Stinky tofu, why does it smell bad and taste good?

Stinky tofu is a kind of food that many people like. "Smelling stinky and eating fragrant" is the unique flavor of stinky tofu. Stinky tofu tastes better. Students who have never eaten stinky tofu can't figure out why there are so many diners. Let's take a look at how to make stinky tofu: first, process soybeans into tofu with less water content, and then inoculate Mucor seeds for fermentation. Stinky tofu is usually made in summer, because the fermentation temperature is high at this time, and the protein in tofu is completely decomposed. The sulfur-containing amino acids decomposed by protein are further decomposed to produce a small amount of hydrogen sulfide gas. Hydrogen sulfide has a pungent smell, and stinky tofu is notorious mainly because of its smell.

Due to full fermentation, protein in tofu is decomposed more thoroughly, and stinky tofu contains a lot of amino acids. Many amino acids taste delicious. For example, the ingredient of monosodium glutamate is an amino acid called glutamic acid. So stinky tofu tastes extremely delicious and smells abnormal.

In fact, stinky tofu is a patented product in China! Many famous foods are related to stinky tofu. For example, fried stinky tofu is a particularly famous snack.