Oncom ( Aksara Sunda: ;

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

: ) is one of the traditional

staple food A staple food, food staple, or simply a staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and ...

s of West Java (

Sundanese Sundanese may refer to: * Sundanese people * Sundanese language * Sundanese script Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (' ...

)

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

of Indonesia. There are two kinds of oncom: red oncom and black oncom. Oncom is closely related to tempeh; both are foods fermented using mold. Usually oncom is made from the

by-product A by-product or byproduct is a secondary product derived from a production process, manufacturing process or chemical reaction; it is not the primary product or service being produced. A by-product can be useful and marketable or it can be consid ...

s from the production of other foods: soy pulp remains from making tofu, peanut

press cake A press cake or oil cake is the solids remaining after pressing something to extract the liquids. Their most common use is in animal feed. Some foods whose processing creates press cakes are olives for olive oil (''pomace''), peanuts for ...

remains after the oil has been pressed out, cassava tailings when extracting the

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

( ''pati singkong''),

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

press cake remaining after oil has been pressed out or when

coconut milk Coconut milk is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of coconut milk are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food i ...

has been produced. Since oncom production uses

s to make food, it increases the

economic efficiency In microeconomics, economic efficiency, depending on the context, is usually one of the following two related concepts: * Allocative or Pareto efficiency: any changes made to assist one person would harm another. * Productive efficiency: no addit ...

of food production. Red oncom has been found to reduce the

cholesterol level Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell membra ...

s of rats. Black oncom is made by using ''

Rhizopus oligosporus ''Rhizopus oligosporus'' is a fungus of the family Mucoraceae and is a widely used starter culture for the production of tempeh at home and industrially. As the mold grows it produces fluffy, white mycelia, binding the beans together to create ...

'' while red oncom is made by using ''

Neurospora intermedia ''Neurospora'' is a genus of Ascomycete fungi. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" refers to the characteristic striations on the spores that resemble axons. The best known species in this genus is ''Neurospora crassa'', a common model orga ...

'' var. ''oncomensis''. It is the only human food produced from '' Neurospora''.

Toxicity

In the production of oncom, sanitation and hygiene are important to avoid contaminating the culture with bacteria or other fungi like '' Aspergillus flavus'' (which produces aflatoxin). ''

Neurospora intermedia var. oncomensis ''Neurospora'' is a genus of Ascomycete fungi. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" refers to the characteristic striations on the spores that resemble axons. The best known species in this genus is '' Neurospora crassa'', a common model orga ...

'' and ''

'' reduce the aflatoxin produced by '' Aspergillus flavus''. However, aflatoxin-producing molds (''Aspergillus'' spp.) are often naturally present on peanut presscake. Furthermore, coconut presscake can harbor the very dangerous '' Burkholderia gladioli'', which produces two highly toxic compounds –

bongkrek acid Bongkrek acid (also known as bongkrekic acid) is a respiratory toxin produced in fermented coconut or corn contaminated by the bacterium ''Burkholderia gladioli'' pathovar ''cocovenenans''. It is highly toxic because the compound inhibits the A ...

and toxoflavin. William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi address toxicity in thei
book section on oncom
While it is known that soybeans are the best substrate for growing ''R. oligosporus'' to produce tempeh, oncom has not been as thoroughly studied; the best fermentation substrates for producing oncom are not yet known.

Cooking methods

Oncom can be prepared and cooked in various ways. It can be simply deep fried as '' gorengan'' fritters, seasoned and cooked in a banana leaf pouch as pepes, or roasted, seasoned and mixed with steamed rice as '' nasi tutug oncom''. Oncom is also a selected fillings for ''comro'', '' lontong'' and '' arem-arem'' rice dumplings. ''Comro'' in particular is a popular

snack, the name was an abbreviation from ''oncom di jero'' which literally means "oncom inside".

Toxicity

Cooking methods

See also

References

Further reading