Listen to them, fermentation is like this … – 夜上海论坛-爱上海419论坛-上海后花园论坛-上海龙凤1314

Original China Cooking Magazine China Cooking Magazine

Text | Sun Yang Chu Hongyu Jasmine Jiang Hui

Fermented food appears in all aspects of our daily diet, and it is always indispensable in the specialty foods in the far and wide. Fermentation is a magical thing, and ordinary ingredients will become extraordinary after time and experience. As a very traditional craft, fermentation contains local customs, records of ordinary life, multicultural collision, warm and romantic family stories …

Today, Xiao Shao invited many culinary masters and local cultural scholars to talk about fermented food in different regions, cooking tips, traditional customs and the scientific principles behind fermentation. Through their sharing, we can see the importance of inheriting traditional fermentation culture and feel the infinite charm of fermented food.

Fermented flavor extended from Jinglu cuisine

Zhen Jianjun

The inheritor of Palace Cuisine and Zhuangguan Cuisine, the master of China cuisine.

native of Beijing

Zhen Jianjun usually starts to make soy sauce meat in the twelfth lunar month every year, and then dries it until the next spring, when there is oil oozing from the ham surface. (Photo/Yan Hongwei)

Chinese is the best at eating fermented food. Throughout the cooking history of China, sauces fermented from various fruits were used in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Before monosodium glutamate and various food additives existed, the function of fermentation was not only convenient for food preservation, but also made food produce new flavor. Such as Beijing sauce meat, Guangdong bacon, Jinhua ham, etc., all need to go through fermentation process.

Braised pork is a typical fermented dish in Beijing-Shandong cuisine. Its preparation method is to marinate the meat first, wrap it with distiller’s grains and marinate it for 48 hours, dry the blank and ferment it for 48 hours. A bad juicy meat can’t be eaten for five to seven days.

In addition to all kinds of bacon, preserved fish, bacon and salted fish, all kinds of sauces, vinegar and wine are also inseparable from fermentation. Each place has different production techniques and different flavors, such as Tianjin Duliu vinegar, Shanxi aged vinegar, Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar and Pixian bean paste. Fermentation goes deep into all aspects of our lives.

Bad aroma is the daily fermentation in Jiangnan.

leonardo

Shanghai Vocational College of Industry and Commerce,

Director of cooking teaching at PICH modern service college

Shanghainese

Bad edamame and bad meat are Shanghai people’s favorite bad goods in summer.

If Shanghainese don’t have a plate of bad food in summer, it’s like this summer has been wasted. The bad brine used in bad vegetables comes from wine making. After rice is fermented, the liquor is extracted, and the distiller’s grains left behind are the raw materials for making bad brine. The traditional method of hanging distiller’s grains is to mix the distiller’s grains with yellow wine, spices and clear water, and some chefs will add a little sweet osmanthus, and then put it into a clean flour bag after stirring evenly. The rope is tied tightly, and the dripping liquid is bittern.

Good bad brine is clear and strange, also known as "bad oil", but it is not really bad oil; If the remaining sludge after hanging is slowly boiled with oil, the real "bad oil" is obtained by filtration and clarification. When cooking fish head soup or steaming shad in Jiangnan area, drop two drops of bad oil before taking the pot, and the wine will immediately overflow.

In summer, bad meat and bad grain are generally soaked with hanging bad brine. Shanghai Meilong Town Restaurant has a dry-roasted fish, which is supplemented by fermented rice wine and tomatoes, emphasizing the sweet and sour wine flavor. People in Ningbo like to eat bad bones, and ribs can only be cooked after pretreatment with distiller’s grains. Residents in coastal areas often use distiller’s grains to preserve food, which plays a role in removing fishy smell and improving taste.

Distiller’s grains in Jiangnan area are divided into white grains, yellow grains and red grains according to color. White distiller’s grains are distiller’s grains after making liquor. Jiangnan liquor is usually rice wine, and Chongming old liquor is a masterpiece. White distiller’s grains are pure, which can be directly used as seasoning for cooking or pickling fish, meat, etc. Yellow distiller’s grains are distiller’s grains for brewing yellow rice wine, and the distiller’s grains are full of flavor. Generally, after processing, the distiller’s grains are used to soak food, and the distiller’s grains used to hang distiller’s grains are yellow distiller’s grains. Red distiller’s grains are made by adding red koji in the process of brewing, and the color is bright. There is still a tradition of brewing red koji in Lishui, Zhejiang Province.

Slurry-traditional fermented food in northwest China,

It is also the most rich aging of life.

He fentian

Executive General Manager of Yujing Catering Management Co., Ltd.

Concurrent production director

Yinchuan people in Ningxia

When it comes to fermented food, northwest people must have a bowl of syrup. This special snack is one of the local people’s daily diets.

The traditional method of making slurry is to use seasonal vegetables as raw materials, add gelatinized and cooled noodle soup or rice soup, and ferment by natural fermentation or adding primers. Slurry is light in taste, refreshing in taste, and can be directly drunk, and can also be processed into delicious food together with other ingredients, which can highlight the distinctive flavor, such as slurry surface, fish leakage in slurry, etc., and is a good product for appetizing and relieving summer heat in summer.

In essence, slurry water is no different from ordinary fermented foods such as sauerkraut, which are all fermented by lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, yeast and other strains. However, it is significantly different from the production method of sauerkraut, without adding salt, and the production time is shorter.

The restaurant I am in charge of will not directly make syrup, but will buy mature goods. On the one hand, it pays attention to food safety, on the other hand, it is convenient to cook. Although it is common to make slurry at home, we need to pay attention to the quality and update it frequently, that is, remove the vegetables that have been soaked for a while and then put in new ones. The old vegetables that are fished out are boiled vegetables, which taste like kimchi and can be eaten directly by cold salad or frying.

Fermentation is within the controllable range.

Looking for the most uncontrollable opportunities

Qiang Guo

Beijing Amico BJ Chef

native of Beijing

Blackened onions. (Photo/Yan Hongwei)

Comparison between "blackened" horseshoe and fresh horseshoe that has not been blackened.

In recent years, we have been exploring and experimenting with fermentation, but there are relatively many Japanese-style ones. Such as miso, cooking techniques of meat and fish, blackening technology, etc.

At present, a kind of miso butter with bread before meals is made of green bean miso. Green bean miso is different from the traditional miso made of soybeans, because the taste and color of green beans are relatively soft and light, and it forms a balanced aroma with butter.

In my opinion, fermentation is to find the most uncontrollable opportunity within the controllable range, just like exploring unknown asteroids, which is also the fun of fermentation. I think the main principle of fermentation is to control the fermented ingredients not to go bad, but all kinds of uncontrollable things will happen in this process, that is to say, many times its flavor direction is out of your control, sometimes there are surprises and sometimes it’s bad, not necessarily that the ingredients go bad, but that taste is not what you want. This variable is difficult to control for both chefs and researchers.

We had a failed fermentation experiment. For example, using lactic acid bacteria to ferment apples, pineapples, strawberries and other fruits is similar to the principle of pickled cabbage. At first, we wanted to replace some vinegar or sauce with other fermented products, but after my colleagues tasted it, they felt that it was not very comfortable. Personally, I have reservations about it. But as long as someone finds the taste hard to accept, we will give up.

New cooking concepts and new ingredients may collide with something new. For example, David Chang, the chef of Momofuku, new york, replaced bonito with beef and venison, and imitated the craft of Japanese Muyu flower to make a "meat festival". There is also the traditional Japanese fish ripening method. Some high-end Japanese food stores will cook white fish. Considering that the flavor of white fish is too light, it needs a method to make its flavor richer but less kitsch, so it is cooked by kelp. Thallus Laminariae is rich in glutamic acid, which is also the main component of umami flavor.

In Dongtai, fermentation is the beauty of life.

Zhang guorong

Vice President of Dongtai Nanliang Cultural Volunteers Association

Jiangsu Dongtai people

Born into a family of chefs

Dongtai City, Jiangsu Province, located on the coast of the Yellow Sea, was a famous salt-producing area in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so a large part of local fermented food is related to salt, and some of it is related to local rich products and local living habits. The famous fermented foods in Dongtai are amaranth, soy bean, crab residue, shrimp oil, acid soaking cuisine, tangerine peel wine and so on.

Amaranth stock is one of the traditional fermented delicacies unique to Dongtai people. Its method is to chop the amaranth stems with thick fingers into inches, soak them in water overnight, add salt and mix well the next day, put them into a clean jar, and seal and ferment for half a month.

Crab residue is also a unique local specialty food. Fishermen wash the small mixed crabs they catch, shell them, remove their lungs, add salt and pestle them, put them in a clean jar, seal them with oil paper, and ferment them for about one month. The original green crab shell and white crab meat have changed color, and the finished product has a unique salty flavor. The key to the production of this dish lies in the control of salt and temperature. Less salt is easy to stink and deteriorate, but more salt can’t ferment successfully.

The dog days shrimp oil is named because the processing process has to go through dog days in summer. Its main raw material is locally produced mango shrimp, and the traditional way is to ferment in an enlarged tank. Dried tangerine peel wine is a famous local specialty in Dongtai, with a long history. It is made from fine white glutinous rice by traditional technology.

Pasta products also have many elements about fermentation. Dongtai people have the custom of steaming steamed buns for the New Year since ancient times. Every household starts from preparing leavened cakes and "receives leaven" every day. Nowadays, the seemingly simple steamed bread actually pays attention to a lot. Among them, temperature is the key condition for fermenting dough. High temperature can ferment quickly, but it is easy to ferment too much, and the steamed bread will have a strong sour taste, which was called "gnashing your teeth" by farmers in the past; If the temperature is low, the fermentation will be slow, and the steamed bread will taste bad.

I think fermented food has many advantages. First, it is conducive to the multiple use of ingredients, and it can even be said that waste is turned into treasure; The second is to increase flavor and nutrition; Third, it is convenient for human body to digest and absorb. In recent years, people have been exploring fermented food, believing that it will bring more benefits to people.

Fish catching in an altar —— Deep in Yunnan people’s memory

Fermented taste

Li lanxin

Young chef, from Kunming, Yunnan

The dishes made of fish in the jar are very popular among Kunming people.

The most aquatic products in Kunming are Dianchi Lake, and the common aquatic products in the early years are mainly fish, especially the high-backed crucian carp. In the old days, fishermen would dry the endless crucian carp in winter, add ingredients such as pepper, salt, sweet rice wine and spices and put them in an earthen jar for sealing, pickling and fermentation, which became "catching fish in the jar".

There are usually two kinds of earthen jars used to make fish-catching jars: one is that the jar mouth is facing down and the bottom is facing up, which is called "inverted jar" by local people; The other is an altar with an upward opening and a rim, which is called "Shangshui altar". The advantage of using an earthen jar is that it can not only keep the fish delicious, but also prolong the storage time. However, the sealing effect of the water jar is not as good as that of the inverted jar. As long as the latter keeps water in the stone trough or pottery bowl for a long time, it is often cleaned and changed, and the finished product is not easy to deteriorate, and it will not be a problem for two years. Local people often choose Huaning earthen altar, one of the "four famous pottery" in Yunnan, and its production skills have been listed in the provincial intangible cultural heritage list of Yunnan.

I come from a family of chefs, and my family has been a cook for three generations. When I was a child, I heard my grandfather talk about the traditional method of catching fish in the jar: using Qiubei Chili noodles, Zanthoxylum bungeanum noodles and brown sugar, adding star anise powder, tsaoko powder and fennel according to different flavors, adding salt and sweet rice wine, stirring them evenly, putting them into an inverted jar, putting them upside down in a stone trough or earthenware basin, adding clear water for sealing treatment, and blocking them with washed straw. In order to keep it for a longer time, when the water in the stone trough or basin is almost dry, it should be added with water in time to ensure that the water does not dry. After sealing for 45 days, the pickled fish in the earthen jar can be eaten. The simplest way to do it every day is to take the fish out and steam it directly in the pot. It is delicious and delicious, and it is a delicacy for local people to accompany with wine. If the fermentation time exceeds 90 days, the fish bones are crisp and can be eaten together with bones and meat; The fish gradually turns from white to red, with the flavor of ham.

From a less wonderful childhood experience

Deduct into a responsibility

Xiao Jie

Guangzhou Moming Kombucha

Founder, Xinjiang native

Tea fungus from grandma.

When I was a child, I grew up in Xinjiang. My elders often gave us a special drink. At that time, I didn’t know this drink was "black tea fungus". I just felt that the sour taste and taste were not particularly good, and the experience was not wonderful. I even thought it was a very annoying eating custom.

In the past, it was difficult for Xinjiang people to eat fresh vegetables, especially in the cold winter, but their bodies had to be supplemented with appropriate vitamins. Therefore, every local household would cultivate "black tea fungus" by itself, that is, it was fermented by a variety of microorganisms such as acetic acid bacteria, yeast and lactic acid bacteria with sugar and tea as raw materials. The common drinking method is to take the liquid of black tea fungus and blend it with a little water, usually after meals. Now I understand that its function is to help digestion, but my family has never explained to our children why we drink this drink. This is an unforgettable detail of life for me. When I saw Kombucha with a separate shelf in a foreign supermarket, I was curious to buy it and found that it was the black tea fungus that children often drank, so I had the idea of introducing this fermented beverage to more people.

At present, a bottle of black tea fungus placed on the counter of my shop is a "yeast" based on my grandmother’s black tea fungus. I call it "grandma", which is used to make various flavors of Kombucha. These kombucha teas are different from the unpalatable "potions" in childhood memories. In the process of research and development, we found that through modern fermentation technology to make some necessary adjustments to its acidity and taste, when the degree of fermentation can be controlled, we will get a relatively palatable Kombucha.

In order to let more people know about this traditional fermented drink, we will hold hand-made Kombucha experience activities from time to time. Participants will learn how to make fermented drinks, control acidity, adjust taste, and observe the growth process of black tea fungus. We hope more people will love our traditional food culture.

(The pictures in this article are provided by the respondents except the signature.)

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Proofreading | Yujin

Editor | Sun Yang

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