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Black soybeans are soaked, steamed and spread in a warm room until a mould coats them, then washed and piled so the heap heats up and the beans darken and turn savoury. They are salted or left unsalted and sun-dried into the dark, raisin-like beans used to season Chinese dishes.
Fully documentedSoy and legumes16 days
Recipe
Amounts from a sourceThe amounts describe one industrial Liuyang (Hunan) process, where solid salt at 2 % w/w goes into the pile for its last two days. Salt, mould and timing vary by region.
Salt2 % w/w in one Liuyang process; salt-free types also exist
Liuyang douchi is low in salt; salted types elsewhere are aged with salt water, ginger, spices or sometimes rice wine[tang2025][sic-nuggets]
Starter
mould grown in a qu room; in Liuyang the traditional manual process relies on spontaneous fermentation
Total time across the recorded steps: 16 days
Start
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What changes:Black soybeans soak and steam until soft
Step 1 of 5
Soak and steam the beans
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Aspergillus
Mucor
Rhizopus
Output: steamed beans.
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
soft
Colour
Not documented
Microbes at work in this step
Not documented for this step.
Method
Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source
At a glance
Black soybeans are soaked, steamed and spread in a warm room until a mould coats them, then washed and piled so the heap heats up and the beans darken and turn savoury. They are salted or left unsalted and sun-dried into the dark, raisin-like beans used to season Chinese dishes. Made in 5 steps over 16 days. The longest step, grow the mould (qu-making), takes 12 days (Jiang L 2025) and runs at 28–32 °C (Jiang L 2025). Salt is 2 % (Tang H 2025). Aspergillus, the mould of the qu stage and Mucor or Rhizopus in Mucor- and Rhizopus-type douchi do most of the fermenting.
Douchi is a whole-bean ferment with a mould stage, like miso koji, but the mould is washed off and the beans are piled hot and dried whole instead of mashed into paste. Bacillus-only relatives such as natto skip the mould.
Liuyang douchi (Hunan)Aspergillus type, low in salt.
Yangjiang douchi (Guangdong)Aspergillus type; moulds lead early, then yeasts.
Yongchuan douchi (Chongqing) and Tongchuan douchi (Sichuan)Yongchuan douchi is a Mucor type. The brewing skills of both are national intangible heritage, listed in 2008.
MianchiYellow soybeans instead of black; mould-fermented.
Douchi sauce (black bean paste)Douchi blended with garlic and soy sauce.
Tau-si / tao-si (Philippines, Malaysia)Philippine and Malaysian soy nugget sauce.
Safety
The hot core of the pile built up the most biogenic amines (47.70 mg/kg total) in one Liuyang study, and bacteria such as Stenotrophomonas maltophilia made them in lab cultures. In those cultures temperature changed the output differently by strain; Bacillus velezensis made more at 35 °C than at 45 or 55 °C.
Soy nuggets are among the oldest known soy foods. A container of them was found in Western Han Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, sealed in about 168 BC. The Qimin Yaoshu (about AD 535) gives four recipes, including salt-free nuggets dried after a few days of fermentation.