How do they do that tofu voodoo (in Germany)

January 4, 2021 4:22 AM

There's a lot of different kinds of tofu here in Germany, that I never saw back home in the US. From lots of flavored tofus (NOT marinated) to firm, shelf-stable tofu. How do they do it? Does anyone have any insight into the German tofu industry?

I always thought that, when making tofu, you couldn't really add anything into the mix, other than soybeans and a coagulant. Something about the tofu not coagulating properly or something. That, the only way to flavor tofu was to marinate it. But here, you'll find tofu with all kinds of herbs and spices cooked right in (these are almost always refrigerated). How come you never see this in the US (maybe there are places in the US that do this, but I've seen a lot of tofu in my day, and never saw anything like what's in Germany). I suspect some of it has to do with catering to the German palette.

We also have amazing, shelf stable tofu, that's not silken (sorry Mori-Nu, I don't like you!) (and, unfortunately packaged in clear plastic). Every single chain grocery and drug store here sells firm, shelf stable tofu, usually plain, smoked and my favorite, tofu with almonds. Even in tiny, rural towns! This makes being veg very easy, especially when traveling; I can just throw some shelf-stable tofu in my bag, get some veggies from a shop, and have real, good food. Why have I never seen shelf-stable tofu like this in the US?

Some example of flavored tofus:
Black forest tofu it's smoked, with onions and caraway seeds. I love this stuff so much.
Bear garlic tofu
Tofu with olives and herbs


and shelf-stable tofu :
DM Almond Tofu
Al-Natura Smoked Tofu
EnerBio Tofu (plain)

What's really interesting is that it's difficult to find softer tofus here (my wife calls them "scramlin' tofus'), unless you go to an Asian market. We used to always buy the Trader Joe's firm tofu. I can't find anything that soft here.

posted by Cat Pie Hurts to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

I suspect it’s a matter of price and market size. Making something shelf stable requires heat treatment, an aseptic packaging process (or heat treatment post-packaging, which is not always possible), and a whole lot of expensive QA+QC. The US consumer is notoriously price driven, and at least where I am, fresh tofu is very cheap. Hard to imagine someone investing millions in new process equipment to sell something that would cost multiples of the existing product.

Local regulations also need to allow it- its entirely possible that US regs make doing this impossible without amendment (but I have no knowledge of this re: tofu, only similar experience in a completely unrelated field).
posted by Jobst at 7:34 AM on January 4, 2021

I have seen shelf-stable tofu in the US, so I don't think there's any regulatory or technological reason we can't have tofu like that here (obviously there are loads of other shelf-stable soy products available in all sorts of aseptic packaging - cans and tetra-pak being the major ones). I've seen shelf-stable tofu in the US before but only eaten it once or twice - in my recollection it was firmer than fresh firm tofu, so probably a related product to what you're talking about.

I think this is probably just a national/regional preference/taste thing. Like how UHT dairy milk is much more popular in Europe than in the US, or how you can get like 4,000 different varieties of peanut/nut butter in a US supermarket and only a handful in a similarly-sized store in Europe.
posted by mskyle at 7:49 AM on January 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

For a product to get popular requires an investment in physical plant, marketing, and customers have to notice it and like it - there's a fair bit of randomness there. I'd buy tofu that was at least a bit more shelf-stable, esp. now in pandemic time, when I shop as seldom as possible.
posted by theora55 at 7:55 AM on January 4, 2021

Another element is marketing segmentation -- I can get smoked tofu at my store, but it's sold as "meatless bacon" rather than tofu, even though a couple of the brands are just smoked tofu (there are other brands where it'll be seitan+tofu, or other combinations). A different smoking flavor, and a silkier tofu, is sold as "vegan cheese" (again, just tofu for some brands, while others have a variety of different admixtures/components).

...so apparently the companies involved in my market decided to segment by "food analog" rather than it being tofu. Could be different in other parts of the same country.
posted by aramaic at 8:03 AM on January 4, 2021

I believe I know the kind of tofu you mean, having seen some German and other European brands in health stores here in the UK, especially a few years back before the recent market explosion in meat substitutes.

I was thinking of this one based on your question, and looking at the ingredients it lists tofu as the main ingredient (including the tofu's composition in brackets), and then lists the other ingredients, which leads me to suspect that for some of these blended/flavoured tofu products, the tofu is made normally (side-stepping coagulation issues from adding adulterants), then processed and pressed into a block with the other flavouring ingredients, but only after it's already become tofu.

This is purely a guess based on how they list the ingredients, though; I wish I had tofu insider knowledge, but I don't.
posted by terretu at 8:19 AM on January 4, 2021

I have no firsthand knowledge of any of this and the following is from 10 minutes of motivated googling, but it seems like there was a movement in the 1980s that has continued for a variety of reasons.

The folks at Soyinfocenter say:

An important development during the early 1980s was the rise of the soyfoods and soycrafters movement in West Germany. One of the leaders was Wolfgang Furth-Kuby, president of the publishing company Ahorn Verlag near Munich, which published in German three books by Shurtleff and Aoyagi: Das Miso Buch (July 1980), Das Tofu Buch (August 1981), and Das Tempeh Buch (1984). [...] Furth-Kuby worked with Herr Wolf in Vienna to develop a source of organically grown soybeans. His brother-in-law directed a 6-minute film about tofu that was broadcast on German national television in December 1982 and introduced many Germans to tofu.

This forum poster (from 2013) suggests that Germans don't feel threatened by tofu because the rest of the food is so assuredly porky. This German tofu maker personally wants to dispel the myth that tofu has no flavor.
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:01 AM on January 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

No specific tofu knowledge but I used to work in a vegetarian restaurant in Munich in the mid to late 90s and there was plenty of yummy, firm tofu on the menu to make delicacies like Tofu Schnitzel...which were not bad at all and my first introduction to Tofu. I then moved to the UK in late 98 and was disappointed that the only tofu I could find easily was silken, scrambleable tofu. That did nothing for me and as I am not a vegetarian, I topped eating tofu.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:17 AM on January 4, 2021

I think it's the US market. San Francisco, with its huge Asian population, has all sorts of tofu, though not as fancy as "black forest" tofu.

tofushop.com has tofu chorizo, smoked Alder tofu sticks, tofu BBQ burgers, eggless tofu salad, tofu "breakfast sausage" patties, and so on. Very western type of flavors.

And if you visit some Asian food stores, you'll find imitation meat of EVERY variety (though technically they're often textured gluten, not tofu)
posted by kschang at 10:17 AM on January 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

The local Asian grocery store has many, many types of flavored tofu, and some of it is specifically meant to be a dupe for specific types of meet flavors (though, yes, some is just gluten). I've also seen it at Trader Joe's. My personal favorite is the Japanese pressed and baked type, which is firmer and more cheese-like. If you've ever had tofu from Pei Wei, that's what they use.
posted by answergrape at 2:44 PM on January 4, 2021

If you understand German, this 30 Minute promo video provides some insight into how tofu is produced in Germany, using German soy beans and a detailed description. The German info on this Website of one of the larger organic producers is more detailed, but there are shorter English versions.
posted by 15L06 at 3:08 PM on January 5, 2021 [1 favorite]