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Are you wondering how to press and drain tofu? This guide is here to help. I’m going to give you three ways to drain the water from tofu so that you have a nice block that’s ready to cook or absorb marinade.
Let’s get to the three methods…
Method 1: Use a Tofu Press
A tofu press is a device that can apply even pressure to a block of tofu to get the water out.
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Tofu press on the left and DIY-press on the right.
The advantage is that you don’t have to do a balancing act (as with rigging one up yourself) and you can create a similar amount of pressure every time you press
In the picture above, you can see a tofu press on the left and a homemade pressing/draining device on the right.As you may have guessed, the method on the left makes things way easier!
If you want to learn more – be sure to check out ourBest Tofu Press options so you can make your tofu recipes taste better.
Method 2: Make a Draining/Pressing Device at Home
A DIY tofu press can be made with a few easy items you have around the house.
The most basic version can be made with two plates (or any flat surfaces) and then a few weighted items such as books, cans, or more even blocks of tofu.
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Our set-up when using the cans to drain the tofu
To make a DIY Tofu Press….
- Place theblock of tofu on one plateand place the other plate on top of the tofu.
- Then place the weighted items on the top plate and allow it to sit for 30-45 minutes.
- Proceed to check the tofu after that amount of time as elapsed and drain the water out from the bottom of the plate to prevent the tofu from re-hydrating itself.
- You canalso use paper towelsto capture some of the water, but this could get wasteful rather quickly.
- You can proceed toadd more weight every 10-15 minutesto get all of the stubborn water out.
Method 3: Freezing Tofu
Freezing tofu might sound a bit strange, but it actually has a legitimate culinary application.
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Upon freezing, the water will turn into ice crystals and create small holes upon thawing giving it a more chewy and spongy texture.Once you thaw it and give it a good pat down, the tends to “fall out” a lot easier.
Many people swear by freezing it.
Keep reading to see our tofu pressing experiment and which method we liked best.
Which Pressing and Draining Technique Works Best?
With aspirations to narrow down the way to press tofu, we decided to set up three experiments using each of the methods listed above.
- We wanted to see the amount of sauce that the tofu absorbed.
- We wanted to evaluate the different textures.
To keep things simple, we marinaded the tofu in a vegan buffalo sauce after it was pressed or frozen.We then baked the tofu in a convection oven for 30 minutes.Our goals with this test were two fold:
Method 1: The DIY Tofu Press Results
Making the DIY tofu press was easy, but getting it to look and perform gracefully was hard.We assembled it with two plates, paper towels, and cans of beans.
The biggest issue that we had was getting even weight distribution on the tofu.At the end of the day, it didn’t make a big deal in terms of getting the water out, but it did make the tofu a bit uneven.as you can see in the picture below.
The whole systemended up toppling overfrom this uneven weight distribution and the bang was quite alarming!We realized that cans probably weren’t the best method here so we decided to get some weight dumbells.
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All of our cans after they fell over.
The dumbells provided a much more stable press, but it looked a bit laughable. Also, given all of the room that it took up on the plate, adding more weight wasn’t possible. This wasn’t entirely needed to drain it, but it could have potentially been drained a bit quicker if we could have increased the tension.
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We had to switch to dumbbells after our cans toppled
Method 2: The Tofu Press Results
While the tofu press did inspire a bit of skepticism at first, we were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use.Needless to say, there were much fewer moving parts and it wasa lot easier to set upthan the DIY press.
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The Tofu Press in Action!
The only complaint with the tofu press was that there’snot really a great surface to do it on. If you do it on the counter then the counter will get wet, so balancing it on a plate seemed like a good idea.However, this was a bit of an inconvenience, and it meant that more things had to be cleaned.
Not the biggest deal, but perhaps next time it would be best done in an empty sink.
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You can see the DIY tofu press yielded a bit uneven results
Given the balanced nature of the press, it allowed us to get an even press on the tofu. You can tell in the picture above which one was done on the tofu press and which one was done with the DIY press.
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Results after tofu was marinated and cooked.
Both of thesemethods produced near identical results in terms oftextureandflavorabsorption.
The buffalo tofu came out delicious of course, but none of the sauce seeped past the outside of the tofu slices.
We’d probably recommend using the tofu press just for the ease of use, but if you’re in a pinch or don’t want to fork over the cost for one (they’re usually pretty cheap) then the DIY press will work.
Method 3:Freezing Results
We froze the tofu overnight and then allowed it to thaw the next day.
After it was completely thawed we allowed it to marinate for several hours in the same buffalo sauce as the pressed tofu.
There was astark difference in the texture of the tofu after it defrosted.It had abunch of tiny little holes which allowed it toabsorb more of the saucethan the tofu that was pressed. These holes were quite visible as well as the color of the inside of the tofu when we cut the slices in half.
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Spongy texture of the tofu after it was frozen, marinated and cooked
Looking at it from the top, the tofu you can see the holes illustrated even better.
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View from the top of the frozen and cooked tofu
The texture of this tofu was morespongy and chewythan when it was pressed.Comparing it to another type of food is difficult, but it was kind of like a soy nugget only a lot better.
Which Method Was the Best?
Simply for the factor of time invested and convenience compared to results, thefreezing methodwas the one that came out on top.It changed the texture and flavor of the tofu in a very positive way without having to do much work at all.
However, it isnot a “one size fits all” methodfor every type of flavor profile in our opinion.
For example, a sweet and smoky flavor profile for tofu would probably be better if it was denser, making one of the tofu pressing methods ideal.
If you’re going to slather it in buffalo sauce like we did, having it perform like a boneless tofu nugget best served the flavor profile.
Overall, we’re definitely going to befreezingorpressing our tofu from now on. Neither are a huge inconvenience and they both took the experience to the next level.
Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
