I recently discovered how much I enjoy extra-firm tofu that has been marinaded long enough for the flavors to really sink in - particularly when I used vacuum-packed tofu where I don’t have to do anything to press out extra water. My only challenge is that my favorite recipe, which combines soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger and canola oil, doesn’t make enough marinade to completely soak through 16 ounces of tofu, even when I cut the tofu into really small cubes and let it marinade for a day. I’m wondering if there would be a problem of increasing the amount of marinade I use - perhaps making a recipe-and-a-half.
The original recipe uses four tablespoons of soy sauce - and perhaps I don’t understand the mechanics of marinades, but I’m concerned that if I use six tablespoons of soy sauce, the tofu will end up being too salty, even if I increase the amount of all of the other ingredients proportionately as well. The recipe also calls for three tablespoons of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of sesame oil, two tablespoons of canola oil, and a tablespoon of mirin - so there are other ingredients to essentially dilute the soy sauce. But I just want to make sure I’m not missing something about how the soy sauce would work in a larger amount.
We have never found super firm tofu from the store to be all that good and as you noted, they are so dense, they don’t take on marinade very well. This creates a super firm approximate, but since it’s initially pressed as firm… it gets a bit more craggly and takes in marinade much better. This is a recent marinaded prep we did and it turned out wonderful!
Here is the recipe with also a tip on how to marinade the Tofu…
Like the recipe describes. we like to use a brownie dish and cut the tofu into thick sheets. More surface area for the marinade to penetrate and a shallow maninade so you don’t need a ton. Here is the same technique I used to make “Moistmakers” after thanksgiving with some shokupan.
I think what matters is not the quantity of salt in the marinade but the percentage, so if you increase all the ingredients by the same percentage it should have the same results.
