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Soy and legumes from Ziro valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India

Peruyaanperuñyaan

Peruyaan is the sticky fermented soybean of the Apatani people of the Ziro valley. Cooked soybeans are packed into a bamboo vessel lined with ginger leaves and kept on a rack above the fireplace for a few days until they turn sticky. It is mixed with hot water, chilli and salt and eaten as a side dish.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Peruyaan itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Kinema, the closest documented soy and legumes ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Peruyaan.

Short entrySoy and legumes3.1 days – 5.1 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHome practice with no fixed amounts.
SoybeansWashed and cooked[T2015]
Fresh ginger leaves ("taki yannii")Line the bamboo vessel[T2015]
Hot water, chilli ("tero") and saltMixed in to serve[T2015]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the steps of Kinema: 26 h – 3.1 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a bean

What changes: Soybeans are washed and soak overnight

Step 1 of 6 · steps of Kinema
Select, wash and soak the soybeans
Time
Overnight
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: soaked beans.

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

Peruyaan is the sticky fermented soybean of the Apatani people of the Ziro valley. Cooked soybeans are packed into a bamboo vessel lined with ginger leaves and kept on a rack above the fireplace for a few days until they turn sticky. It is mixed with hot water, chilli and salt and eaten as a side dish. Made in 2 steps over 3.1 days – 5.1 days. The longest step, pack in a ginger-leaf-lined bamboo vessel above the fire, takes 3–5 days (Tamang J.P. 2015). Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–5 daysReported[T2015]Pack in a ginger-leaf-lined bamboo vessel above the fire

What makes this one different

Peruyaan is packed into a bamboo vessel lined with ginger leaves and fermented in the warmth above the hearth, while hawaijar is made in a bamboo basket or jute bag lined with banana or fern leaves, and tungrymbai in a basket lined with slamet leaves and jute.

Related ferments

History and sources

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

  1. [T2015] Tamang J.P. 2015, Naturally fermented ethnic soybean foods of India, Journal of Ethnic Foods 2:8–17, doi:10.1016/j.jef.2015.02.003 (read through an Internet Archive copy)paper
  2. [kharnaior2023] Kharnaior P., Tamang J.P. 2023, Microbiome and metabolome in home-made fermented soybean foods of India revealed by metagenome-assembled genomes and metabolomics, International Journal of Food Microbiology 407:110417 (abstract)paper
  3. [gopikrishna2021] Gopikrishna T., Suresh Kumar H.K., Perumal K., Elangovan E. 2021, Impact of Bacillus in fermented soybean foods on human health, Annals of Microbiology 71 (table citing Singh et al. 2014)paper