Chili nam yuey rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 7 recipes to cook with it.

What is chili nam yuey?

Chili nam yuey is red fermented bean curd, a Chinese seasoning made from cubes of tofu cured in salty rice-wine brine with red yeast rice, then spiked with chili. It comes packed in jars, sitting in its own brick-red liquid.

Nam yu (also spelled nam yue or naam yu) means the red kind. The plain white version is sold as fu yu.

The flavor is intense: deeply savory, salty, winey, and funky, with a soft cheese-like texture that dissolves into a sauce. People often call it Chinese cheese, and the comparison fits.

This is a seasoning, not a dish on its own. A cube or two flavors a whole pot, so a little goes a long way.

How to Use It

Mash a cube or two with a fork, then stir it into the dish so it melts in. It rarely goes in whole; the point is to spread that funky, salty depth through a braise or marinade.

It does its best work in slow red-cooked braises. Mashed nam yu is a backbone of braised pork belly and braised meats, lending color and a fermented edge that plain soy sauce cannot, and it carries the savory base in dishes like Stewed Pork Intestine Over Wu-Ching Burner.

It also works as a marinade for roast pork and char siu, and as a quick punch of umami in a vegetable stir-fry. Spoon a little of the brine in too, since that brick-red liquid carries just as much flavor as the curd.

A small amount also lifts richer Sichuan dishes such as Cheng-Du Tender Chicken and Ma-Po's Bean Curd, where it deepens the savory base without taking over.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

It belongs with pork above all, then duck and other dark poultry, and it pairs just as well with tofu and sturdy greens like water spinach (ong choy) and Chinese broccoli. Garlic and ginger, with a splash of rice wine, round it out.

The biggest mistake is using too much. Nam yu is salty and assertive, so one or two small cubes is usually plenty for a family-size dish. Overdo it and the whole pot turns harsh and oversalted.

The second mistake is salting blind. Because the curd and its brine are already salty, hold back on added salt and soy until you have tasted, or the dish ends up inedibly salty.

Mash it fully, too. Left in lumps it gives uneven bites of concentrated salt instead of an even, savory background.

Substitutes

Nothing matches it exactly. White fermented bean curd (fu yu) is the closest, the same product without the red yeast rice, so it brings the funk minus the color and a touch less depth.

Add a pinch of chili if you want the heat, plus a little red yeast rice for the look.

Shiro miso or doubanjiang (fermented chili-bean paste) can stand in for the savory, fermented note, though both shift the flavor. Use less than the recipe calls for and adjust.

Failing that, a mash of mellow miso with a little soy sauce and a pinch of sugar approximates the salty-fermented backbone, accepting it will taste different.

Buying and Storing

Look for it in Chinese and Asian grocers, in the same aisle as soy sauce and chili pastes. The jar will list it as red fermented bean curd or nam yu, sometimes "with chili" or "spicy." Each cube sits in red brine.

It keeps a long time because it is heavily salted and fermented. Refrigerate after opening, keep the cubes submerged in their brine, and always use a clean dry spoon to avoid introducing mold. Stored this way it stays good for many months, often a year or more.

If the cubes ever grow fuzzy mold (not the normal soft surface) or smell sharply off rather than funky, discard the jar.

Quick facts

In Chinese

辣椒南yuey

British (UK) term

Chili nam yuey

en français

chili nam Yuey

en español

chile nam Yuey

Recipes using chili nam yuey

There are 7 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 7 recipes