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Anyone Ever Made Natto?

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surfsteve:
I was just wondering if anyone here has ever tried natto and made it themselves. It's supposed to be good for all kinds of things and if you didn't need to cook the beans it would be totally raw paleo. I wonder if some form of paleo natto exists in nature. Surely somewhere, one would think

surfsteve:
I got interested in natto when I bought a bottle of nattokinase with serapeptase pills several years back.

I was feeling a little stiff a month or so ago so I took some and though it took away my stiffness it made me dehydrated. Luckily it was cheaper to buy the nattokinase and serapeptase pills separate or my story would have ended there. Rather than quit taking both I decided to try each one separate and it turned out to be the serapeptase that was making me feel dehydrated and foggy and had nothing to do with the nattokinase.

I looked on Ebay and found someone selling an entire 500 gram bag of nattokinase and bid 72 dollars which was the cost of 2 bottles of pills and won it. Suddenly I could afford to take all I wanted and instead of the 1/32nd teaspoon on the bag I was taking half teaspoon fulls at a time. I really liked the way it tasted. Before it came in the mail I tried a bag of natto (the stuff from which nattokinase was extracted.) I also liked the way it tasted but didn't care for it's gritty texture. I discovered though that it made a pretty good base for salad dressing when mixed with vinegar and oil and that soaking it in the dressing decreased the gritty texture. 

Almost forgot to mention that natto is the richest source of vitamin K on the planet. No other food comes close. Also nattokinase is an extract and doesn't contain much if any vitamin K.

By this time I had developed a taste for powdered natto. I watched some videos about traditional natto and the texture looked really gross. Supposedly most westerners are revolted by it as well as many Japanese. Long story short I ordered the cheapest natto I could find from Korea but it is going to take at least several more weeks to arrive in the mail. Meanwhile I turned into a dried natto junkie and used up my entire bag of natto yesterday way before the one I ordered is going to get here. I called an oriental grocery store in town and they only sold fresh natto so I bought a few packages to try but at my present dried natto consumption rate it will cost quite a bit to use them every day. I been reading that natto can be made at home. It is a cultured product and I've made a lot of cultured products (I have culture!) so I started doing some research on how to make it.

This is ironic because I haven't even tried eating the fresh natto and there's a good chance that I wont even like it!   

surfsteve:
Here are some pretty cool links about natto that were in my windows that I'm about to close up. I hope you like them...

Making the Stinky, Sticky, Slimy Beloved Superfood of Japan: (Natto)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY8rCvLzZp4

Making natto from chickpeas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxYcnKsrTZU&index=6&list=WL

Making natto using a rice cooker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI7H1pspd7k

Making natto in a yogurt maker
https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/155232-homemade-natto-using-a-yogurt-maker-japanese-food-anywhere-you-go


After I watched these videos I've decided that first I should try eating some of the natto I bought to see if I even like it. If I do I think I will try combining all the methods in the links above I just posted; making my first batch my own way with pinto beans because I have tons of them on hand. I will cook them in my rice cooker ( I cook them twice, using double the water for rice each time). It is a fool proof way of cooking all kinds of beans including pinto and garbanzo, my two favorites. You just set the rice cooker (twice) and forget about it.

Next I will ferment them with my yogurt maker because my rice cooker isn't digital and the temperature wont go low enough to make natto. Seems like a good idea to put a steralized shop towel over the natto instead of yogurt lids like the guy did in one of the videos I posted.

I will use the remaining natto I bought from the store as starter culture.

I have a lot of experience making cultured foods and have successfully made yogurt, sauerkraut, Pickles, fermented onions, carrots and celery medley and many other vegetables. I've even grown my own mushrooms so I should be able to make natto.  At least I hope so...

Really busy today so it might be a bit before I have a chance to get around to it. Will keep you guys posted...

surfsteve:
I just tried some of the fresh natto I bought at the store. It's pretty good. Comes with it's own hot mustard and soy sauce in separate packets. which I obviously wont be using when I use it as starter culture. Fresh natto should make even better salad dressing than dried natto.

Here's a video of someone making salad dressing from natto. I been making it from dried natto, adding vinegar, olive oil, dill, sea salt, pepper and hot mustard; but this recipe looks yummy. I just don't have her ingredients on hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eHsqXOsyek

Damn. I want some more natto. I could eat a giant bowl of this stuff. It comes in really puny boxes and costs a fortune. Sure hope I can make it myself because it will be a hundred times cheaper.

surfsteve:
One last note. I should be able to use the dried natto I have coming as starter culture. I recall someone saying they did that on an Amazon review for natto. Once I dust off and sterilize all my equipment this should be something I can whip up with just a few minutes prep time, requiring not much more effort than making yogurt...

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