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Comment by hnick | Hacker News Reader

Is there a tofu equivalent of something like parmesan or brie? I can see how tofu relates to mozzarella or ricotta and I've reached that conclusion myself before, but there is a wide variety of cheeses.

Apparently vegan-cheese varieties of those exist, but I'm curious if anyone took tofu there.

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There are several varieties of stinky tofu[0] that feature both a hard rind and soft center like brie.

Some varieties of 豆腐乳 (Wikipedia translates this as fermented bean curd[1]) have strong flavor and creamy texture like blue cheese.

I'm not sure there's anything quite as hard as parmesan (I assume you mean Parmigiano-Reggiano), but there are several smoked tofu varieties that taste similar to smoked gouda.

Sadly in the west most shops only sell silky tofu and firm tofu, which are perhaps the most culinarily flexible, but they are far from the most texturally interesting or flavorful varieties.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermented_bean_curd

Yeah, furu is shockingly close to cheese in flavor. It's very pungent and salty, so you can't just just chop off a huge slice and eat it like you would cheese, but you could probably blend it with creamier tofu/soy milk to make something similar to normal cheese.

> It's very pungent and salty, so you can't just just chop off a huge slice and eat it like you would cheese

You can do this with feta, which is soaked in brine. How salty is furu?

Yes Parmigiano-Reggiano. Parmesan is just the generic name for places where we care about DOP qualifications I guess.

I do have a jar of red Chinese fermented bean curd in my fridge, but have only mixed it into sauces per recipes. I should probably try it by itself.

Smoked tofu sounds really interesting.

Indonesians have tempeh which is a bit like haloumi I guess when pan fried, so that's another one.

The instructor claimed that there are a wide variety of textures and flavors of tofu, including soft and hard kinds. I cannot personally attest to this.

Indeed there are a variety. Most supermarket chains these days have a couple different types of tofu to choose from.

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