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Soy and legumes from Ghana, Nigeria

Soy-dawadawa (boiled and roasted types, Ghana)soy-dawadawa

Soy-dawadawa is the soybean form of the West African locust-bean condiment dawadawa. The beans are boiled or roasted, dehulled, boiled again and left in banana-leaf-lined baskets for three days, where Bacillus bacteria make them sticky, pungent and alkaline. It is used to flavour soups.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes3.1 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProducer method with no fixed batch size. Two experienced producers made the boiled and the roasted types for the 1999 study; soybeans are the only ingredient of the plain type.
SoybeansCleaned, then boiled or roasted before dehulling[opaitetteh1999]
Banana leavesLine and cover the fermenting baskets[opaitetteh1999]
Salt (optional)1 % (w/w)Added on the first day of fermentation in one trial variant[popoola2007]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.1 days

Start
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What changes: Soybeans are boiled or roasted for half an hour to loosen the hulls

Step 1 of 5
Boil or roast the whole soybeans
Time
30 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus
Bacillus subtilis
Bacillus pumilus
Bacillus firmus
Bacillus licheniformis

Output: treated beans.

Flavour
the roasted type later gives more aroma compounds
Texture
hulls loosen
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

Soy-dawadawa is the soybean form of the West African locust-bean condiment dawadawa. The beans are boiled or roasted, dehulled, boiled again and left in banana-leaf-lined baskets for three days, where Bacillus bacteria make them sticky, pungent and alkaline. It is used to flavour soups. Made in 5 steps over 3.1 days. The longest step, ferment in banana-leaf-lined baskets, takes 3 days (Opai-Tetteh S. 1999). Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[opaitetteh1999][popoola2007]Ferment in banana-leaf-lined baskets
AciditypH 6.6 → 8.3Measured[opaitetteh1999]Ferment in banana-leaf-lined baskets

What makes this one different

Soy-dawadawa uses soybeans in place of locust-bean seeds, so the first boil takes 30 minutes, not many hours. Ghanaian producers also make a roasted type that is dry-roasted before dehulling.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Roasted soy-dawadawaBeans dry-roasted 30 min, not boiled, before dehulling; more aroma compounds.
  • Salted soy-daddawa (Nigeria)Salt at 1 % (w/w) added on the first day of fermentation (trial variant).
  • Starter-culture soy-daddawaBacillus subtilis, B. pumilus and B. licheniformis added at the start, in sterile glassware.

Safety

The fresh product has a high moisture content and its fermenting bacteria are still present, so it deteriorates quickly. In a storage study the peroxide value passed the 20–40 meq/kg range at which rancidity is suggested to start by day 4, while free fatty acids stayed below the rancidity threshold; the author concluded that after 4–6 days it begins to deteriorate biochemically and that eating it later may carry health risks, and that adding 1 % salt could extend its shelf life [popoola2007]. Bacillus cereus made up 16 % of the Bacillus isolates [opaitetteh1999].

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (16 % of Bacillus isolates).

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [opaitetteh1999] Opai-Tetteh S. 1999, The microbial activities involved in the alkaline fermentation of soybeans into dawadawa, MPhil thesis, University of Ghana and Food Research Institutepaper
  2. [popoola2007] Popoola T.O., Kolapo A., Afolabi O. 2007, Changes in functional properties as a measure of biochemical deterioration of stored soybean daddawa condiment, Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria 6(3):51–59paper
  3. [dakwa2005] Dakwa S., Sakyi-Dawson E., Diako C., Annan N.T., Amoa-Awua W.K. 2005, Effect of boiling and roasting on the fermentation of soybeans into dawadawa (soy-dawadawa), Int J Food Microbiol 104(1):69–82, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2005.02.006 (abstract)paper