this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Tofu is terrible, you just keep pressing it and water just keeps coming out forever
A trick I tried recently is to boil the tofu (ideally cubes or other small shapes with good surface area) for ~15-20 minutes. This reduces the water content and helps it get a crispy surface when frying. I don't quite understand how it works, but it helped make the pan frying get them crispy quickly.
So we’re on the same page, at least
heat makes protein structures contract and squeeze out the water trapped in them, same thing as overcooked meat/eggs being dry
I can definitely vouch for the boiling method, it's completely replaced pressing for me. Tossing them into a flavorful broth is my go to now.
iirc cooking nerds have said it's something to do with reverse osmosis or some shit idk but it DOES work (salt the water though)
Im going to bed rn, but im looking into this tomorrow at work. It counts as part of my job cause im researching food and im a cook. I work witha guy who has a geology degree and I a have had a casual interest in biochemistry as a long time nerd and former every drug user who likes not to die. Together we have done whar no cook has every attempted: applied the principles of basic chemistry to our job occasionally, it does genuinely help to know why something does or doesnt work.
My hypothesis is that it forces some of the water inside to turn into steam which then boils off, but it's definitely very counterintuitive.
You'd think the same would happen when you just throw some tofu in a pan
It does, but you're not heating the tofu evenly with only one contact surface, and once you've got a nice crust on there's nowhere for water to go very efficiently. When you put food in an oiled pan and it sizzles, that's water leaving the food and boiling off.
I think the idea is that by boiling it in salt, you osmosis water out of the tofu; then, after removing the unequilibrated and still-hot tofu, which has soaked up some salt/flavors and lost some moisture (relatively, once it's been cooled and patted down), is tastier and drier
while everyone else is killing each other in the water wars, i'll be using this quirky lifehack
Need to add some flavoring though, a bit bland otherwise.
Have you tried super firm?
What, and shortcut the process?
Chop it into your desired shape like small cubes then put them in the microwave on a plate for a minute or so, that will drive out a lot of the water then you can dab them dry with a clean towel or paper towel.