''Dougan'' () is a very firm variety of

tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...

() popular in Chinese cuisine. It differs from regular tofu in that it is firm whereas tofu is soft. It is made from

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean. Soy is a staple crop, the world's most grown legume, and an important animal feed. Soy is a key source o ...

s with added

calcium sulfate Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is an inorganic salt with the chemical formula . It occurs in several hydrated forms; the anhydrous state (known as anhydrite) is a white crystalline solid often found in evaporite deposits. Its dihydrate ...

, and sometimes flavored with salt, soy sauce, and spices such as cinnamon,

star anise ''Illicium verum'' (star anise or badian, Chinese star anise, star anise seed, star aniseed and star of anise) is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to South China and northeast Vietnam. Its star-shaped pericarps harvested just before ripen ...

, and licorice. This food's name is composed of two syllables, dòu (

豆 Radical 151 or radical bean () meaning "bean" is one of the 214 Kangxi radicals. It is one of 20 which are composed of 7 stroke (CJK character), strokes. In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 68 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under th ...

, "bean"), and gān (). This is different from tofu (which also has two syllables), but the second syllable in tofu is "fu" ( 腐). The full name is called ''doufu gan'' ({{zh, links=no, s= 豆腐干, t= 豆腐乾, l=dried tofu). It is important to distinguish between tofu and ''dougan'', as it may not be appropriate to substitute tofu for ''dougan'' in recipes which call for ''dougan''. ''Dougan'' has a lower

moisture content Water content or moisture content is the quantity of water contained in a material, such as soil (called ''soil moisture''), rock, ceramics, crops, or wood. Water content is used in a wide range of scientific and technical areas, and is expressed ...

than tofu in that it is drier, and also by weight, where ''dougan'' has a greater bean-to-water ratio than tofu. This means that ''dougan'' contains more

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

per gram, as the proportion of water is less. ''Dougan'' is different from firm tofu by being even firmer. It is also different from

seitan Seitan (, ; ) is a food made from gluten, the main protein of wheat. It is also known as miànjīn ( zh, links=no, t=麵筋), fu (), milgogi (), wheat meat, gluten meat, or simply gluten. Wheat gluten is an alternative to soybean-based foods, ...

, which is made from wheat instead of soy.

In popular culture

* ''Dougan'' is mentioned in '' Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc'' as a food

Makoto Naegi is a fictional Character (arts), character introduced as the protagonist of the 2010 visual novel adventure game ''Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc'' by Spike Chunsoft. A fairly optimistic but otherwise average student who is selected in a raff ...

dislikes.

References

* https://www.google.co.kr/search?q=%E8%B1%86%E5%B9%B2&newwindow=1&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NOt7U8v9McGcugT8j4C4Ag&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=899 Chinese cuisine Soy-based foods

In popular culture

See also

References