Soy milk can readily be made at home. As I recall it involves cooking the beans in water, grinding them in a blender and straining the liquid.

Once you have soy milk it's not hard to make tofu. You need a substance to coagulate the milk. There are several choices. The curds are then pressed to remove excess water.

Jim

No, I haven't made soy sauce, I am only vaguely aware of how it's made from watching various Asian cooking shows on PBS. Thanks for posting the link, it looks really interesting and is definitely right up my alley, so I'll have to give it a try (bookmarked for future reference).

As far as roasting them, I haven't ever tried that either, nor have I ever made tofu or soy milk. I've only grown them for green soybeans to use as a vegetable. I have bought dried ones at Whole Foods to grind into flour as a late winter pollen substitute feed for my bees.

I suspect that the soy nuts are probably roasted just like any other nut -- basically, you add a little oil to them and put them into the oven at about 350 for probably 6 or 8 minutes, taking them out a couple of times and stirring them, and letting them get to whatever stage of brown you like. You could try that.

However, having eaten them a few times both by themselves and in snack mixes, they usually have a really light, crispy texture, and I wonder if they are not deep fried in oil rather than oven roasted. That is how the dried peas that are wasabi flavored in the Japanese snack mixes are made, and the frying makes them "puff up" a bit and makes them less dense and more crispy. You might try both oven roasting and deep frying and see what is closer to the ones you've tried.

I do not think I will be making Soy milk at this point, as I get raw milk from a relative, but the Tofu is a good idea as I like the tasteless bean curd. My wife even likes Tofu mixed into a stirfry.

You might try both oven roasting and deep frying and see what is closer to the ones you've tried.

Good idea I wondered, if the snacks weren't most likely deep fried, I would like to make it bit healthier, but definitely will try both. I might try smoking them in my smoker as well.

Anyone have any variety recommendations?

thanks,
Dean

Dean
The Mrs has always made her own Soy Sauce. It takes a lot of work and time. She boils the soy beans and grinds them using a meat grinder. Then shapes them into brick size blocks and dries them in the sun for 2 months. She then uses ionized water and Sea Salt. She made 100 gallons this year. She prefers the Korean style Soy sauce over the Japanese varieties.
Jim