The real soul of Sichuan cuisine — Doubanjiang with a homemade recipe you can try when the board beans are harvested.
What’s Doubanjiang
Doubanjiang, also known as Sichuan sauce or Board bean chili paste, is a traditional Chinese condiment made from fermented broad beans. It is considered the soul of Sichuan cuisine. It has a pungent, salty flavor and is often used in stir-frying dishes and stewed dishes.
Doubanjiang (豆瓣酱) literally means bean paste. There are several versions popular in different areas in China. Sichuan Doubanjiang is made from broad bean (fava beans) instead of soybean. There are two sub-versions—one is red oil doubanjiang, which is relatively easy to make and quite popular in housewives’ kitchen; the other one is famous Pixian doubanjiang produced in a small area named as Pixian of Sichuan province. Due to the excellent water sauces, great weather condition and ancestral recipe, Pixian Doubanjiang has its unique flavor and enjoys a high reputation all over world. Pixian doubanjiang usually goes through quite long fermentation time under sunshine. The prices vary based on the fermentation years. But the main market for Pixian doubanjiang is outside Sichuan province. It is quite sad that the tradition is losing due to the city development. Instead of using traditional fermentation method, modernized production lines are widely adopted to improve the outputs. However, we are lucky as there are still some brands (Pi’xian Doubanjiang on Amazon: Sichuan Pixian Broad Bean Paste with Red Chili Oil – 17.6 oz (500g) to trust. If you meet premiere three-year doubanjiang, do not miss it at whatever price.
Common housewives in Sichuan province love to make their own Doubanjiang at home. The homemade Doubanjiang is produced by a simpler process but yield great tastes too. My family has the tradition to make Doubanjiang each year, making several large jars in turn and exchange with family members. We usually call homemade doubanjiang red oil doubanjiang, because usually a layer of oil is used to separate the doubanjiang from air.
Caution: the following is an extremely long post, as I am trying my best to explain everything in detail. Making a jar of doubanjing is comforting and enjoyable, but also time-consuming and expensive. If you plan to try it at home, please know the most important fungus during the process: Aspergillus oryzae, how it works, and the best conditions.
I thought homemade doubanjiang can be quite easy after watching my mother and grandma making them a year and year again. But it is true only if you are in China because we are making our homemade doubanjiang based on an essential ingredient—fermented broad beans(霉豆瓣). There is almost no chance to find fermented broad beans outside China, even outside Sichuan. So I went back to my hometown this year and make my own batch from just dried fava beans under their directions. I only start with a small batch and yield around 1.5 kg doubanjiang at last(in the little earth jar shown in the above picture).
My mom did not make fermented broad beans previously but my grandma did. I have double-checked with her and tried several batches using natural fermentation in my apartment. Guess what? All of the tests failed. After reading lots of articles and papers, I found out the reason is the environment-my apartment. Fungus widely exists in my grandma’s yard as she makes fermented foods each year, but my apartment is too clean so there are very few starters around. So I further find out a shortcut and saver way–using the kit for the fermentation. Koji kit is the sprouts of Aspergillus oryzae. After being loaded with the sprouts, broad beans can be fermented in a short time and meanwhile reduce the chance to be infected by other harmful fungi.
Firstly soak the beans overnight with enough water and then drain.Transfer the beans to a steamer and steam for 20-45 minutes based on the hight of the layer until just well cooked (when you break them in halves in hand, there is no raw part inside, but the beans should not be too fragile to smash easily). You can taste the beans. They should be slightly stiff but well cooked already.
After steaming, transfer the beans out immediately and spread to cool down. In summer, make sure they are cooled down completely. Then mix the starter with 3g flour. The powder in the small spoon is the starter I use, known as koji kit (koji mold spores). You can purchase a Japanese version from amazon.
Spread the starter to the beans and massage with hands to make sure all the beans are loaded with starter.
Then flat them and cover with a wet clean cloth (I soak the cloth in cooled boiled water and please keep the cloth away from the beans). Place on a baking cooling rack so there is air going through underneath and place in shadow place (try to avoid sunshine). Keep the temperature between 30 to 36 degree C and the air humidity around 80% (at least 70%).
If weather condition is great, it should look this after several hours.
Then after another 12 to 16 hours, it looks like this.
Lovely? I watch them for minutes.
After another 12 hours to 16 hours, the white hair turns yellow.
When the hair turns yellow, stop the fermentation via drying under sunshine.
After one day drying under sunshine, it looks like. That’s the fermented broad beans(霉豆瓣).
Wash the beans under running water gently and drain. Then add 30ml Chinese white spirit (白酒), 250ml cooled boiled water and 50g salt.Mix well and fermented for 30 hours to 40 hours (covered).
Then you will get this.
Wash the pepper and air dry for 5-10 hours. And then cut into small pieces. Add around 40g salt and set aside for 1 hour before mixing with the beans.
Scoop the red peppers to the beans and discard the extra liquid at the bottom. Mix in spices, 50ml oil and 2 tablespoons of fermented sticky rice (you can skip this if hard to acquire). And transfer the mixture into the pot.
This is optional! In the first 7 days, place in warm place (under sunshine ) and uncover by day and half covered by night.
Add oil to cover the doubanjiang (3-4 cm higher), cover the lid and place in warm place. Then we pass everything to time. Let it ferments for at least 3 months before enjoying. Use cleaned tool to scoop the sauce out and it can be kept for 2-3 years.
After three months. Homemade red oil doubanjiang has a lighter and brighter color comparing with Pixian doubanjiang.
Doubanjiang | Broad Bean Paste
Ingredients
- 150 g dried board beans , peeled
- 0.3 g kit starter
- 800 g to 1000g fresh pepper
- 3 tbsp. minced ginger , optional
- 30 ml white spirit , or other hard liquor
- 250 ml cooled boiled water
- 50 g for beans +40g (for fresh peppers) salt
- 2 tbsp. fermented sticky rice
- oil as needed
- a Jar
Spices (you can replace them with 1 tbsp. Chinese five spice powder)
- 2 star anises
- 3-4 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon red Sichuan peppercorn
- 1 small piece of Chinese cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 tsao ko
- 2 cardamons
Instructions
Make fermented fava beans
- Firstly soak the beans overnight with enough water and then drain.Then transfer the beans to a steamer and steam the board beans for 20-45 minutes based on the hight of the layer until just well cooked (when you break it in halves in hand, there is no raw part inside, but the beans should not be too fragile to smash easily). You can taste the beans. They should be slightly stiff but well cooked already.
- After steaming, transfer the beans out immediately and spread to cool down. In summer, make sure they are cooled down completely. Then mix the starter with 3g flour.
- Spread the starter to the beans and message with hands to make sure all the beans are loaded with starter.
- Spread the starter to the beans and message with hand to make sure all the beans are loaded with starter.Then flat them and cover with a wet clean cloth (I soak the cloth in cooled boiled water and please keep the cloth away from the beans). Place on a baking cooling rack so there is air going through underneath and place in shadow place (try to avoid sunshine). Keep the temperature between 30 to 36 degree C and the air humidity around 80% (at least 70%). Wait for 24 to 48 hours until the white hair turns yellow.Stop the fermentation via drying under sunshine.
Make Doubanjiang mixture
- Wash the beans under running water gently and drain. Then add 30ml white spirit, 250ml cooled boiled water and 50g salt.Mix well and fermented for 30 hours to 40 hours (covered).
- Wash the pepper and air dry for 5-10 hours. And then cut into small pieces (I chop ginger along with peppers). Add around 40g salt and set aside for 1 hour before mixing with the beans.
- Scoop the red peppers to the beans and discard the liquid on bottom. Mix in spices, 50ml oil and 2 tablespoons of fermented sticky rice. And transfer the mixture into the pot.
- This is optional! In the first 7 days, place in warm place (under sunshine ) and uncover by day and half covered by night.
- Add oil to cover the doubanjiang (3-4 cm higher), cover the lid and place in warm place. Them we pass everything to time. Let it ferments for at least 3 months before enjoying.
Hi Elaine,
Can I use angciu as the hard liquor or just regular white wine? and I don’t know what broad beans are in my country I google it up and it shows me stinky bean, but I don’t think it’s that, does it look like peas?
No stinky bean and broad bean are two different vegetables. I think broad beans equal to fava beans.
I am sorry but I don’t see the Recipe??? Where it is on this page???
I will post the recent one soon. My little jar is going through natural fermentation now.
Hi Elaine
could you post or send it to my email the last recipe again? the paste I did was great and I am running over of it.
[email protected]
Send! Francesc! Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Elaine,
fascinating writeup. I love cooking when it gets “technical” 🙂 I was wondering though about the earthenware jar in the second and third last photographs. The “wide brim” looks exactly like the ones on the jars that are used to ferment Sauerkraut. They usually come with an earthenware lid. For fermenting the “brim” is filled with water and the lid is build in a way that it closes below the waterline. That way gases that build up during fermentation may escape but no air (and possibly spores) from the outside may enter (and spoil) it. Does the jar in the pictures operate after the same principle?
Sorry, this is a complicated question and English is not my native language either, so I just hope you’ll understand it anyways.
Hi Andreas,
You got yourself well understood. Yes, if you use this jar to make fresh pickles, the brim should be filled with water to separate air because the lactobacillus of pickled vegetables are anaerobic. However for doubanjiang fermentation, there is no need to separate the air because Aspergillus oryzae needs a small amount of air.
The earthenware jar can let enough air go through and meanwhile it can keep the warmness. You can use glass jars but the doubanjiang tastes excellent after earthenware jar fermentation.
Hi fellow visitors of this site,
has anyone of you been successfully able to achieve the fermentation process under – well – temperate conditions?
I do get about one or maybe two weeks a year with day temperatures constantly above 30 degree Celsius (although they drop slightly below at nights). But the humidity will probably be below 70% at those times.
And as Elaine mentioned in one of her replies… controlling weather is hard 🙂
So my question is, has anyone build a special heater for this or some kind of mini greenhouse to keep temperature *and* humidity up?
I’d love to hear your experiences.
Andreas
Andreas,
In the city I am living, the weather humidity is really high (above 58% average, even high in summer), that’s why fermented food is widely produced in summer. But I have a method to help increase the humidity–use wet cloth (and you need to rewet it every two hours) and cover like what I did in the photo. Do not touch the beans because they need breathing.
Another possible way might be fermented in oven and place a large cup (vacuum cup) of hot water at the bottom. The water vapor can help to increase the humidity.
That’s really a tough task and you get a well point here. Controlling weather is the key issue but it is really hard in home cooking environment.
Hi Elaine,
thank you for your Reply. Yes the idea with the oven seems workable, it also came up in a discussion with a coworker of mine regarding this topic. I’ll just have to test if mine is able maintain temperature at this – for an oven – relatively low level. I also found out that Aspergillus oryzae based fermentation is key in producing some other things like Japanese Miso for example so searching for these turned up a wide variety of improvised “devices” (mostly involving card boxes, pierced plastic containers, wet cloth and an electric blanket) to aid growth of the fungus.
I guess I’ll wait for my next holidays and buy a really big bag of beans to be able to do some “testing” before starting this 🙂
I do have one additional question though if you don’t mind.
You list tsaoko as an ingredient. What is that? My google searches suggest it’s something like “black cardamom” but you list cardamom separately.
Now what I have readily available is the small green cardamom as used in Indian cuisine and big black cardamom which is what the Vietnamese sell here for making Phở. So in the list of ingredients which one is which or is tsaoko something completely different?
Sorry for the lenghty text.
In Chinese cuisine, we have different names for cardamom and black cardamom (tsaoko). Yes, it is the spice for Vietnamese pho.
Hi Elaine, love the site with the authentic recipes… thank you!
A question about storing store bought Pixan Doubangjiang and Dou-chi… do these need to be stored in the refrigerator? Or is it ok to leave it outside at room temperature?
I usually leave them out at room temperature. But you need to make sure that they are kept in air-tight container especially for dou-chi.
Assuming with the “white spirit” you typed in your recipe you mean like vodka or a rice liquor(hard liquor)?
“White spirit” is usually used to refer to a common toxic solvent in Europe and not something you would put in your food :p
Chinese white spirit is hard liquor. You can use vodka.
Hi, in my country (the Netherlands) are Moroccan shops with split dried board beans, Are they suitable for this recipe?
Split dried board bean is the perfect ingredient for Doubanjiang because you do not need to remove the shells.
Hi there!
Your recipe is fascinating. I’ve been trying to look for an organic version of broad bean sauce with no luck. I hope to try making yours some time. I was wondering if you had any interest selling jars of your artisanal broad bean sauce privately. Since the sauce is fermented, it should easily handle being mailed. I would totally buy your sauce from EBay or contribute to your shop on Indiegogo/ Kickstarter.
Thanks,
Katie
Hi Katie,
Thanks for the sweet comment. But I am based in China and food is quite hard to ship internationally. So I am sorry, though I really want to share a small jar to you.
Hi,
Thank you so much for your time. I am wondering if you could discuss how your grandmother ferments her beans and chili naturally outside. I have seen many videos showing they ferment bean and paste separately for year than mix? I live in a climate similar to Szechuan in winter with high humidity and right temp. If you can give me a short discription of how she does it that would be great (not detail like amounts, just process)
Hi,
Natural fermentation is even simpler, cook the beans and then cool down. Then cover with large fresh pumpkin leaves (similar function with the cloth I used here) and then wait for the fermentation in shadow and cool places.
But I strongly suggest you not trying this because I have failed at least 4 times in Sichuan. The humidity and temp is absolutely ok, but there seems to be no starters of the Aspergillus oryzae in the city and other harmful bacteria will take action very soon.
Thank you for the reply! How long does it generally take to ferment? I was thinking the whole winter? I luckily live in the country on a farm and grow broad beans, maybe this will help. I also have fresh pumpkin leaves. Do you know how to ferment the chili peppers separately than the broad beans (I am now harvesting a large amount of peppers)? I notice in the Pixian doubanjang the peppers are thin and dried (I know they age under the sun). This information is so hard to find in America and I sincerely appreciate your recipe and time.
We only fermented beans for doubanjiang in hot summer days over 30 degree C. And it only costs 4-6 days. I am not very sure about winter fermentation.
Fermenting chili peppers is quite easy and we do this a lot along with the year. You can check this post.