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
First of all let me say how much I have taken interest in your blog.
My search for authentic Sichuanese cuisine has me brought to your site many times already.
Great work you put in here!
So as someone else said in the comments, I am also going to make Doubanjiang because
I can’t find an organic version and I have already gathered most ingredients needed. I only have two questions left:
1. What chili do you recommend? I’d have guessed Facing Heaven peppers but I can’t get them here fresh. How hot should the peppers be? I could get fresh Thai chili, is that okay? I guess you use really hot chili, not just a little spicy chili. You want the mouthnumbing feeling, not just texture?
2. Can I directly put everything into the blender or mortar before putting the mixture into the pot? I guess it would ferment faster plus it would make it more like a paste/sauce.
Thank you very much!
Best wishes,
Christian
Hi Christian,
Sorry for the late reply. I am occupied by other things in recent days. For your questions.
1. We use fresh red peppers for two main purpose. The first one is to bring the hotness and the second one is to extract the red color. Thai chili can be a quite good choice. But I suggest you add some other less hot ones. Doubanjiang is not very hot actually.
You can use a blender for sure as long as it is cleaned previously.
Wow awesome , am looking for? How to preserve sichzwan sauce for long periods of time
Cover the sauce with extra oil, isolated from air. Place in cold places.
Hi Elaine,
I’m so excited to try making this. The pixian doubanjiang I buy in the store never has such a nice red color like yours. I’m planning to make this soon, but I’m wondering if when you say that you dry it in the sun, do you mean that the beans must dry outside or can they just be indoors in a very sunny place? It’s quite cold where I am now and the beans would probably freeze!
Hi Elaine, thank you so much for the recipe! I’m in the process of fermenting my beans but they just won’t grow those white hairs, do you have any suggestions on how to create an environment that encourages the mold to sprout those white hairs? I’m currently using a sous vide to create a warm and humid place but maybe I need light for it to start sprouting? Please let me know your thoughts!
Priscilla，
Naturally fermentation cannot be successful in normal environment.There is no starters around.You need to get Koji kit. By the way, Aspergillus oryzae needs air in addition to a warm and humid place.
Thank you for the reply! I actually did buy the koji kit for the fermentation process, it had the distinctive sweet smell of fermenting with aspergillus oryzae but it just wouldn’t grow the spores. I think because the container was covered with aluminum foil , there wasn’t enough air for it to grow or that it actually got too humid. This was super helpful though, hopefully I can come back with good news!
Hi Elaine
Just want to say thanks for the effort you put in to share your obvious love for the fabulous food of Sichuan. The recipes with such clear directions and photos are much appreciated. I turn to them often. Because of your suggestion I searched for and found 3 year pixian doubanjang, and am now totally addicted. Crazy good in mapo doufu.
Cheers
Derek
Glad to hear you get the high quality doubanjiang. It is the best partner for tofu. Happy cooking and thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me a sweet comment.
hello elaine, where I live is difficult to get some Chinese seasonings, what do you think of “chili bean sauce” by Lee Kum Kee? Count as doubanjiang?
https://www.amazon.com/Chili-Bean-Sauce-Toban-Djan/dp/B01JI0XM70/ref=sr_1_3?crid=291CRSY06PAKQ&keywords=doubanjiang&qid=1556076553&s=gateway&sprefix=douban%2Caps%2C349&sr=8-3
This can create a similar flavor. Should work for most of the recipes.
Hi Elaine,
Have you ever had a white mold form on top the oil layer? I’ve had a few spots here and there in a batch or two, but my most recent batch is covered in white mold, and the mycellium reaches maybe 1/4 cm into the 3 cm of oil.
I don’t think the mold is the a. oryzae I used for the beans, as it is white and did not turn yellow/green like the beans did.
I’m inclined to just (when it’s done fermenting) pour off the oil (I usually cook with it) and save the beans, since the mycellium has not reached the paste.
Any suggestions on preventing this next time, or what to do? I always am careful with the procedure to keep everything clean and use a fermentation airlock on the jar in addition to the oil.
Also, have you ever tried aging it in the refrigerator? If that works I may prefer that approach.
Finally, thank you so much for this recipe — one of very few English language recipes I’ve found for doubanjiang. I’m celiac and thus making my own is the only way to get it, due to the wheat flour used to distribute the spores in all commercial preparations.
Alex,
Currently, I have not meet this problem yet in the last three year’s experience of making doubanjiang. But I think we can try to figure out the problem together.
1. Do you use the same container for all of the batches you mention?
2. What’s the room temperature?
3. What type of wine or spirit used?
Thanks for the reply!
1) I use freshly cleaned and then boiled in water and dried quart mason jars with airlocks. It’s not the same one each time, but I have a bunch.
2) Room temperature ranges between 65 and 75 F.
3) takara mirin
Alex,
If you make sure that your jars are cleaned completely, replace mirin with harder alcohol. By the way, the temperature is relatively a little bit low. Try with another small batch when warmer.
Thanks!
White spirit what is that?
Can u tell me
It is Chinese hard alcohol.
Hi! Congrats for the site in general and this recipe in particular!
I did doubanjiang some years ago from a recipe I found in a forum. Now, thanks to your recipe, I know I missed several steps. The most important one: probably there is no Aspergillus oryzae (despite I live near to a rice “factory”). Also, now I know what “hard wine” stands for baijiu, so I can buy it in the (only) Chinese store there’s in my city, or maybe replace it with whiskey.
I have a doubt on the quantities I hope you can solve: the recipe calls for 150 g of broad beans, but in the pictures they look more like 1500 g (or 1.5 kg), , which also is the quantity you mention in the introduction. Should I use 150 g of broadbeans for 1000 g of chili, as is written in the recipe?
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe with so many details,
Jose
Hi Jose,
Thanks so much for the feedback.
As for the information about the quantities, I use raw broad beans. After soaking, it absorb the water so it seems much more than 150g.
Thank you for the reply.
I had already started trying to ferment 1,5 kg of broadbeans (they are very common and cheap where I live), but they didn’t end with that nice yellow colour of your pictures. Instead they look dark grey, and smell like mature old cheese. It smells wonderful to me, but I think it’s not the smell they are supposed to have.
So I’ll start again with 150 g.
Thanks for your advices!!
Jose
I believe the temperature is not in the right range if you used starters or slightly over fermented. Do you check it from time to time? Any white hair grow?
My oven can be set from 30 ºC to 270 ªC. I initially set it to 30 ªC, but I checked the real temperature with a precission probe thermometer (yes, I’m that geek to have one for cooking). The temperature was 27 ªC, so I increased the oven to 35 ª. I also sprayed the walls of the oven with water to make sure the environment was humid.
Lots of white hairs grew, but they were much longer than the ones in your pictures. Most of them later turned dark grey (maybe green-grey?). Some of them did turn to yellow like yours, though. For me the smell was very pleasant. Like old mature European cheese. But I think the expected smell is fruity. Is it right?
I think the problem comes from the starter I bought. It doesn’t look as dark as the one in the teaspoon from your photo. I think it was already mixed with flour. And when I added more flour it got too diluted. Next time I’ll try with just the content of the bag I bought.
Thank you very much for your replies!
Jose