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Soy and legumes from Indonesia

Fermented peanut products (summary)

The peanut ferments covered here start from the cake left after pressing peanut oil, not from whole peanuts. In West Java the cake is grown with Rhizopus into black oncom, and red oncom is grown with Neurospora, mainly on soy pulp. In Myanmar the cake is soaked, salted and soured, probably by lactic bacteria, into Nan Phat Shin. This entry is a summary that points to those foods.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Fermented peanut products itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Oncom hitam (black oncom), the closest documented other ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Fermented peanut products.

Short entrySoy and legumes

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
peanut (groundnut) press cake or peanut meal
Startervaries (Rhizopus or Neurospora moulds for oncom; spontaneous souring for Nan Phat Shin)

Total time across the steps of Oncom hitam (black oncom): 24 h – 2 days

Start
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What changes: Peanut press cake is mixed with soybean curd residue

Step 1 of 4 · steps of Oncom hitam (black oncom)
Mix the press cake with soybean curd residue
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Rhizopus

Makers use the same raw materials as Bandung red oncom; the study sterilised its lab mix, which makers do not do. Output: press-cake mix.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
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

The peanut ferments covered here start from the cake left after pressing peanut oil, not from whole peanuts. In West Java the cake is grown with Rhizopus into black oncom, and red oncom is grown with Neurospora, mainly on soy pulp. In Myanmar the cake is soaked, salted and soured, probably by lactic bacteria, into Nan Phat Shin. This entry is a summary that points to those foods. Rhizopus oligosporus and Lactic acid bacteria, including Lactobacillus helveticus do most of the fermenting.

What makes this one different

Peanut ferments use the oil-press cake, a by-product, so they sit with the other upcycled ferments. The mould kinds (oncom) bind the cake into a block; the Myanmar kind is a wet lactic pickle.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Oncom hitam (black oncom)Peanut meal fermented with Rhizopus oligosporus (West Java).
  • Oncom merah (red oncom)Grown with Neurospora, mainly on tofu dregs (okara) (Gandjar and Slamet 1972).
  • Nan Phat Shin (Myanmar)Groundnut or sesame oil cake soaked, salted and soured 3 to 5 days.
  • Oncom kacang tanahPeanut press cake oncom; its protein barely changed in fermentation (Van Veen, as cited by Gandjar and Slamet 1972).

Safety

Peanuts are among the foods with the highest aflatoxin B1 levels in surveys across Southeast Asia (Ab Dullah 2026). WHO says most mycotoxins survive food processing, so fermenting cannot be counted on to remove them. It advises discarding nuts that look mouldy, discoloured or shrivelled, and that goes for the press cake too.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [who-mycotoxins] World Health Organization, Mycotoxins (fact sheet)gov
  2. [rohimah2026] Rohimah A. et al. 2026, Black oncom's potential role in maintaining growth rate and vitamin B6 status of vitamin B6 deficiency model rats, Open Veterinary Journal 16(1)paper
  3. [bobo2022] Bo Bo, Aye Aye Win 2022, Myanmar popular plant-based fermented foods, their processing, and their microorganisms potential for probiotics, Bacterial Empire 5(3):e430paper
  4. [gandjar1972] Gandjar I., Slamet D.S. 1972, Tempe gembus hasil fermentasi ampas tahu, Penelitian Gizi dan Makanan 2 (1972)paper
  5. [abdullah2026] Ab Dullah S.S. et al. 2026, A scoping review and risk assessment of aflatoxin B1 contamination in rice, maize, and peanut-based products across selected ASEAN countries, Foods 15(11):1874paper