Not interested eating natto anymore, unfortunately

[adaweawe]

Half a year ago, I discovered natto and made it once a week for 2 months. By natto standards, it came out mediocre, but I still ate it due to novelty. I tried store packets which tasted a lot better than my own. Store packets are too expensive so not a long-term solution.

Then I read that it's very difficult to find the correct soybean type here in America, let alone at an affordable price. I bought the soybeans from the bulk containers at Winco foods. I almost bought a box of organic non-GMO smaller sized soybeans for 40 bucks on eBay. I think that's a decent price, but it's still not the Japanese type that's used in the commercial products. Thus I wasn't motivated enough to try out.

I did a ton of Internet research including reading some academic papers on natto making methodology. I should organize and share that information. I tried making this natto with sweet yam, hoping it would come out to less bitter. Unfortunately the opposite occurred.

After those 2 months, I stopped making anymore. I still have 2 tubes of natto powder in my fridge, unused. I want to eat it again for health reasons, but I dislike the taste of my homemade natto. So much for initially planning it to be part of my staple diet.

The taste is just too strong of ammonia and rotten. The store-bought tasted fine, but I'm just not satisfied with buying the expensive packets. Given the health benefits, it's arguably worth it, so I guess that's my loss. Hopefully I will be motivated enough to buy that box of smaller sized eBay soybeans and try making it again. Perhaps you guys have a better source of natto soybeans?

This is sort of a rant, but maybe others share my experience. You are not alone, lol.

[bravebird]

omg! i was just planning to do a natto ferment with garnet yams. i've read that potatoes do a really good job at culturing the natto bacteria so i wanted to do a potato natto. i havent tasted soybean natto yet and they seem to be priced at about $2.50 for a pack of 3. I have a Japanese Mitsuwa store nearby...they also take online shipping orders so maybe you can give them a try. Also, have you tried making your natto using the store bought sources as your culture?..or are you just using the powder? I plan on using the already made natto to make mine. Did it really stink up your house? That's my worse fear. I dont want others upset over stinky natto smells.
I also seen Eden foods sell a soybean that might be the same they use in Japan...i wouldnt really know, only have seen others say that. They have small, black soybeans but you'd have to buy like 25lbs, which for me is a bit much. Even when fermented, i still dont think i do well on soy.

[bravebird]

Half a year ago, I discovered natto and made it once a week for 2 months. By natto standards, it came out mediocre, but I still ate it due to novelty. I tried store packets which tasted a lot better than my own. Store packets are too expensive so not a long-term solution.

Then I read that it's very difficult to find the correct soybean type here in America, let alone at an affordable price. I bought the soybeans from the bulk containers at Winco foods. I almost bought a box of organic non-GMO smaller sized soybeans for 40 bucks on eBay. I think that's a decent price, but it's still not the Japanese type that's used in the commercial products. Thus I wasn't motivated enough to try out.

I did a ton of Internet research including reading some academic papers on natto making methodology. I should organize and share that information. I tried making this natto with sweet yam, hoping it would come out to less bitter. Unfortunately the opposite occurred.

After those 2 months, I stopped making anymore. I still have 2 tubes of natto powder in my fridge, unused. I want to eat it again for health reasons, but I dislike the taste of my homemade natto. So much for initially planning it to be part of my staple diet.

The taste is just too strong of ammonia and rotten. The store-bought tasted fine, but I'm just not satisfied with buying the expensive packets. Given the health benefits, it's arguably worth it, so I guess that's my loss. Hopefully I will be motivated enough to buy that box of smaller sized eBay soybeans and try making it again. Perhaps you guys have a better source of natto soybeans?

This is sort of a rant, but maybe others share my experience. You are not alone, lol.

how was ur experience with the yam, other than it tasting bitter? was it still stringy? was it at least edible? i just picked up some natto in the japanese market and i'm going to try making some natto in a few days...and possibly use sweet potatoes and lentils/black beans...or some other bean. i'm just still a bit scared of using soy, so wanted to go with something that was a little less to worry about.

[bravebird]

This lentil ferment might b the grossest ferment ive ever done, i was only brave enough to try one spoonful. The taste isnt as bad as it looks, it does have the stringyness, but the ammonia smell was a bit much. If im not sick in the next few hours then ill try another spoonful.

might i add, i sprouted the lentils for a day and steamed them but some got extra mushy, as u can see. Would u eat this? Lol.

[MartinKrpan]

I do apologize for resurrecting such an old thread, but I have the exact same problem as the OP, so i thought it redundant to explain my problems when he already did it so well.

So OP, or anyone else, any solutions to the overly rotten taste that accompanies my natto? I've also tried store bought natto (3 small packets sold together) and it tasted way better. Like OP, i believe the problem lies in soybeans, not my method of fermentation, because I also detect (though not nearly to such an extent as with natto) the same rotten undertone with my homemade tempeh (so I pretty much switched to chickpea and peanut tempeh).

Any and all thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

[WF Newbie]

This lentil ferment might b the grossest ferment ive ever done, i was only brave enough to try one spoonful.

I've just done my very first natto ferment - and I decided to start off by using sprouted then slow cooked lentils. I got a tiny pot of store bought natto, and mixed this in with the lentils. After I put the "nattified lentils" in to my proofer for fermentation, I wondered - should I have mixed in a bit of steralised water with the store bought natto, to help faciliate mixing the natto with the lentils, because the natto and lentils mixture seemed quite dry.

Bravebird, how did you do yours?

[WF Newbie]

The fermentation time of 23+ hours has just elapsed, and I've just inspected my "nattified" lentils..

I put 2 glass oven dishes, stacked one on top of the other, inside a proofer device, and set its temperature to 43C for 2.5 hours, then to 38C for the remainder of the fermentation time. The heat source for the proofer is at the bottom of the device, and so the dish at the bottom seemed to receive quite a bit more heat than the dish placed on top of it. It's a pity that I didn't rotate the dish order half way through the fermentation time, as that would have given both dishes more of an even temperature exposure..

For the top dish, which was the one furthest away from the heat source, I decided to add in 2 capsules of the probiotic powder called Prescript Assist to it. The bottom dish didn't have this powder added to it. Note: Prescript Assist contains Bacillus subtilis, amoung other strains.

Looking at the top dish first, the smell wasn't overpowering at all. When I stirred the lentils, I was really pleased to see stringiness all throughout the lentils! I was really pleased about that.

Looking at the bottom dish, the lentils looked much more parched, and had almost certainly been overcooked by the proofer's heat source. Also, when I stirred these lentils, I got a choking/gagging sensation at the back of my throat, which may have been amonia. Also, there was hardly any stringiness in the lentils, which was disappointing. The only stringiness seen was probably the stringiness in the small amount of store bought natto that I used as a starter culture.

My early conclusion to my first natto experiment is that either the Prescript Assist probiotic helped with the top dish's stringiness, or it was due to it not being overcooked, or both.

I've transfered both dish batches to airtight containers, and put them in the fridge. I'll taste test them both in a couple of days time. I did quickly test the overcooked lentils, and they tasted intriguingly salty. I did add salt to the lentils when I slow cooked them, but not as much as I could taste.

[WF Newbie]

It's been about a week since I made the nattified lentils, and I've now eaten both jars' worth. As I'm new to natto, I don't know what to compare it with, but they tasted fairly "ordinary" to me - like they were a bit overcooked, slightly pungent, very slightly "gone off" taste. I'm just about to do another "nattify" batch, but this time with the following sprouted and then slow cooked ingredients: wild rice, mung beans, adzuki beans, chickpeas, and black beans - a real mixture! I will add the probiotic Prescript Assist to this batch, like I did with the lentils.

One thing that intrigues me is that the last jar of nattified lentils that I ate - the "failed batch" mentioned above, whereby there was hardly any stringiness to them - well, as it aged in the fridge over the course of a week, the stringiness got more pronounced. I'm really pleased about that. Perhaps the fermentation "picked up" a little, but I'm a bit surprised, as they were kept in the fridge. Oh well - although I don't understand why, I consider that to be a bonus!