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 A ...

: ) 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 (nutrition), diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of ...

s of

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

( Sundanese)

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 ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. There are two kinds of oncom: red oncom and black oncom. Oncom is closely related to

tempeh Tempeh or tempe (; jv, ꦠꦺꦩ꧀ꦥꦺ, témpé, ) is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. A fungus, '' Rhizo ...

; both are foods

fermented Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...

using

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

. 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 Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small an ...

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 pe ...

remains after the

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

has been pressed out,

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

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 die ...

( ''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 f ...

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 ...

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 addi ...

food production The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, ...

. 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 membr ...

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 organi ...

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

Neurospora ''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 organ ...

''.

Toxicity

In the production of oncom, sanitation and hygiene are important to avoid contaminating the culture with

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

or other

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately fr ...

like ''

Aspergillus flavus ''Aspergillus flavus'' is a saprotrophic and pathogenic fungus with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is best known for its colonization of cereal grains, legumes, and tree nuts. Postharvest rot typically develops during harvest, storage, and/or ...

'' (which produces

aflatoxin Aflatoxins are various poisonous carcinogens and mutagens that are produced by certain molds, particularly ''Aspergillus'' species. The fungi grow in soil, decaying vegetation and various staple foodstuffs and commodities such as hay, sweetcorn ...

). '' Neurospora intermedia var. oncomensis'' and ''

'' reduce the aflatoxin produced by ''

''. However, aflatoxin-producing molds (''Aspergillus'' spp.) are often naturally present on peanut presscake. Furthermore, coconut presscake can harbor the very dangerous ''

Burkholderia gladioli ''Burkholderia gladioli'' is a species of aerobic gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria that causes disease in both humans and plants. It can also live in symbiosis with plants and fungi and is found in soil, water, the rhizosphere, and in many anim ...

'', 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 ...

and

toxoflavin Toxoflavin is a toxin produced by a variety of bacteria including '' Burkholderia gladioli''. It also has antibiotic properties. Toxoflavin acts as a pH indicator A pH indicator is a halochromic chemical compound added in small amounts to ...

. William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi address toxicity in thei
book section on oncom
While it is known that

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, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu ...

s are the best substrate for growing ''R. oligosporus'' to produce

, 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 A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables or other ingredients which have been battered or breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-fried. Fritters are prepared in both sweet and savory va ...

'' fritters, seasoned and cooked in a

banana leaf The banana leaf is the leaf of the banana plant, which may produce up to 40 leaves in a growing cycle. The leaves have a wide range of applications because they are large, flexible, waterproof and decorative. They are used for cooking, wrappin ...

pouch as

pepes ''Pepes'' is an Indonesian cooking method using banana leaves as food wrappings. The banana-leaf package containing food is secured with ''lidi seumat'' (a small nail made from the central ribs of coconut leaves), and then steamed or grilled on ...

, or roasted, seasoned and mixed with steamed rice as '' nasi tutug oncom''. Oncom is also a selected fillings for ''comro'', ''

lontong Lontong is an Indonesian dish made of compressed rice cake in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf, commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Rice is rolled inside a banana leaf and boiled, then cut into small cakes as ...

'' and '' arem-arem'' rice dumplings. ''Comro'' in particular is a popular Sundanese snack, the name was an abbreviation from ''oncom di jero'' which literally means "oncom inside".

Toxicity

Cooking methods

See also

References

Further reading