and the supplier’s stated incubation and chilling sequence. The supplier’s instructions are not a validated home process.

Modern adaptation
· Legumes and seeds
Plain sticky, soft fermented soybeans arranged in a leaf-lined woven bamboo basket.

Bekang / Bekang-um

A Mizo alkaline soybean ferment made by holding cooked beans in leaf-lined containers, sometimes with wood ash, until they turn sticky, soft and pungent; eaten fresh or used as a seasoning.

Mizoram · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
A coarse dark brown axone fermented soybean preparation on a banana leaf.
High risk

Axone

Soybeans boiled soft and fermented in a leaf-lined basket by the hearth, then in many Naga households pounded, wrapped in leaves and fermented again into a dark, pungent seasoning paste.

Nagaland · Traditional method
· Legumes and seeds
Dark brown dried thua nao discs made from black soybeans, stacked on a plain white plate.
High risk

Black soybean thua nao with Bacillus subtilis

Black soybeans cooked, inoculated with a named Bacillus subtilis culture and fermented warm and humid into northern Thailand's thua nao, then optionally dried into thin discs.

Chiang Mai Province, Thailand · Modern method
· Legumes and seeds
Kinema’s sticky split soybeans arranged in a leaf-lined woven basket, with dry soybeans and a separate dish of wood ash.
High risk

Kinema with firewood ash

A sticky fermented soybean food of the eastern Himalaya, made here with a measured addition of firewood ash as an alkaline aid to the bacteria that drive it.

Eastern Nepal · Modern method
· Legumes and seeds