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Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

author:Wine reviews
Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

Author: Li Yu

Can you imagine? Like green plum, this "sour tooth" fruit, Chinese love it, but has a history of nearly 7,000 years, in Henan Peiligang site, Shanghai Qingpu County Songze site, have found a large number of plum fruit pits, let mainland people eat plum history, or pushed to the Neolithic period.

The reason for this, on the one hand, lies in the unique flavor and functional value of green plums, and on the other hand, it is that Chinese people "do everything" when it comes to food, but all ingredients can give full play to their value in the hands of Chinese.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

・Ome plum

For example, in the "Book of Shang" of the pre-Qin Dynasty, it is mentioned that Yin Gaozong of the Shang Dynasty said to the prime minister "If you make a soup, you can only salt and plum", the meaning is that "to make a delicious soup, salt and plum are inseparable from the seasoning", the original meaning is that "to achieve great deeds, you need the assistance of virtuous ministers", in addition, the "Zuo Chuan" also records that "He is like a soup, water and fire are made of salt and plum, to cook fish and meat". It can be seen that at that time, plum fruit has become an important seasoning.

Of course, the contribution of plum fruit to Chinese flavor and food culture is far more than seasoning, plum fried, plum sauce, plum cuisine and other delicacies, especially plum wine, forming a magnificent plum culture. The author's special comments are as follows, which lives up to the reader's love for Mei.

01

Since ancient times, plum has been eaten, and the pickling method is used

Maceration is a unique skill in ancient cooking, why is it called "absolute"? In ancient times, without microbial science, ancestors already knew that under the action of high sugar and salt, food is not rotten, and characteristic flavors can be formed, opening a precedent for food storage. For example, as early as the Northern Wei Jia Sixun's "Qi Min Zhishu", the practice of pickling vegetables was recorded, "as salt water, making it extremely salty, washing vegetables in salt water, that is, in the inner urn".

For green plums, this "high acidity is difficult to eat raw, hard and difficult to handle" fruit, maceration or the best way, by maceration, can change the flavor of green plum sour, and improve its hard taste. The snacks of "plum fried" or "plum food" came into being.

During the Three Kingdoms, Sun Quan's son Sun Liang ate raw plums and recorded that "honey was used to stain plums when eating". The "Qi Min Essential Technique" also incorporates the "Tibetan plum method" of the Shu people steeped in honey. The record of the Southern Song Dynasty Wenge's "Trivial Record of Branching Doors" is clearer, mentioning that "one hundred yellow plums are not broken, two taels of salt, and after a little well-wiped in the sand basin, they are taken out overnight and dried half-dry, and the honey is refined and soaked." Such as honey acid, and change, wait for sweetness for degrees, into the bottle and close. ”

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

A variety of plum fried delicacies

Later, in the Ming Dynasty, Liu Ji's "Multi-Powerful Contemptible Affair" and Han Yi's "Yi Ya's Will", recorded honey plum, sweet and sour plum, sugar pepper plum, sugar crisp plum, sugar perilla plum, sugar mint plum, sugar brine plum, Zaohua plum, to jin mei, Yunmei and other "famous plums" are all plum fried by maceration method.

Of course, plum making can also use salt to prepare "white plum" things, which were first seen in Jin Gehong's "Holding Puzi" and "Elbow Reserve Emergency Formula", one is used to refine pills and soft gold, and the other is used to treat stroke and cannot be closed. The "Qi Min Essential Technique" also records the "method of making white plums", saying that "the plum acid nucleus is first harvested, stained with salt at night, and exposed during the day." Whoever makes ten nights, ten immersions and ten exposures will be accomplished. At this time, the surface of the plum will be salted and frosted, so it is called "white plum" or "frost plum".

In addition to molasses and salt, wine is also a very common form of maceration, and delicacies such as bad fish, drunken crab, and drunken chicken are all souls. Green plums are immersed in fine wine, which can not only make the plum fruit soft and loose due to the effect of alcohol, but also become a delicacy - "drunken plum" with a little treatment, and at the same time, the wine is the most representative plum fruit drink - green plum wine due to the integration of green plum. I think everyone knows the allusion to "green plum brewing wine on heroes", and the late Qing dynasty famous Liang Dingfen once explained this in the "(Xuantong) Panyu County Continuation Record", that is, "Or dip in wine to call green plum wine." "Therefore, when it comes to the origin of green plum wine, from the perspective of the tradition of eating plums, the maceration method is an authentic craft of ancient methods.

02

Authentic plum wine begins with steeping

Speaking of which, some friends must be wondering, as a fruit, green plum as a fruit, using it to make wine, should use the fermentation method, why is the maceration method the source of the process? In addition to historical records, the reason is simple, green plums are difficult to ferment independently.

As we all know, fermentation must have the presence of sugar, but the sugar content of green plum itself is extremely low, about 1%, and mostly in the form of cellulose and glycans, microorganisms, especially yeast is difficult to use, the state of green plum, can not be compared with grapes "juicy, rich in sugar", it is difficult to use similar to wine and other ordinary fruit wine processes.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

The reducing sugar content in green plum fruit is even lower than that of lemon

But fermentation of green plums is not impossible, because its pulp less sugar and high acid, need to add a lot of molasses, sugar and other substances to ferment together, but fruit fermentation, this is a form of "corruption", if the fermentation control is not good, the breath can be imagined, in the ancient fermentation technology immature years, this operation is actually quite difficult, therefore, fermentation of plum wine, is the product of modern fermentation technology improvement.

However, even thanks to the improvement of fermentation technology, steeped plum wine still has an innate quality advantage. For example, a research team used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to analyze the aroma components of green plum fermented wine and soaked wine, and fermented green plum wine lacked the characteristic aroma components of green plum and had a weak aroma, while the steeped green plum wine had a strong aroma.

The study also showed that the main aroma substances in soaked plum wine are ethyl acetate, isobutanol, isoamyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, ethyl benzoate, etc., of which benzaldehyde is a unique fruity substance in green plum fruit, and its content is significantly higher than that of fermented plum wine.

The reason is that the soaked plum wine does not have the participation of microorganisms, and the green plum itself contains acids, esters and other fragrant substances, which will not be "destroyed" by microbial metabolism, and will be immediately locked after the base wine is added.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

・Home-brewed soaked plum wine

At the same time, the base wine can not only lock freshness, but also increase the flavor, and the alcohol content of the base wine can be freely adjusted, and the high and low can be selected, unlike fermented plum wine, which can only ferment to the range of more than ten degrees. To a certain extent, the higher the alcohol content, the more obvious the volatile aromatic substances are baked, and the better the aroma of the wine.

In addition, in terms of safety, soaked plum sake can be better. Green plum meat is compact, which is the result of its rich amount of cellulose and pectin components, if fully fermented, these substances must be pre-degraded, which requires the addition of cellulase or pectinase in the process of pretreatment of green plum raw materials, but the enzyme preparation is a form of foreign additives, and if the pectin content is too high during fermentation, it will also make the wine contain a lot of harmful methanol.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

・Green plum trees to be picked

Finally, the "wonder" of steeped plum wine lies in the flexibility of flavor changes. The soaking process is a form of "take it all, come and do not refuse", any colored, fragrant and flavorful ingredients can be integrated in one place, which adds infinite possibilities to the innovation of flavored plum wine. For example, in addition to the traditional flavor, the common plum wine on the market has also developed "Chameimi", "Tangerine Plum See" and "Golden Laurel Meimi", realizing the fusion of green plum wine with tea varieties such as Fuding Baihao Yin Needle, Wuyishan Dahong Pao, as well as aromatic raw materials such as Xinhui tangerine peel and Guilin osmanthus flowers, refreshing the taste cognition of green plum wine.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture
Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

・Umemi's tea-flavored plum wine - Chaumami

03

It is not easy to brew, and it contains dry kun

Some friends believe that the brewing of soaked plum wine is very simple, not just use base wine to soak plums, in many places in the south will brew a little of their own drink.

Not really. The author often compares the brewing process with the tea ceremony, the more simple the process, the more it can reflect the charm of the raw materials themselves, the simpler the operation, the more it can show the refinement of the kung fu. Taking Umemi as an example, everyone can see from its process that soaked plum wine is actually "not easy to brew, and it contains dry kun".

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

Map of the distribution of plums in China (picture from the public information of Umemi Ome Wine)

First of all, soaked plum wine, which has higher requirements for green plums. Because the plum fruit is not fermented by microorganisms, the base wine is locked fresh after it comes in, just like taking a photo, freezing the frame, and the character's own physiognomy talent is crucial. Therefore, Meimian green plum wine should be selected in the four major plum producing areas, namely Puning in Guangdong, Zhao'an in Fujian, Dayi in Sichuan, and Eryuan in Yunnan.

On the one hand, it is convenient to complement the flavors of plum fruits, for example, Umemi selects 10 plum fruits with the best flavor from nearly 200 types of plums as raw materials. On the other hand, it is possible to choose the best of the best in terms of quality. Among them, the key point is the ripeness rate and integrity rate of plum fruit, the higher the ripeness, the richer the fruit is fragrant and flavorful, but it will have a higher risk of breakage and internal deterioration, therefore, Umemi will spare no manpower, not only all manual picking, but also to ensure 6 times of manual selection, plum fruit to be harmless, pollution-free, insect bite, diameter should be greater than 28mm.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

・Picking plum fruits

In addition, the choice of base wine is very important for steeped plum wine. The base wine is the main body of soaked plum wine, so it directly affects the "bottom taste" of the wine body, the aroma is too rich and inappropriate, covering the green plum fruit aroma, the aroma is too light, such as many places are used liquid liquor or edible alcohol as the base wine, will lead to a single wine style, boring. The best base wine choice, for the middle of the two, not strong and not light.

The single sorghum wine used by Meimi in the Jiangjin area of Chongqing is very suitable, this wine taste is relatively natural, elegant, will not be noisy and fruity, but also has a good grain aroma, herb aroma, floral and fruity aroma, interspersed with plum fruit aroma, can form a good sense of layering, and the "bottom taste" is weak, the fruit flavor is strong, and it has a foiling effect.

Finally, soaking plum wine, with more emphasis on wine storage. The green plum has been soaked in the base wine and has been integrated to a certain extent, but if you want to fully coordinate the aroma of the green plum and the aroma of the base wine, it also requires a long wine storage process. Therefore, each bottle of Umemi plum wine goes through a 360-day aging period.

Authentic plum wine begins with soaking, and it is said that Chinese people eat plum culture

The Taotan wine storage warehouse located in Jiang Kee Winery

Such a long storage period not only makes the fusion of plum flavor more natural, but also conducive to the quality of the base wine itself, microscopically, wine molecules and water molecules will become closer, the molecule of the wine will increase, and the low boiling point volatile substances are released, which can greatly increase the smoothness and taste of the wine. In this process, acids and alcohols will be slowly converted to esters to achieve dynamic balance, and the flavor effect will be better.

In the choice of containers, Meimi's practice is also worth paying attention to, using Longchang ancient pottery altar and Mongolian oak barrel two containers, the former is a typical storage container of Chinese wine, the altar wall has micropores, gas can communicate, micro-oxidation is obvious, conducive to the aging of the wine, and the latter is a whisky aging container, in addition to promoting aging, but also can incorporate more flavors and aromas, such as orange peel, apricot preserved, cream, smoke and sandalwood, etc., adding another style to the wine body.

・ Kanemami with a smoky aroma.

Therefore, from the cultural history point of view, the authentic process of green plum wine lies in immersion, is the extension and development of the ancient people's plum culture, from the process mechanism, the quality of the current preparation type of green plum wine, to a certain extent is higher than the fermentation type, and from the quality of the wine, the process of high-quality prepared green plum wine, the requirements for raw material processing and later aging will be more stringent.

About the author:

Li Yu, master of food fermentation, engineer, wine and food industry review writer and planner.

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