Calcium sulfate

Sulfate de calcium

What it is

It is gypsum: the same quarried stone as plaster of Paris and alabaster, ground fine and sold to tofu makers as shigao. Barely soluble, it hangs in the soy milk rather than dissolving into it, and that reluctance is exactly why it sets a gentler curd than nigari.

In the kitchen

Slurry 2 g per litre of soy milk in cold water and keep stirring - it drops out of suspension in under a minute. It holds more water than nigari, so the same beans give roughly a fifth more tofu, sweeter and smoother but blander.

Goes with

Soybean Silken tofu (kinugoshi) Yuba Toasted sesame oil Chilli crisp Doubanjiang Spring onion Ginger

Same species

Culinary lime (cal)

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