Nam prik ong
Nam prik ong is a cooked Northern Thai dip of chilli, tomato and minced pork, seasoned with fermented soybean and eaten with vegetables, pork rind and eggs.
Thua nao (dried)
thua nao · thua-nao-dry
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.
A dried soybean cake
Thua nao is made from cooked soybeans fermented by bacteria. The dried form goes one step further: the fermented soybean is shaped into flat cakes and dried. The sources treat this as a separate preservation sequence from moist thua nao and from mould-assisted soy pastes.
The dried cake is kept as a reserve and used to season northern Thai cooking. The sources do not give a standard size or a drying time.
Sources for this section
History
Thua nao is a fermented soybean of northern Thailand and related systems. The dried form adds a dehydration stage to the soybean fermentation and turns it into shaped cakes for storage.
Ingredients
Scaling: not established by the sources.
Soybeanscooked
Amount not stated
Method
Risks and precautions
Unspecified fermentation endpoint
The sources do not give a fermentation time or water-activity endpoint for the dried cake.
Hazard sourceDry the cakes fully before storage; do not store them moist
Control sourceNo validated drying endpoint or storage duration is recorded.
- Cook the soybeans.
- Ferment the cooked soybeans with bacteria until the ferment is ready to shape.
- Shape the fermented soybean into flat cakes while still soft.
- Dry the shaped cakes, which is the dehydration stage that makes the dried form a storage reserve.
Places
Northern Thailand
Traditional preparation · Region evidenceRegional association from the catalogue; the source does not give a single village.
Related
What to make with it
More from Northern Thailand
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.
Nam prik num
Grilled young green chillies, shallots and garlic are pounded with salt into a coarse northern Thai dip, finished with coriander and spring onion and eaten with sticky rice and vegetables.
Related in the family
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Sources
PubMedMethod · History
Thua nao fermented soybean studyBacterial fermentation of cooked soybeans followed, in dry form, by shaping and drying into cakes
Distinct from natto-like moist foods and mould-assisted soy pastes
Cited in: A dried soybean cake