Ceramic Tofu Press

Jul 12

Many years ago before I had my children I would regularly make homemade tofu, then they came along and life got busy. The kids are grown, and there is more time to take on the endeavor of making tofu. I figured why not get into tofu making again. I remembered how delicious it was, and wanted to taste the wonderful soft texture once again. Now, the only problem was I gave away the wooden tofu press I made years ago to a friend. I thought about making another press made of wood, but that’s a lot more trouble for me than making one from clay… I’m a professional potter, not a woodworker.

After much searching online for a ceramic tofu press I found nothing. I typed in pottery tofu press, still nothing. I saw lots of wooden ones, some metal, and of course the dreaded plastic ones. When I search for something and can’t find it, it’s a clue to make one. Time to fill a niche! And I love a good challenge when it comes to pottery making.

Now it was time to design something I had never seen in pottery. I would glean as much I could from studying the object in wood and metal, and even, egad, plastic. I watched videos on making tofu, and not only learned the proper way to make it, but the good, bad and ugly of the tofu press.

I made a couple of prototypes, working out the form and proper functionality of the tofu box. I didn’t want it to just function like a plastic one. I wanted it to be a piece of functional art. Something that could sit on your counter proudly, and possibly be used for other things, like a berry basket, or just a fruit basket.

Here is what I came up with.

I also designed it to fit a store bought block of tofu, so if you just want to buy your tofu and press the excess water from it this works well.

My first assessment after making a couple of batches of tofu is that the strainer should be a little deeper so I can get a thicker block of tofu. The rest of the design is on target. It is especially nice to have the handles and the deep four footed bottom for drainage.

I also made some paneer cheese which worked out great! So there are many uses for this little gem!

Check out the video below.