Thanking Ji Laozhuang and others for asking for help, they only took the ingredients they sent. The family closed the courtyard door, cooked in the kitchen, and had a happy meal.
Huo Nian was chattering about what he and Shitou Tietou were playing in the village today.
Apart from going to the countryside with his parents to collect rent, this child had no place to play in the mud like this. He was so happy that he didn't miss Shu. His mother had already cooked a meal, so she reluctantly came back after calling him for a long time.
Seeing the excitement on his face at this time, Huo Xi couldn't help but give him a slap in the face: "I will go back to the private school in half a month. Have you completed the homework assigned by the teacher? Have you finished the big characters that my sister asked you to write?"
Pi Xiaozi suddenly became weak and glared at Huo Xi with his lips pouted.
He murmured: "There is still a small half, I will finish it soon."
"You can't miss your homework. You can go play tomorrow, but you have to come back to do your homework in the evening. And you can't play all the time during the day."
"I know. I'll write Chinese characters for a while and then go out to play, okay?"
"Well. Now that you're full, go back to your room and write big characters." He was sent out.
Seeing Huo Nian wilting, Yang and Huo Erhuai felt a little distressed and wanted to follow them, but Huo Xi stopped them.
"Dad, you and your uncle go to the warehouse to get 20 kilograms of cane sugar, and bring the things we prepared to the kitchen. Mom, please take away the iron pot and use the new pot we brought."
Only Yang Fu knew about boiling sugar. Yang and Huo Erhuai didn't know what the two children were going to do, and they didn't know what they were going to do with all the things they had prepared.
Huo Xi knew about the yellow mud water-drench sugar method, but it only existed in theoretical knowledge and had never been practiced.
She has survived the process of making brown sugar, and the operation is simple. Even in the city, brown sugar can be made using gas.
But who is going to experiment with turning brown sugar into white sugar? It’s not easy to find yellow mud in the city. If you want to dig a few piles of soil in the community to grow green onions, you will be chased by the community security guards for several streets.
Using yellow mud water to rinse sucrose to decolorize it and turn it into white sugar is just using the adsorption property of yellow mud water. Everyone understands the principle, but sometimes you can do it at a glance, but it will be useless once you do it.
The earliest story I heard was that a workshop owner in Quanzhou was boiling brown sugar. Due to the collapse of the wall, yellow mud covered the brown sugar to be cooled. When it cooled, he found that the top layer turned white, and this was the first white sugar.
The original method of making white sugar was the yellow mud cake covering method, which is also called the yellow mud sealing method in many places.
However, this decolorization process is time-consuming, labor-intensive and inefficient, usually taking one month to several months. Later, after continuous improvement, the yellow mud water-drench sugar method was finally formed.
It's just that the yellow mud water-drench sugar method is different in different places. The time and labor required are naturally different. As for which method to use, it remains to be tested.
Huo Xi remembered that she used to make brown sugar rice cakes during the Chinese New Year. Although the results were the same, the methods were different in different places.
In some places, the raw glutinous rice flour is poured directly into a large iron pot, and then brown sugar water is poured in, and then two arm-length rolling pins are used to put it into the pot and twist it hard, and cook while twisting it until it is cooked, and then serve it out.
Let cool on a plate.
During this process, several strong men had to be rotated.
If you have made a cake at home and have beaten the egg whites with chopsticks, you will know that you will feel like dying until the end.
But this twisted glutinous rice is mushy, dozens of kilograms heavier, and so sticky. If it weren't for a young and strong man, it would be a trivial matter if his arms were disabled. The problem is that it can't be twisted, and women can't do this job at all.
Making rice cakes requires a lot of manpower and takes several hours. It’s no wonder that many folk snacks will disappear. I don’t want to make them and just want to buy ready-made ones.
And there is another way.
Just pour the raw glutinous rice flour into a large basin, pour in brown sugar water, mix it with the glutinous rice flour just like making noodles, mix it evenly to make it firmer, then pour it into a steaming tray, put it on the steamer, and steam it for several hours.
At most, only two people are needed, one to make the noodles and one to burn the firewood. Of course, one person is completely enough.
As for which one tastes better, benevolent people have different opinions. But when it comes to benefits, naturally the method of kneading and steaming noodles saves time and effort, and is more efficient.
As for the yellow mud water-drench sugar method, since Huo Xi wanted to turn it into a unique business, he naturally wanted to find a more efficient one.
There is no need to think about the methods of covering with yellow mud and sealing the altar with yellow mud.
A few people were in the kitchen, boiling the newly purchased large iron pot, washing the tiles and other items, and putting twenty kilograms of sucrose... Oh, this is not granulated sugar, but just brown sugar bricks.
Brown sugar bricks are easier to carry, preserve, and moisture-proof and chemical-proof than brown sugar ground into powder. Huo Xi also got brown sugar bricks this time.
Huo Xi first put ten kilograms of sugar bricks into a pot to melt, and then set up a large pottery funnel on top of the woodcarving mold. The bottom of the funnel was wrapped in gauze, and asked Huo Erhuai to scoop out the brown sugar and pour it into the tile.
He slipped away and asked Yang Fu to pour cold yellow mud water into it.
The brown sugar paddle slowly flows into the wooden mold along the funnel.
Huo Xi and Yang stared closely at the mold. Huo Xi found that the boiled sucrose was somewhat reddish-brown, and the syrup that flowed down was now much clearer.
After pouring out ten pounds of brown sugar syrup and waiting for it to cool and settle, Huo Xi tried another method.
Boil the cold yellow mud water.
The brown sugar bricks are not boiled yet, just put them directly into the pot, wait for the yellow mud water to boil, and scoop it out to rinse the brown sugar bricks.
The process of using boiling yellow mud water to boil the brown sugar bricks is naturally much slower. But by omitting the process of boiling the brown sugar bricks, some losses will be saved.
A decolorizing method, installing a wood carving mold.
"Xi'er, is this it? Can we turn sucrose into white sugar?"
Yang and Huo Erhuai stared closely, unwilling to move away. It was not until this moment that they knew what the two children wanted to do.
I have never seen white sugar for sale, but these two children said they wanted to get white sugar. Can you believe this?
The couple stared at the woodcarving mold and looked at the various tools, and they almost looked at them.
Huo Xi also stared at it with keen eyes.
In the former method, the sugar syrup in the mold is very clear. Whether it can turn into white sugar in the end depends on its cooling.
The last method does not boil the sucrose, but only uses yellow mud water to rinse the brown sugar bricks. All that is left in the mold is black residue, and the discolored sugar crystals are left in the tiles, which are snow-white.
This is similar to the method of turning muddy water into clear water.
Pour the muddy water into a container filled with stones, charcoal, and cotton cloth. After filtering layer by layer, the water leaking from the bottom will become clear.
"Xi'er, is this sugar?" The couple looked surprised. Is this really true? Is it that simple?
Huo Xi took a look and saw a layer of white sugar crystals left in the tile. The higher the top, the whiter it became.
Holding back the surprise in her heart, she just said: "Mom, scrape them out quickly!"
"well."
The couple scraped out the white sugar crystals. The whole family looked at the white sugar in disbelief. It took them a long time to weigh some with their hands and put it into their mouths. Their eyes widened: "It's sweet!"
Huo Xi laughed: "It's just sugar originally, but it's also sugar after losing color. Of course it's sweet."
The family was so excited that they couldn't express it. They tried it again and found it was still sweet. They were pleasantly surprised.
"Mom and Dad, we kept this secret in advance and no one can tell. Nian'er can't tell either. I can only say that I bought it from outside."
Yang and Huo Erhuai nodded repeatedly: "Mom and dad know the importance."
The couple packed up their things and went out. Huo Xi and Yang Fu carried the wooden mold to the courtyard, waiting with their eyes straight for the sugar syrup poured in the first method to cool down.
There is one more chapter~ I don’t really want to write this kind of plot, it’s a bit like cheating, and I’m afraid that if everyone is too picky, I’ll get a headache, hahaha. Everyone is welcome to discuss. If you have tried brown sugar and white sugar, please remember to share your experience.