Marinating Tofu

Hey everyone. I'm trying to marinate some firm tofu in the same marinade I use for Ramen marinated eggs. My first few tests have varying results, even with the same quantity of marinade to Tofu. My guess is that each piece has a different water content each time and therefore is leaking out into the marinade and diluting it. I've put it all sous vide and our best result was after 2 weeks in the marinade. I haven't tried cooking it yet. Also I'm using extra firm pressed tofu.

Does anyone have any tricks on marinating Tofu? I've got a professional kitchen at my disposal with some toys so don't hesitate to suggest something that requires professional equipment!

Thanks for any help you might have!

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Comments

FrankM_3301

I don't have direct experience marinating (though I have made my own tofu), but you might drain well, press between some towels, then marinate under vacuum.

Eric_So_267001

I've good experiences with cycling my chamber vac over and over to get the "water" and "air" out of the tofu so the marinade is absorbed.

I've also made a good marinaded tofu by freeze drying it and reconstituting it with my marinade.

Michael_Dalla_Libera_33483

Did you cycle the Tofu and then drain off that liquid that came out or did you cycle it in the marinade?

Michael_Dalla_Libera_33483

I'm going to try pressing it next round for sure. I've also thought of maybe getting a syringe and pumping each piece until it "bleeds" marinade.

Brian_Martin_197578

You might try pressure marinating it. Cut into cubes, put them in a whipping siphon with the marinade. Use nitrous canisters to pressurize and leave, under pressure, for an hour or so. I've had decent results marinating under pressure, though I've used a modified pressure cooker for my vessel. Good luck

Brian_Douglas_35255

Somewhere here I have a post about this. It was several years ago so I don't recall the exact detail, but basically I took a concentrated marinade, blended it with the tofu, added transglutaminase, and quickly poured into a mold and pressed for a day to set. Worked out fantastically.

Brian_Douglas_35255

https://www.chefsteps.com/forum/posts/tofu-and-transglutaminase-10

Here's the post with some of the details.

Eric_So_267001

The first cycle I I drained but there wasn't much, the rest was all marinade. I don't think it'll make much of a difference either way.

lfmichaud

Not sure there's enough space to use the syringe effectively. Maybe using a jacquard or a dog brush to make some space before putting it under vacuum?

Michael_Dalla_Libera_33483

Whoa....this could be it. Amazing!

Michael_Dalla_Libera_33483

New problem with this sadly. I haven't tried it yet but do you know if the meat glue you use contains zero meat products? It's for a vegan dish so I think I might have to go a different route. Working on Seitan as we speak.

Brian_Martin_197578

Activa TI is vegan

Michael_Dalla_Libera_33483

To update everyone:

I removed all the water from the marinade so it was just sugar, mirin and soya sauce.

I used firm pressed tofu, cut the pieces into half the size and sealed them in a chamber vacuum.

I used about 240ml to 500 grams of tofu, double the quantity of marinade from the original batch.

The result after a few days is good, in a week great. While it doesn't have the nice marinade line like the egg does, it does have all the flavour. The trick was removing the water as well as doubling up the marinade so that once we pulled the vacuum, the extra water inside the tofu didn't dilute the marinade to the point that it didn't taste like anything.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Edit: I ended up not going for the Meat glue route just because of the time and money that was required to make it happen.

Cedrick_1485478

The extent to which people try to like something they didn't grow up with varies. Let's face it, some find it unappealing and not worth trying, just like turkey meat that some people only eat once a year because they find it unappetizing.