The Birthplace of Tofu

The birthplace of tofu is Bakong Mountain in Shou County, Anhui Province.

Shouxian Bakong Mountain is located in the center of Anhui Province, on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, north of Shouxian County. During the Western Han Dynasty, it was the state of Huainan. The spring water under the mountain is overflowing with light and color, clear and sweet. Shouchun area is rich in soybeans, and the mountain people have had the habit of grinding beans and drinking soybean milk with spring water from the mountain since ancient times.

Liu An, King of Huainan (177-122 BC), whose mother loved soybeans, was once unable to eat whole soybeans due to her mother's illness, and Liu An asked someone to grind the soybeans into powder for fear that the powder would be too dry, and then rushed some water to boil it into soymilk for fear of blandness and then put some salt brine on it, and the result was a block of something, namely, tofu flower.

King Huainan's mother ate it and got better, so the tofu was passed down. The production of tofu, on the other hand, was invented by Liu An during his practice of organizing the alchemy of the Fangshi. In their alchemy, the Fangshi used many minerals and inorganic salts, and occasionally discovered that gypsum or other salts could solidify soybean milk to make tofu.

Tips for buying tofu

Take a piece of tofu and look at it directly under diffused light. Traditional tofu is a uniform creamy white or pale yellow color with a slight sheen. Synthetic tofu, on the other hand, is much whiter and less shiny than traditional tofu because of the addition of albumin; it may also have water streaks, air bubbles, and fine particles within it.

Traditional tofu has a certain elasticity that can be felt when pressed, and is moderately soft and firm. Synthetic tofu will be rougher at the cut surface, not fine texture, less elastic, and no white tofu liquid out.

Smell it directly at room temperature. Traditional tofu is made from soybeans and has a soybean flavor. Synthetic tofu, on the other hand, is made from soy protein isolate and has a very faint odor, even the smell of chemicals.