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Fermentation Atlas

Soy and legumes from Huizhou, Anhui

Maodoufu (hairy tofu)毛豆腐

Fresh tofu, set with sour whey from earlier batches, is cut into cubes and laid on bamboo trays in a cool, humid room. Over about four days a white fuzz of Mucor mould grows over each cube, and the hairy tofu is then pan-fried and eaten with chilli sauce. Made in 4 steps over 4 days. The longest step, grow the white hair, takes 4 days (Qi M 2026) and runs at 20 °C (Qi M 2026). Mucor and Lactobacillus from the sour-whey coagulant do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4 daysMeasured[qi2026mao]Grow the white hair
Temperature20 °CMeasured[qi2026mao]Grow the white hair
AciditypH up to 4Reported[qi2026mao]Set tofu with sour whey and cut into cubes
Fully documentedSoy and legumes4 daysMore soy and legumesMore from China

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional process with no fixed batch size. The only ingredients are tofu set with sour whey and the mould.
Soybeans, made into soy milk · Soaked, ground with water and filtered[li2025mao]
Sour whey (suanjiangshui) from earlier batches · The traditional coagulant; mature sour whey is usually below pH 4.0[qi2026mao][guan2024mao]
Mucor spores · A spore suspension, or the mould already living in the workshop[qi2026mao][guan2024mao]
Starter: koji/qu/mold-starter: Mucor (M. rouxianus, M. plasmaticus and others), often sprayed on as spores

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days

Start
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pH up to 4

What changes: Tofu set with sour whey is cut into cubes

Step 1 of 4
Set tofu with sour whey and cut into cubes
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH up to 4
Reported
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Mucor
Lactobacillus
Yeasts
Pichia
Mucor hyphae

Cubes of 5 × 5 × 3 cm in a Sichuan study. Output: tofu cubes about 4.0 × 4.0 × 3.0 cm.

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

What makes this one different

Maodoufu is the first, mould-growing stage of furu eaten fresh. Furu goes on to salting and months of ageing in brine or wine; hairy tofu is cooked after a few days.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Huizhou maodoufuTofu set with sour whey, grown on bamboo trays in a room near 20 °C.
  • Sichuan (Hanyuan) maodoufuLarger cubes; made both with natural mould and with a sprayed Mucor plasmaticus culture, which raised its amino acid content.

Safety

A short ferment, and the tofu is fried before eating.

History and sources

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

Hairy tofu is a traditional food of Huizhou in Anhui Province, made in some workshops for more than a hundred years.

  1. [qi2026mao] Qi M., Jia T., Pan F., Ren M., Zhang J., Yan S. 2026, Associations between microbial community succession and volatile flavor dynamics during traditional Huizhou Mao-tofu fermentation, Food Chem X 39:104503, doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2026.104503paper
  2. [li2025mao] Li D., Wan Y., Zhou X. et al. 2025, Dynamic changes in physicochemical properties and microbial diversity during the fermentation of Mao-tofu, Foods 14:775, doi:10.3390/foods14050775paper
  3. [guan2024mao] Guan T., Fu S., Wu X., Yu H., Liu Y. 2024, Bioturbation effect of artificial inoculation on the flavor metabolites and bacterial communities in the Chinese Mao-tofu, Food Chem X 21:101133, doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2024.101133paper
  4. [ZH-毛豆腐] Chinese Wikipedia, 毛豆腐wiki