The other day, when I saw the article "Wine Brewed Light Fermented Malt Collapse" written by Brother Jialu, it can be imagined that the reader must have been fed by it, the difference is only that the "spitting water" (saliva) is presented in a different way: "extroverted" - directly from the corner of the mouth, ticking; "introverted" - directly into the throat, grunting. Well, I probably belong to the "internal and external cultivation".
I especially like the text: "During the spring blossoms this year, I also ate Ren Changshun's wine cake and malt cake. Sake cake is a traditional pastry in the Gangnam region, similar in appearance to mooncakes, but the dough is fermented by sake. Jiangnan is often rushed from spring to summer, so the wine cake can only be made for one season, and the 'best tasting period' is around the Qingming Dynasty. Ren Changshun's sake cake is a circle smaller than the ones I ate as a child, but it is also a thick layer, and it is fried yellow on a low heat, with a slightly charred edge. Wine cake should be eaten hot, bite the crust, and the aroma of wine is full of aroma. The bean paste filling is delicate and soft, and a transparent diced sugar oil is embedded in the middle. Sweet and soft, oily and crystalline, there is a lovely local atmosphere..."
Ren Changshun is a long-established brand specializing in cake dumplings on the old street of Wujiang Zhenze in Suzhou. Zhen ze, I've been there a few times; this shop, I've walked by, passed by, but it was indeed perfectly missed—never thought to go around inside. It is said that this small pavilion-style shop sells dozens of pastries such as Dingsheng cake, fried rice cake, mung bean cake, mulberry cake, rose crystal cake, ear cake, qiaoguo, hemp cake, lily puff pastry, sock bottom crisp, hibiscus cake, etc.; seasonal seasons also include malt cake, wine cake, ice cake, and various rice dumplings. Just looking at these names, the mouth fluttered involuntarily. Of course, the wine cakes there made me can't help but think of pulling my feet and running to Suzhou.
In the Jiangnan area, the names of cakes, balls, shortbread, and cakes are either according to the shape, such as the noodle cake; or according to the color, such as the golden dough; or according to the filling, such as char siu puff pastry; or according to the material, such as rice cake... In contrast, it is more difficult to "stand in line" with sake cakes: it does not match the shape; it is not related to the color; it is not close to the filling; it is not optimistic about the material - the main ingredient of people is flour!
The word "sake brewing" in the sake cake is very suspicious of "counterattack" and "usurpation".
In fact, an ordinary cake, adding a little sesame is called sesame cake, adding a little onion oil is called onion oil cake, then, adding a little wine is called wine cake, why not?
The wine cake gives people a soft, sweet and fat taste, and its mystery lies in the addition of wine.
In the process of making sake cakes, sake brewing is not just embellished like sesame seeds and shallot oil, but deeply involved: mixing wine, sugar, and warm water, then pouring it into flour and mixing well, slowly pouring warm water, kneading it into a smooth dough, covering it with a damp cloth and placing it in a warm place, making it ferment, and when it expands into double size, it is picked and wrapped in filling...
Obviously, the role of sake is not only to season, but also to undertake the task of fermentation - that is, a "lurker" and "rebel" with a dual identity.
Many people like to eat sake brewing, and so do I. But the wine cake with a strong wine flavor is not for everyone to take a good bite, for example, I don't accept the sour gas. I remember once brought two boxes of wine stuffed cakes from Yuyao, due to the long journey time, coupled with the hot weather, after returning home, I smelled it, as if the rice was eaten, and had to be discarded. In fact, I made an unforgivable mistake: sake products tend to be less likely to spoil than ordinary rice noodle products.
Legend has it that the wine cake is related to Zhang Shicheng at the time of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties: he fled with the old woman, did not eat for several days, the old woman was hungry and faint, and an old man in Suzhou made cakes for the mother and son to eat with the few lees left in the family, and even saved the old woman's life. Later, Zhang Shicheng gained the title of king, ordered the cold food festival to eat lees cake, and changed its name to "Save the Mother Cake". Zhu Yuanzhang captured Zhang Shicheng, and the name "Save the Lady Cake" was not called by the people, so it was renamed "Wine Cake".
The logic here is that if you don't save your mother, there will be no wine. The "paste" of this legend is really smashed. I would like to say that in the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese already knew how to make "huangjiao"—a kind of wine made of black rice; in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the agronomist Cui Yu mentioned "wine cake" in the "Four People's Moon Order"—a fermented cake made with wine infiltration. What is the relationship between winemaking and winemaking? Naturally, there is sake brewing first, and then there is sake brewing. We may imitate Lu Xun's statement: in fact, there is no wine in the world, and if the wine is too much, it will become wine.
I became very interested in Renchangshun sake brewing because it was different from what I was accustomed to: the former was similar to The Su-style mooncake, the latter was similar to the flatbread; the former had filling, the latter had no filling; the former only made one season a year, the latter sold for four seasons... As for the former using flour, some places use jiang rice, that comparison, is equivalent to "straight Suzhou as Lanzhou".
The wine cake in "Wine Brew light fermentation malt collapse" made me feel restless. But a sentence replied by Brother Jialu was really disappointing: "The season is gone now, meet next spring!" Ren Changshun is too strict to abide by the rule of "not eating from time to time", I had to CTRL+C (copy) - CTRL+V (paste) A sentence in this American article - "Suzhou people are really not like words!" (West Slope)