About 1,500 years ago, in the mountains of northern China, you might have found bamboo mats lined with slabs of tofu, resting in the snow overnight. Once frozen solid, “the structure and basic character of the tofu underwent a radical transformation,” William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi wrote in “The Book of Tofu” (1975). Like the best of us, tofu is made up of mostly water. When that water turns to ice, then melts, it leaves behind what Mr. Shurtleff and Ms. Aoyagi called “a lacy but firm network.” This more compact, spongy form of tofu, it turns out, is especially great at becoming truly and unapologetically crisp — crunchy, even — in the oven.

---

Persons: William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi, Shurtleff, Aoyagi, lacy Locations: China