Killer Tofu

In this guide we're laser-etching tofu with a funny design.

Do you know that 90's nickelodeon show, Doug? Do you remember the band from the show–The Beets? They had a song called “Killer Tofu” and it was great.

I wanted to make Killer Tofu a reality, so for this project I used a laser-cutter to burn a design onto tofu.

♫ Oh ee oh, Killer Tofu ♫

Materials

• Epilog Laser Cutter 60W2
• Cutting board
• A Handful of heavy books
• Towels or paper towels

Ingredients

• 1 Block of tofu, extra firm
• General Tso’s sauce (optional)

Cut open the package and drain out all water.

Use paper towels to dry the tofu

Place the tofu between the two cutting boards and then place some heavy books on top.

Leave it pressing for a few hours. How do you know how many books to put on top? The goal is to press out some water from the tofu. You don’t want your tofu to come apart, so if you start to see cracks forming remove a book or two. By drying the tofu, we’re making it easier for the laser to burn the skin. Too mych water will make it difficult to burn the tofu. Also, pressing tofu makes it have a better consistency when you eat it. If you’re planning to fry your tofu, you should always press it first.

I used Adobe Illustrator to create my design because my laser cutter requires an SVG file, which is easy to export from Illustrator.

In the laser cutter, place a paper towel on the grate and your tofu on top.

Set up your laser as you would normally do. Set the levels, set your home X and Y axises.

Load your file onto your laser and cut away. For the settings, I used a speed at 80%, power at 60%, and a frequency of 500 Hz.

Enjoy the way it looks. Then enjoy the way it tastes. Cut it up into cubes, pan fry it and smother it in general tso’s sauce. It’s tofu. It’s good for you.

♫ Oh ee oh, Killer Tofu ♫