After the kang room was built, it was left for two days to dry, firewood was burned, and the smoke exhaust passage was confirmed to be smooth.
Huo Xi then started to prepare.
Everyone, including Huo Erhuai and Yang, didn't know what she was going to do. Huo Xi tried it for the first time and didn't dare to say anything.
Just saying to give it a try.
I also asked two servants of the village and carpenters from nearby villages to make a lot of wooden barrels and basins, and prepared brushes, shovels, mops, cotton threads, etc. There was a miscellaneous pile.
When everything was ready, the gate at the back of the main courtyard was closed again.
Only his family members, Bao Kangzuo and Ji Laozhuang, were brought in for the experiment.
In the experimental stage, I didn’t dare to try too much. I just poured thirty kilograms of sugar into the iron pot, poured ten kilograms of water into the pot, and started boiling the sugar liquid.
Everyone looked puzzled. They had just made the sugar, so why were they pouring it into the pot to boil the sugar liquid? What was going on?
Before the thing was made, Huo Xi didn't say much. He only said that he was trying to make a new thing.
Huo Xi is experienced in making sweets. In the past, she made peanut cakes, rice crackers, candied haws, taro and other snacks during the Chinese New Year. Making sweets was still a small problem.
Huo Xi directed Huo Erhuai and others to boil sugar.
The sugar liquid boiled to 100 degrees, and soon there were big bubbles, and then dense bubbles. The sugar liquid began to splash towards the side of the pot. Huo Xi directed Zuo and others to use brushes dipped in water to pour water into the pot.
Sprinkle lightly to prevent sugar liquid from splashing around.
Turn down the heat and simmer for a while, put a large bowl next to the pot, and Huo Xi began to test the temperature of the sugar.
I don't have a thermometer, so I have to test it with my hands.
When boiling sugar to make snacks during the Chinese New Year, there was no thermometer available, so I just tried it with my hands, so I naturally gained some experience of my own.
First, use an iron spoon to scoop it into the pot. When you see the sugar liquid falling from the iron spoon, it is very thin, and there is a layer of sugar syrup hanging on the spoon. Huo Xi knows that the temperature is not enough.
Continue to boil, occasionally scooping some into a bowl of cold water, and then take it out of the bowl to see the shape of the sugar liquid.
It looks like a ball of sugar syrup and can be kneaded into any shape. The temperature at this time is about 120 degrees.
After a while, scoop some out and put it into the water, take it out of the water and squeeze it again. It will feel a little hard and you can't knead it into shape at will. The temperature at this time is almost 130 degrees.
While testing the temperature of the sugar solution, Huo Xi asked everyone to try it and see how it felt. She taught everyone what the sugar solution she wanted looked like.
Everyone listened attentively and followed suit to try it out.
After boiling for a while, I took it out and saw that it was like a sheet, hard, and broke when I folded it. It was almost 150 degrees. Huo Xi stopped the heat.
After turning off the heat for a while and trying again, the sugar liquid became a shape that could be kneaded at will. Huo Xi asked Ji Laozhuang to pour the sugar liquid in the pot into a basin and into a wooden barrel hung with several cotton strings.
The cotton thread has been boiled in advance.
The sugar liquid was poured into a basin and a bucket.
Moved all the way to the kang room.
After testing the temperature of the basin and bucket, Huo Xi felt that it was cooler than before, so she put them on the kang bed. The temperature she wanted this time was 90 degrees. But she couldn't test it this time, she could only feel it with her hands.
What is the physical sensation of one hundred and twenty degrees, what is the physical sensation of one hundred degrees, and what is the physical sensation of ninety degrees? They can only be estimated.
Put the pots and buckets on the kang bed, and let Mr. Zuo burn firewood on the stove outside. Keeping the temperature of the kang bed, he covered the pots and buckets filled with sugar liquid with thick mats made of washed straw.
stand up.
He also asked Ji Laozhuang's wife and daughter-in-law to mop the house with a wet mop and told them to maintain the temperature and humidity of the kang room.
The two of them looked confused.
Fortunately, Huo Xi ordered them to burn firewood, use a wet mop to mop the floor in the house every half an hour, and put a few basins of water in every corner of the house. They still understood such instructions.
Also looking confused were Yang and the others.
"Xi'er, what are you going to do?"
"Make rock candy. Sugar like ice cubes."
What kind of sugar is ice-like sugar? Can the sugar still be stored or will it melt?
"Mom, it's just like that maltose. When selling it, I use a small hammer to break it into pieces. It's like that candy. But the candy made with this white sugar is not like the color of maltose, but like ice, crystal clear.
It’s crystal clear, so it’s called rock candy.”
"And there's that kind of candy?" Everyone was stunned.
"Yes. But I don't know if it can be made. We have to sell the sugar to the merchants, and I thought it would be better to make more kinds of candies. The merchants have traveled thousands of miles to transport the sugar back. This rock sugar is also durable and can be stored for a long time.
"
The white sugar in Ji Laozhuang was enough to surprise him, and now the owner is going to make something called rock sugar. Just hearing the name, he thought it was a good thing, and he was looking forward to it.
Huo Xi told them some things to pay attention to. In addition to maintaining the temperature and humidity, they should also cease fire for half an hour every day to let the sugar liquid in the basin drop ten degrees every day.
Huo Erhuai and others didn't understand what the temperature was, but fortunately they could understand. It meant that the heat should be allowed to drop a little every day for seven days. They all nodded to express their understanding and listened very carefully.
When they heard that they were going to sell something to Fanshang, no one dared to neglect it. Huo Erhuai and Bao Xia rushed to do the work of mopping the floor, changing water, and maintaining indoor humidity.
Without a thermometer, everything can only be found by touch.
Rock sugar will definitely crystallize, but Huo Xi cannot guarantee the effect. If the crystallization is not good, it will waste some sugar.
Now that conditions do not allow it, I can only give this local method of making rock sugar a try. Huo Xi has tried both the pot crystal method in the south and the disconnection method in the north.
Both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. In the southern pot crystal method, if the rock sugar is caked on the wall of the pot, you have to work hard to knock it off. In the northern method, you don't need to knock it, just lift the cotton thread.
The rock sugar will crystallize around the cotton thread. Just lift the cotton thread and knock it into different sizes. There will be a cotton thread in the middle of the crystallized rock sugar. When I was a child, I always got cotton thread when eating old rock candy from the north.
Huo Xi was trying out rock sugar in Zhuangzi and was a little anxious waiting for the results. Mu Yan went to Cheng's house to have the birthday banquet for his uncle Cheng's uncle, and he was also irritable inside and out.
"Where's Mu Wang?"
"The Madam said that he was not feeling well and did not let him come with Madam," Li Yi replied.
Mu Yan narrowed his eyes coldly.
The Cheng family is Mu Wang's aunt, and the Cheng family is naturally his serious maternal family. Not only did they not come to visit him when he returned to the capital, but now it is his uncle's birthday and he even refuses to come over for a meal.
"Tell the academy to ask for leave tomorrow, saying he is unwell."
"How many days of leave do you need?"
"When will you become sensible? When will you come out?"
Li Yikan and Erlin, the young master is going to imprison Young Master Wang in the mansion. I hope the young master's lively and active temperament can sit still? I'm afraid there will be trouble.
This is not the only thing that worries Mu Yan.
Cheng Anyuan came over several times, bringing tea and water, and waving things in front of him. The Cheng family's uncle, grandparents and others looked happy to see what happened.
The veins on Mu Yan's forehead jumped again and again. He endured it again and again.
After dinner, Cheng Anyuan Tingting walked over and looked at Mu Yan, her heart pounding: "Cousin, my father invites you to the study for a talk."
Mu Yan stood up and said, "Please help me to accuse my uncle. I have something to do, so I need to take the first step."
After saying this, he strode out of Cheng's house without looking at her.
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