Don't think that the ancients are stupider than us, many Raigu people have waded through for modern people; For example, in sugar production, although the ancients did not know what the sugar content was, it did not prevent them from trying various plants one by one.
As a result, sugar beet in the north and sugar cane in the south are the most suitable for sugar production; I don't know other places, Guangxi still has the right to speak, as a large sugar and fruit producing province, the local method of sugar extraction that has been handed down since ancient times is to use sugarcane.
There are two kinds of sugarcane, the black skin is fruit cane (meat cane), the green skin is sugar cane (bamboo cane), Guangxi has both kinds of seeds, most of the fruit cane is loaded on the train and transported to other provinces for sale.
All sugar cane is left in the local sugar production, the general sugar factory squeezes 10,000 tons per day, and the large sugar factory crushes tens of thousands of tons per day; During the crushing season, the cane trucks flow day and night to transport the sugarcane to the sugar factory, the scene is spectacular, stretching for more than ten kilometers.
All over Guangxi, the tradition of making brown sugar in small workshops is still preserved. First, the juice of the sugarcane is pressed out with a tool, and a certain amount is collected, such as 300 liters, and then poured into a large pot to boil.
During the sugar boiling period, you have to stir constantly to prevent it from sticking to the pan, as the water continues to evaporate, the cane juice becomes thin and thick, and the color gradually darkens.
Pour the boiled cane juice into the mold, let it cool and cut it into small pieces, which is the common brown sugar; In the past, poor women who were confined received brown sugar and eggs from relatives, which were good nourishing products (very face-saving).
In terms of purity, brown sugar is an unqualified product (many impurities), and the ancients really had no way to purify it into white sugar, so they could only comfort themselves, saying that brown sugar is healthy and beneficial to qi.
The molecular formula of rock sugar and white sugar is the same, but the crystallization method is different, just like fresh pears and frozen pears are picked from the same tree, the taste is slightly different, and the essence is exactly the same.
Talking about watermelon, one year watermelon was outrageously cheap, not 10 yuan and 3 catties, but 1 yuan and 3 catties, I spent 30 yuan to give 100 catties to the vendor and delivered it to the door (melons hurt farmers) ......
I can't eat a few so many watermelons, mainly to take watermelon skins to make sauce, melon pulp naturally can't be wasted, I pour the melon pulp into the pot to boil sugar, gurt until thick, pour it into the tray to cool, and get 2 catties of watermelon sugar.
According to public data, the average sugar yield of sugarcane is 10%, and the sugar yield of watermelon is 3%; Therefore, do not underestimate the wisdom of the ancients, the experience of the ancestors through practice is beyond doubt.