Cultures for Health Tempeh Starter Culture | 4 Packets Starter Spores for DIY Plant Based Meat | Gluten Free, Non-GMO Indonesian Food | Make Meatless Bacon, Vegan Nuggets, & More High Protein Snacks

I was so pleased that my first attempt at making tempeh was successful. My end product was deliciously nutty and had a complex umami flavor I've never experienced in the store bought kind. I followed the included directions exactly, with a few minor adjustments based on recommendations of Sandor Katz: 1. I found the de-hulling part a bit daunting at first. The Cultures for Health instructions recommend de-hulling by hand by massaging the soaked soybeans in a bowl of water and scooping out/straining the hulls that float to the top. I found that when I did this, I was left with a mushy mess, with not many floating hulls and many still attached to even the broken apart beans. While it did help to break the beans up, I found that simply boiling them and then skimming off the foam that contained the hulls was much easier. 2. I also used raw organic apple cider vinegar instead of distilled white vinegar. For incubation, I placed a seedling heat mat on top of a cookie rack, placed that in a plastic container, put the tempeh on top of the heating pad, and closed the lid. I wrapped the plastic container in towels for extra insulation. My temperature did fluctuate a bit (sometimes dropping to 82 degrees and sometimes going up to 92-93), but I had mycelium growing by the 24 hour mark. At this time, I placed the heating pad next to the tempeh, rather than on top of it, because I noticed that the area touching the heating pad was too hot and was not growing any fungus. At the 32 hour mark, I removed the heating pad from the container completely. My tempeh was done after 40 hours. Another note: my tempeh had a really strong stinky mushroom/ammonia smell when I first removed it from the incubator. I was worried it was bad. After wrapping it in plastic and placing it in the fridge in the morning, I came home from work 9 hours later to find that it had a pleasant white mushroom/yeasty smell. After panicking and researching, the consensus was to trust your nose. Not sure why it was so pungent at first, but it was not an indication that the tempeh was bad. Also, the seller was great. My first package arrived with a damaged packet of culture, and they quickly sent me a replacement free of charge. Will definitely be buying from them again.

These were absolutely delightful. I was surprised by the spores that were in the packets. I made a tempeh with mung beans, rice vinegar, wakame & this starter wrapped in banana leaves. It tasted like a mix of porcini, chanterelle & portobello mushrooms once air fried, or roasted. I'm a little upset that I didn't have ikura, or truffles on hand to go with it. Would definitely purchase again. One caveat about this is that the directions stated that the fermentation process takes 72 hours. Would allow for more time in temperate environments (between 60-80F with no relative humidity) since it took between a week & a half to 2 weeks for the tempeh to ferment.

it works great!

Seems to work well, but a bit pricey

If you’ve never made Tempeh before, you will be amazed at how easy and inexpensive it is, plus how much better it tastes fresh and unpasteurized. This culture works great though I use the process from the book Miso, Tempeh, Natto and Other Tasty Fermets from Storey Publishing rather than the instructions provided. A plastic cooler with water, aquarium heater and air pump maintains temp and humidity, the tempeh ferments in glass baking dishes floating in the water, kept at the right height by a few overturned water glasses. This culture results in finished tempeh in about 72 hours under my conditions which are the same year-round.

I’ve made tempeh for years and I made several batches with this and a couple were failures. I felt that the suggested amount, in the tiny packets at $4 each, it was too paltry for guaranteed success. Then I discovered tempeh starter on Amazon that comes by the pound +….cheap. I could add plenty of starter for a fraction of the cost. The results were night and day. Beautiful, thick white tempeh every time. I appreciate anyone who makes this product, but 4 tiny one teaspoon packets for $15? A bit too greedy, considering the actual cost ( based on competition which sells a real many x amount for similar cost)

Easy to follow instructions! My tempeh came out good the first time. One packet makes about 1.5 lbs of tempeh, three times as much as a 8 ounce package in the store. The homemade tempeh has a lot more flavor and it is really cool to see it taking shape. It is very useful to have a dehydrator and the type of thermometer that gives you an alarm when it reaches temperature. This helps keep the tempeh in the right temperature range for the first 12 hours. My dehydrator is the Nesco round type, which is a little trickier since it's lowest setting is 95 degrees and the tempeh needs to be around 85-90. To get that temperature, I put a few trays between the heating element on top and the tempeh was towards the bottom. I propped up a tray above the tempeh with tupperware, experimenting with the size of the opening and watching the temperature. Another tip: look up how other people are doing the soy bean hulling part first. We spend way too long on this part, and others have said it does not need to be so exact.

I'm experienced in making tempeh and I tried two seperate batches of this stuff and got none or very little white spores and I got green yellow and black mold. There is a product I used to buy off Amazon that had the same link (it's different as it worked AND was cheaper (7.99) and the packaging was different). I cant find that product anywhere. When that product dissapeared I decided I was going to make my own starter since this stuff is so expensive, but i need a successful batch of tempeh first. I've made tempeh successfully many times with other products and NEVER had this problem. After having a second wasted batch of soybeans due to this product, I bought a different brand of culture off an ebay store. Cheaper and more culture. Update. The other brand worked great and produced a beautiful batch of tempeh. I then produced my own starter culture which I just made another batch of tempeh from. Making your own is easy and waaaaay cheaper. (if you can make tempeh you can make your own culture). I recommend Google making your own which is what I'm doing from now on.

While it works, it's terribly expensive. So the first thing I did was put together a starter, mixing freshly cooked rice with a bit of rice flour, then added one packet - all mixed well together. Into the incubator it went. Within 12 hours, I had mycelium starting. In 24 hours, it was covered in white fur. At 36 hours, it started to get the black/gray spots I was hoping for. At 40 hours, it had black all over with spores, and time to dehydrate, power in the coffee grinder, and mix with sanitized rice flour. Voila - 1 million dollars worth of starter (at this price). I tested the new starter culture, and it works find. Now it sits in my freezer in a mason jar, because it will take me years to get through all this. Although expensive, you only have to purchase this once per lifetime. I'll be sharing my new starter with friends and a few family members who have shown interest, so they don't have to spend the $30 like I did.

No complains. I followed the instruction and i made tempeh. I use some of the tempeh made with it to make my own tempeh starter and it worked. Infinite tempeh.

I am new to tempeh. I followed the instructions and it grew into a nice firm cake of tempeh. Seemed kinda pricey but I haven’t shopped around much for comparison. Easy to use.

Très bon Tempeh au final, mais la quantité par enveloppe est vraiment faible. Pour deux tasses de soya ça couvre a peine toutes les fèves et j’ai du attendre 60 heures pour que toutes les fèves soient couverte par le mycelium. Vu la quantité fournis vs le prix malheureusement je vais essayé de trouvé un autre fournisseur. Trop peu trop chère.

good tempeh starter, I would buy again!