Su Shi, one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, once praised tofu as "boiled beans for milk fat square crisp", tofu as the most daily ingredient, every day in the form of water tofu, white tofu, moldy tofu, pickled tofu, vegetable bags marinated rot and other forms appeared on the table, accompanied by the lives of thousands of families in the tossed diet.
Xiangyun's tofu making technique originated in the Ming Dynasty, and to this day it still retains the tradition of making soybean milk from the wood fire and the heavy stones slowly pressing away excess water, and has been included in the county-level intangible cultural heritage protection project.
In Xiangyun, Tianma Village and Laterite Slope Village are the best places to do tofu, these two villages made of white tofu is refreshing and tender, nephrite warm and fragrant, if accompanied by peppercorns, peppers, peppers, ginger, bean paste, cooking wine and other condiments, stir-frying, cold mixing, boiling hot pot, etc., food is not greasy, vegetarian into the lungs. After fermentation, the moldy tofu is fine and nutritious, crisp in the fried, crispy with soft, tender on the outside, crisp and delicious, on the "Xiangyun Sisters Seven Spicy" in the pepper under the rice, chewing when the pulp bursts out, the subtle probiotic aroma and pepper paste aroma fill the mouth, addictive. The most rare thing is to add edible salt, paprika, rapeseed oil, ginger and other simple accessories to the moldy tofu, after half a year of sealing and avoiding light after half a year of salting, the pickled tofu out of the altar is bright in color, the bean aroma is still there, the oil aroma is scattered, and the special appetizer is an indispensable delicacy on the table. The first layer of tofu skin pulled out during the tofu making process is full of fat and tenacity, and it needs to be queued up for more than half a year to buy a kilogram, which is also a rare bean product. In recent years, villagers have also used the Internet e-commerce platform to export tofu products throughout the country.
As we all know, Xiangyun in the tofu production industry, does not have the advantage of natural well water like Shiping and Jianshui, and can only use gypsum as a coagulant to make tofu. The reason why the Xiangyun tofu production technology can be passed down from the Ming Dynasty, and the tofu products produced can be recognized by the market, the mystery lies in the grasp of the heat in the process of boiling pulp. In the whole process of boiling soy milk, Xiangyun uses the traditional firewood that is randomly controlled by the fire, arranges a special person to be responsible for increasing or decreasing the firewood according to the instructions of the stirring soybean milk master, and the camera goes along with the trend, always maintaining the dynamic balance between the size of the fire and the maturity of the soybean milk.
Pang Cunmei, a non-hereditary inheritor of tofu making skills, said: "Controlling the heat when boiling pulp is the most critical part of the quality of tofu. The fire is too big, the soy milk will stick to the pan, there is a paste taste; the fire is too small, the slurry temperature can not be raised, which will affect the later solidification. My family to make tofu from my father their generation began, has now been passed to my son's generation, still follow the traditional way of boiling pulp with large firewood, there is no use of constant temperature and labor-saving electric stove, although the work has increased a lot, but the size of the firewood can be controlled by itself, the tofu made is full of toughness, and the taste and color of the later pickled tofu are also very good. Every winter, my family has to make moldy tofu with about 20 tons of soybeans to complete the pickled tofu orders ordered by customers. ”
Now, with the tofu making technology being included in the intangible cultural heritage protection project, Laterite Slope Village is also actively building a tofu making technology transfer center, xiangyun County's protection of traditional production skills has been continuously strengthened in the living inheritance of "seeing people, seeing things, seeing life", and the tofu production and processing industry chain has also been steadily improved, and has formed a certain scale effect, which has played an active role in helping the masses increase their income and become rich. In the next step, Xiangyun will rely on the industrial positioning of "one village and one product", make good use of the existing resources of each village, carefully plan to avoid competition in the same industry and the homogeneous development of resources, so that the achievements of intangible cultural heritage protection can achieve creative transformation and innovative development, and help the construction of beautiful villages. (Xiangyun County Culture and Tourism Bureau, Luo Dan)