Starting Starter

 

Maybe the Beginning of Tempeh Starter

Not much happening here, I am at the whim of microorganisms and their care and feeding.  But, I have been doing this kind of thing for years now in different applications.  It is all about patience and having the discipline not to hurry things.  

But that isn’t the American way.

I just bought one of these little dinguses https://vivosun.com/vivosun-heat-mat-thermostat-p58820960379603406-v58820960379603396. I am amazed at just how cheap this thing is compared to a comparable item 20 years ago when my professional life was squandered working on temperature control.  

I played around for a day with it plugged into my crock pot and, lo and behold, the thing held temperature pretty darned well.  I set it for 87℉ and it holds that temperature ± 2℉ just dandy thank you.  

 

As a first test, I think that making a starter of the expensive spores that I purchased is absolutely imperative.  The starter is what makes homemade tempeh so darned expensive.  The system is running now as I type, I will report in on progress as we go.  I hope this works out OK, but since I reporting real time on this, be aware that negative reports are quite possible.

The top image is one cup of rice cooked in one cup of water with 1 tablespoon of vinegar.  I let this cool to 90℉ and stirred in one of the two five gram packets of tempeh starter that I purchased for two for $8.00 on a bus ride to the ladies at NW Ferments. This went into the temperature controlled crock pot and then the wait began.  

 

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NOTES:

The washcloth that you see covering the crockpot under the lid is a hint/tip from Francius on youtube.  Maybe I am being racist and culturally appropriative, but I am guessing that the gentleman is Indonesian and I figure that he might just know what he is talking about.  He claims that the condensation water is the enemy of sporulation.  I figure that it won't hurt anything.