History of Natto and Its Relatives (1405-2012 - SoyInfo Center

salt or soy bean paste / miso. Hiya yakko, cold soy bean curd
[tofu]. Oshitashi [O-shitashi, O-hitashi], spinach prepared in
a delicate sesame and soy sauce. Toro natto, chopped fatty
tuna with aged soy beans in a cup.
Many of the entrees are nori-wrapped sushi.
1073. Toyo Shinpo (Soyfoods News).1985. Wara ga te ni
hairazu... Pinchi no Mito nattô [Rice straw is hard to get...
Mito natto is having a hard time]. Feb. 21. p. 9. [Jap; eng+]
Address: Kyoto, Japan.
1074. Odunfa, S.A.; Adewuyi, E.Y. 1985. Optimization of
process conditions for the fermentation of African locust
bean (Parkia biglobosa). I. Effect of time, temperature
and humidity. Chemie, Mikrobiologie, Technologie der
Lebensmittel 9(1):6-10. Feb. [12 ref]
• Summary: Describes the preparation of iru (also known as
dawadawa) and indicates that some Nigerian families serve
the fermented bean as a low cost meat substitute due to its
high protein content (29%). A comparison of the locust bean
fermentation with various soybean fermentations (natto and
thua-nao are both fermented with Bacillus subtilis at similar
optimum fermentation temperatures) is given at the end of
the article.
A fl ow sheet shows the traditional process using
locust beans. Salt is added at the end as a preservative. The
resulting product is “Sticky, dark brown strong smelling
beans with a greyish outer layer.” Address: Dep. of Botany,
Univ. of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
1075. Sugawara, Etsuko; Ito, T.; Odagiri, S.; Kubota, K.;
Kobayashi, K. 1985. Comparison of compositions of odor
components of natto and cooked soybeans. Agricultural and
Biological Chemistry 49(2):311-17. Feb. [22 ref]
• Summary: The authors found nine alkylpyrazines including
tetramethylpyrazine in natto at a total level of 24.07 mg/kg.
The pyrazines were detected only after the cooked soybeans
were inoculated with the natto bacterium, Bacillus natto. No
beany odor was detected for natto. The authors concluded
that pyrazines and sulfur-containing compounds were
important contributors to the characteristic odor of natto,
and that they may mask the beany odor. Address: 1. Iwate
Prefectural Morioka Junior College, Sumiyoshi, Morioka
020, Japan; 2. Dep. of Agricultural Chemistry, Iwate Univ.,
Ueda, Morioka 020, Japan; 3. Lab. of Food Chemistry,
Ochanomitzu Univ., Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112 Japan.
1076. Miller, Bryan. 1985. Restaurants: Sushi and tempura
on Park Avenue. New York Times. March 8. p. C20.
• Summary: This is a review of Mitsukoshi, a Japanese
restaurant at 465 Park Ave. (at 57th St.). The waitress saved
the writer from embarrassment in front of friends. In a
foolhardy show of bravado, he ordered something called
natto sengyo ae, having no idea what it was.
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HISTORY OF NATTO AND ITS RELATIVES 345
“’Maybe you not like fi sh guts so much?’ she warned
discreetly.” He left her a large tip.
The word “tofu” appears several times in the review,
without its translation “bean curd.”
1077. Tokai, Akinori. 1985. Nebari mo nioi mo nai nattô:
Tenpe [The natto that has neither stickiness nor smell:
Tempeh]. Yomiuri Shinbun (Yomiuri Daily News, Tokyo,
Evening ed.). March 19. p. 3. [Jap]
• Summary: A photo shows trays of tempeh being made by a
Marusan worker. Address: Japan.
1078. Byrne, Maureen. 1985. The future for soyfoods. The
fi rst European Soyfoods Workshop was held in Amsterdam
by the American Soybean Association, and papers covered
subjects from marketing to microbiological standards. Food
Manufacture (London) 60(3):49, 51, 53. March.
• Summary: This workshop was held on 27-28 Sept. 1984
at the Krasnapolski Hotel, Amsterdam, the Netherlands–
organized by the American Soybean Association. Gives a
brief summary of each paper presented.
Contains an interesting full-page table (p. 51) in which
Oriental soyfoods are classifi ed into two types: Nonfermented
and fermented. For each non-fermented food
is given the local names, description, and uses. The nonfermented
soyfoods are: Fresh green soybeans, soybean
sprouts (huang tou ya, Chinese), soynuts (hueh huang tou,
Chinese; iri-mame, Japanese), soymilk (tou chiang or tounai,
Chinese; tonyu, Japanese; kongkuk, Korean), soy fl our
(huang tou fen, Chinese), soy protein-lipid fi lm (yuba, toufu-pi),
soybean curd (tofu).
For each fermented soyfood is given the local names,
organisms used, description, and uses.
The fermented soyfoods are: Soy sauce, miso, tempeh,
natto, fermented tofu, and fermented black soybeans.
Soy sauce includes chiang-yu from China, shoyu from
Japan, ketjap from Indonesia, kanjang from Korea, toyo and
see-ieu from Southeast Asia.
Fermented black soybeans include tau-shih from China,
tao-si from the Philippines, tau-cheo from Malaysia, tauco
from Indonesia, and Hamanatto from Japan.
1079. Nabetani, Hiroshi; Watanabe, Atsuo; Horikita,
Horiyuki. 1985. [Energy consumption for waste and waste
water treatment in food processing. III. Natto (fermented soy
bean) processing]. Shokuhin Sogo Kenkyujo Kenkyu Hokoku
(Report of the National Food Research Institute) No. 46. p.
73-77. March. [1 ref. Jap; eng]
Address: National Food Research Inst. (Shokuhin Sogo
Kenkyujo), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,
Kannon-dai 2-1-2, Yatabe-machi, Tsukuba-gun, Ibaraki-ken
305, Japan.
1080. Stechmeyer, Betty. 1985. Re: Thanks for book. New