Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Natto Dad's Beginning Journey

Welcome to Natto Dad's blog on how to make natto! I wanted to share my journey of making natto at home. This saga started a little over a year ago and I have been trying out various methods to see what works best. Repeated failures and bad natto have only fueled my interest. I would like to share these stories with you. I currently make natto about once a week for my family. In essence, we are Nattoholics.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Natto Dad well hear I am as your suggestion and will update you when I purchase a pressure cooker then follow your suggestions and we will see I am also looking for a local Asian shop to see if I can get the real thing.

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  2. I was very surprised by a super-successful method I finished yesterday. In this method I cooked the Soybeans in a slow-cooker on high for 20 hours (i.e. with no pre-cook). When finished I carefully poured most of the water out of the inner ceramic bowl and then transferred the open bowl into a Styrofoam cooler. At this point I added 3 juice containers containing very hot water to the cooler and left overnight. In the morning I dumped the now warm water out of the cooler and added fresh hot water. The result of this was perfect Natto (which I left in the ceramic bowl with the glass lid on (to keep out other bacteria). No need for Saran Wrap at all!

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    1. Hi I am looking at making natto for the first time. I can see from your experience, you simply use the heat from the hot water to keep the beans in a certain range of temperature. May I know how long did you take before the natto was ready? 16 hours? 18? or perhaps 24 hours. I have a pressure cooker at home but I don't know how can I maintain the 40 degrees centigrade in order for the beans to ferment. Thank you for all your help.

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  3. Hi! Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for the input! I love to hear about new methods. Being creative is the what motivates me as well and when the results are good too, that is pure joy. If you would not mind, please send me pics at nattodad[at]gmail.com (replaec [at] with @) and I will post it on the "Pics from natto fans" section.
    Also, if you would like a direct response, please email me at the address above. -Natto Dad

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  4. I am about to try my first batch of Natto from your utube video following exactly how you did it. I hope it works as good as yours did. I purchased everything exactly as you have it shown. Does one pound of dry soybean produce two glass trays?

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  5. I live in Australia, and its REALLY hard to get the culture!

    So i use the natto soy beans and mix in with the new beans. But my body HATES soy beans. So if there is anyone who would help me get some culture powder, it would be appreciated.
    I will pay for postage etc of course.

    BUT, an interesting fact I learnt just recently. There is a Japanese guy, who is called "Mr Natto". Dr. Hiroyuki Sumi. He discover K2 in Natto.

    But what is interesting, is that he claims, that the version of Natto we are all eating, is the "weak" version, developed for Americans who couldnt handle the strong taste of the old ORIGINAL variety.

    Is there a way we could find out how to get this old variety of culture from Japan? I want the old variety. which has lots more health benefits.

    Ive tried contacting this guy about the old strain, but can find no way to do it.
    Any ideas?

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  6. I over fermented th enatto..its smells like ammonia is it safe to eat?

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  7. Hi natto Dad~ I watched your video, how to make natto at home. I just have a question. You said that after 4 days natto has been made, it is more silky and mature. How do you keep them for 4days? Do you keep them in refrigerator? Or freezer? Or in room temperature? I was curious about that. Thank you so much for the video :) I want to try your method to make natto.

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    1. Hi there, after the 24 hour fermentation, store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. After the 2 weeks, it is best to portion out and freeze. -Natto Dad

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  8. Natto dad, i did it yesterday. My Natto was bitter,dont have slightly sweeter like natto i brough from japan shop. is my natto fail? this is 4 times i did it, but it is bitter all the time? uhm...do you know reason?please tell me

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  9. Is it true that frozen Natto don't have enough live bacillus subtilis bacteria as they don't survive due to freezing?

    Your blog has been amazing in educating people on how to make home made Natto. Kudos to you.

    Thanks

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