What is tempeh starter?

Tempeh starter, also called powered tempeh starter (PTS) or tempeh culture, is a dried mixture of live Rhizopus spores and substrate, which can be soybeans or rice. Most fermented food foods require a starter to get the process going in the desired direction. For example, to make good quality yogurt you need a starter containing the desired lactobacillus and streptococcus bacteria: you can use commercial starters or some yogurt from your previous batch. In the latter case there is a risk of contamination with other bacteria, a risk that increases with each successive batch. The same principle applies to tempeh fermentation: to produce good quality tempeh you need a tempeh starter with a very high number of desirable Rhizopus spores.

Rhizopus is a genus of molds that is found in soil and plant material. Dark zygospores are produced after two compatible mycelia fuse during reproduction, producing colonies that may be genetically different from their parents. Tempeh can be produced by two strains ofRhizopus: Rhizopus oryzae or Rhizopus oligosporus, both of which can be isolated from fresh Indonesian tempeh. In Indonesia, where tempeh originated and is still produced in small tempeh shops, the tempeh master always uses dried tempeh starter. They make it by placing a handful of cooked and inoculated soybeans between two hibiscus leaves, allowing them to incubate for a few days until the soybeans are covered with black spores and finally drying them in the sun. They use this starter by rubbing the hibiscus leaves over the soybeans to be inoculated. As you can understand, this type of tempeh starter can easily be contaminated with other molds or bacteria. In Western countries, where tempeh production is relatively new, tempeh factories always use pure cultures to ensure that the quality of the finished tempeh is consistent and to minimize the risk of failed batches.

There are no specific regulatory standards for tempeh starter, but good quality tempeh starter should contain millions of Rhizopus spores and be free of contaminating, coliform or pathogenic bacteria. Tempeh starter is often extended with sterile rice flour or starch to standardize the spore count.

Order tempeh starter here.