OK, I'll bite... [tofu questions]

[Tesseract]

Couple of newbie questions:

I have heard of the technique of freezing and then thawing tofu to make it chewier. (1) Can you do this with silken tofu? (2) Can you just keep cubes of tofu in the freezer indefinitely, ready to use?

And why do I see vegan spelled with a "*" so often, like it's a bad word?

[ProudVegan]

yes you can freeze silken tofu.

veg*n is shorthand for "vegetarian AND vegan." Better than typing both words cuz people are just so lazy or a slow typer. :p

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

:) It's not a "bad" word -we're just abbreviating both terms; vegan AND vegetarian, into one all-inclusive word... veg*n... much easier to type...

Yes, you can keep frozen tofu in the freezer indefinitely. Just thaw what you need.

Never tried freezing slken tofu. I somehow think it wouldn't work the same though...

[Tesseract]

I froze a package of silken tofu cubes and then threw it out :-/ after I noticed my Vegan Planet cookbook said don't try it. But ProudVegan says it's fine. I love silken tofu because it's so easy to store, so maybe I'll try it again.

[ProudVegan]

I have tried freezing them and it wasnt bad at all. I went to a Japanese Tofu Festival in Los Angeles about a month ago.. and there were some experts/chefs/makers of tofu, etc.. and they were giving tips on tofu.

I personally dont freeze them that much but when i do i like them hard like ice cream. But if its soft and you had your favorite syrup.. hmmm tasty!!!

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

When you freeze silken tofu and then thaw it, does it's texture change to a spongy, chewy texture?
This is what happens with regular tofu. That's why I freeze tofu, to change the texture.

I had heard that silken tofu doesn't change texture when frozen?

[ProudVegan]

No it doesnt change, but i noticed that its much more chewy, like caramel cubes.

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

Ahhh.. OK then. Interesting.
It wouldn't serve the same purpose - to me - that frozen-and-thawed regular tofu does... the "regular" stuff becomes really spongy and then it absorbs a great deal of the cooking sauce (and flavor) and is SOO yummy. Also it gets chewy, which sorta simulates a "meaty" texture and works well in tacos, sloppy joes and such...

I'm thinking frozen silken tofu would be interesting, but wouldn't serve the same purpose for use in my recipes.

[ProudVegan]

I'm thinking frozen silken tofu would be interesting, but wouldn't serve the same purpose for use in my recipes.


I'd prefer as a dessert. Add some chocolate syrup or something like that.

[rainbow_clouds]

When you freeze silken tofu and then thaw it, does it's texture change to a spongy, chewy texture?
This is what happens with regular tofu. That's why I freeze tofu, to change the texture.

I had heard that silken tofu doesn't change texture when frozen?

Uh... man. I had some tofu in the fridge. My fridge is broken and freezes everything. When I thawed the tofu the texture was spongy and it was a little brown. I thought it was bad and threw it out. It's ok to eat like that? :dunce:

[froggythefrog]

Hmmmm..... Brown? Like it was originally white? I would've thrown it out too!

[OhSewRetro]

Uh... man. I had some tofu in the fridge. My fridge is broken and freezes everything. When I thawed the tofu the texture was spongy and it was a little brown. I thought it was bad and threw it out. It's ok to eat like that? :dunce:
When I take tofu out of the freezer, it's yellow-ish, but never brown.

[ProudVegan]

Never noticed change in color. If it changes color, throw it out. What kind of tofu was it?

[rainbow_clouds]

Never noticed change in color. If it changes color, throw it out. What kind of tofu was it?

It was slightly brown. It was normal firm tofu I got from an Asian grocery store. The package was open, so maybe that's the reason it got discolored. I didn't want to chance getting food poisoning or whatnot so I just threw it out. It was half a block. I didn't know the spongyness was normal. I need to get my fridge fixed. :( I went to eat cereal this morning and my soymilk was frozen. :(

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

If the tofu is drained - or open and not submerged in water, when frozen it will turn a "dark beige tannish" color - not a deep chocolate brown though (at least in my experience...).

If it looked like that it was still OK, but probably didn't look pretty.

It's doubtful, if almost impossible to get food poisoning from a refrigerated non-animal product if it's been kept that cold. It can spoil and not taste good or something - but even if it's spoiled, you could eat it and it wouldn't technically poison you. Spoiled can look, smell, and taste nasty soyou wouldn't want to eat it - but don't worry about it "hurting" you. The expiration date-people don't want you to know this, but with non-animal food items, if it doesn't have a bad smell or taste, it's actually just fine to eat...

[west2100]

Um, I've noticed that anytime I freeze tofu it turns brown. Upon thawing, however, it returns to white. I've done it multiple times with various tofus and it always happens that way.

Frankly, I'd be a bit alarmed if it didn't.

[rainbow_clouds]

If the tofu is drained - or open and not submerged in water, when frozen it will turn a "dark beige tannish" color - not a deep chocolate brown though (at least in my experience...).
It's been a while but it was slighty brown but def not deep chocolate brown. And it was opened but I stored it in water.



It's doubtful, if almost impossible to get food poisoning from a refrigerated non-animal product if it's been kept that cold. It can spoil and not taste good or something - but even if it's spoiled, you could eat it and it wouldn't technically poison you.
My mother got very very ill one time from eating modly jelly, I'm scared for life, now I think anything questionable is going to make me sick, even though, yes, I eat 0 animal products and I have probably a greater risk from my roomate's animal products in the fridge. (raw meat is deadly, idk why poeple would keep that stuff around!)

And I got my fridge fixed today! My soymilk is thawing!

[ProudVegan]

I wouldnt suggest you leave an upopen tofu in the freezer. Keep it in package and tofu should be soaked in water.

[Tesseract]

My mother got very very ill one time from eating modly jelly, I'm scared for life, now I think anything questionable is going to make me sick, even though, yes, I eat 0 animal products and I have probably a greater risk from my roomate's animal products in the fridge. (raw meat is deadly, idk why poeple would keep that stuff around!)

Unfortunately I got food poisoning the week after I went veg. I wasn't able to pin down exactly what made me sick, but I figure it was from cross-contamination in a restaurant kitchen. But I couldn't be absolutely sure that it wasn't some of MY food that went bad-- I did leave some bean salad out for a couple of hours a day or two earlier. I've been a little paranoid ever since, too.

[shine]

I might try this......so far, I have been using seitan as my meat substitute because even the firm tofu is too mushy for me....but if there is a way to firm up the tofu that would be great, because I can get it around here....have to drive an hour to a co-op to get seitan!

[Tofu-N-Sprouts]

Shine; it won't ever get as firm as seitan, but it is a nice change...

If you want your tofu to hold it's shape, another option is to cube your tofu (use the extra firm or Nigari style - NOT the silken or aseptically packed tofu) into largish cubes, fry with some oil in a non-stick skillet until it's dark golden brown on all sides and then remove and do your stir-fry or whatever, and then add the tofu back in - there you go, a pretty stir-fry with non-mushy, firm cubes of tofu.

[Morna]

In my experience, silken tofu works best if you use it in recipes requiring a blender. Freezing it didn't make it chewy enough to avoid a "gross-out" factor for me when I tried to stir-fry it.