What is Natto? How to make Natto

Natto is not very common in China. It is the most common traditional fermented food in Japan. It is made from soybeans and fermented by Bacillus subtilis. It is sticky. Natto not only retains the nutritional value of soybeans, is rich in vitamin K2, and improves the digestion and absorption rate of protein, but more importantly, it produces many physiologically active substances during the fermentation process, which have the health-care effects of dissolving fibrin in the body and regulating other physiological functions. So what are the ways to make natto?

What is Natto? How to make Natto

1. Prepare the utensils and materials: soybeans, natto bacteria, pressure cooker, stainless steel basin, foam lunch boxes and other shallow containers, foam boxes, 2-liter rectangular plastic bottles or hot water bags, and thermometer.

2. Wash the soybeans, add three times the amount of water and soak them for a day. Pour out the water and steam them in a pressure cooker until the soybeans can be crushed by hand.

3. Dissolve the natto bacteria in 50 ml of hot water at a temperature of about 38-45 degrees, add it evenly to the hot soybeans, stir quickly and evenly, and pack it in foam lunch boxes with a thickness of about 20 cm. Cover it with gauze or add a pair of chopsticks between the lunch boxes. After fermentation, seal it with tape.

4. Put several rectangular plastic bottles filled with 50-degree hot water in a clean large foam box, and place the inoculated foam lunch boxes on the bottles. The temperature in the box should be kept at 42 degrees.

5. After fermenting at 38-42 degrees for 14-36 hours, put it in the refrigerator for low-temperature maturation for several hours. The finished natto bacteria will be better in both appearance and taste.