The first step in making soy sauce is to inoculate black soy beans with koji bacteria and culture them in handwoven bamboo baskets. After this first step, the inoculated soybeans are mixed with water and salt and cultured for 180 days in earthenware vessels undisturbed under the sun. But first, small batches of these savory black bean nuggets, known as douchi, are extracted for use in daily cooking as an ingredient related to, but distinct from soy sauce.

These black beans are used in familiar dishes like Ma Po Tofu, Clams (or anything) with black bean sauce, and the Taiwanese dish Fly Head (chives, ground pork, and black beans). Unlike most dry fermented black beans, these are immediately packaged to preserve their moisture and thus remain soft and succulent.
These are incredible—the only small batch, hand fermented Chinese black bean you can buy in the USA.

Tasting Notes and Usage

salty, fragrant, umami, with notes of chocolate

Ingredients and Instructions

Non-GMO black soybeans, Australian sea salt.
200 g.
Gluten-Free
Shelf stable for 2 years from printed manufacturing date. Keep refrigerated after opening.
Sift and rinse before using to remove the salt cyrstals.

About Yu Ding Xing

Made in XiLuo, Taiwan at Yu Ding Xing 御鼎興.