Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Inspiration: https://www.travelling-fermenter.com/tuong-ban

Mixture of two of my ferments, already a tradition in Vietnam, compound one what good luck! Fermented rice grains with alcohol taken out, and fermented soybean (kinema, or tempeh) mixed together, brine solution added, moved twice daily and put out in the sun for 3 months in Vietnam. Nice’umami’ sauce, salty. The vietnamese miso in a way, used as a dip or a rub, or a spicemuch in the sense of miso. A slightly funky smell. If not regularly stirred could take longer than 3 months. Enzyme amylase and microbes in the rice culture break soybeans, and soy microbes interact with rice. The brine solution to protect the ferment from external molds and other pathogens. Usually prefers higher temperaturees, 35C and higher. My discovery: if you aren’t willing to stir twice daily, be prepared to spend a long time waiting for it to work, and no guarantee it’ll work. The final result smells and tastes unlike the initial raw ingredients. Need to make sure the rice is completely cooked otherwise it’ll remain grainy in the final sauce, as I’ve experienced once.

2025 update: might not be worth the effort. It’s been on top of my fridge for more than 2 years now, considering throwing it out, since buying in the market is so much easier and cheaper.

Two Wrong Ban.

I was inspired by a blog post that I saw online. It’s a mixture of two of my existing ferments and is an old tradition in Vietnam. So, I was already experimenting around with it, and it was good stuff. It was a stroke of good fortune that I discovered that it was not a new invention but an existing culinary and biochemical tradition.

After rice grains are fermented, the alcohol is filtered out, and the remaining husk is taken away. That remaining husk of rice grains, uh, depleted rice grains, is then mixed with fermented soybeans, like kinema or tempeh, mixed together with a brine solution added, and stirred regularly, maybe about twice every day.

In Vietnam, they put it out in the very hot summer sun for three months straight and stir it a couple of times a day. It brings about a nice umami, salty sauce. It’s Vietnamese miso, in a way. It’s used as a dip or a rub or as a spice, much in the way the Japanese use miso.

It does have a slightly funky smell that miso does not have. But, well, depending on your preferences, that can be a positive. If the mixture is not regularly stirred, um, it could take a lot longer than three months. The enzyme amylase and microbes in the rice culture break down the soybeans, and the soy microbes interact with the rice.

The brine solution is needed to protect the ferment from external molds and other pathogens. This ferment usually prefers higher temperatures, ideally 35 degrees Celsius or higher. I have discovered that if you aren’t willing to stir twice daily, then be prepared to spend a long time waiting for it to ferment properly.

And there’s no guarantee it will work. The final result could smell and taste unlike the initial raw ingredients. You need to make sure the rice is completely cooked; otherwise, it will remain grainy in the final sauce, and that’s not what you want. I’ve experienced that before. February 2025 update.

Honestly, I still have a gallon of this ferment standing on top of my fridge. And I think it might not be worth the effort. It’s been occupying my fridge top space for more than two years now, and I’m considering throwing it out because not a lot of progress has been made.

I bought a bottle full of it at the store for six bucks, and it is really good, and it’s so easy, so much easier to deal with, and is way cheaper. They’ve likely made it way tastier than I could ever as well. There has to be a limit on how much longer I’m going to let it go.

And the opportunity cost of keeping it around is the inability to use that fermentation vessel to run other, more exciting, faster-running experiments. In any case, this is one of the ferments where I am seriously considering, um, declaring long-term defeat.