Eight-Treasure Fermented Black Beans 八宝豆豉

Eight-Treasure Fermented Black Beans (八宝豆豉) is Linyi’s (临沂) moist douchi, fermented in oil and liquor. Its eight ingredients are Shandong black beans, aubergine, fresh ginger, apricot kernels, Sichuan pepper, perilla leaves, sesame oil and baijiu.

How it is made

The Sunwuyan (孙武宴) preparation described by Linyi’s Culture and Tourism Bureau uses sealed containers, with ceramic vessels favoured for retaining the aroma during maturation. The jars stand in sunlight in spring and autumn and in shade during summer, allowing the ingredients to ferment naturally.

Maturation takes about a year. Around the following Mid-Autumn Festival, the fermented beans are ready to be opened.

Flavour and texture

The finished black beans are rounded, plump and glossy. Linyi’s culture and tourism bureau describes their aroma as fresh and fragrant and their taste as mellow without being oily.

The oil-and-liquor soaking makes this a wet bean preparation. The bureau contrasts that moist finish with the dry douchi more commonly produced elsewhere, making moisture as well as the eight-part ingredient list a defining feature of the Linyi product.