#Selfie My Story #My name is Chang Donglei, 26 years old, is a farmer in Bincheng District, Binzhou City, Shandong Province, our family has an old craft that is also a local famous food, that is, pure handmade sesame shortening, which has been around for more than 160 years now. Sesame shortening is our local intangible cultural heritage, and now my father's workshop and I are locally well-known, and according to the lineage, I am the fifth generation of heirs.
In March 1853, my ancestors followed the master to learn the sesame crisp candy craft for a living, and then the three apprentices bid farewell to the master and went to Beijing, one stayed in Tianjin, and one returned to the current Binzhou to open a family workshop in my hometown - "Changjia Sugar House", which is famous for dozens of miles, and no one knows. Now my father and I, get up early and greedy, start preparing at 4 o'clock in the morning, at most 9 pots a day, winter is busier, standing opposite me is my father, his name is Chang Rural.
My grandfather's name was Chang Yunluan, and his apprentices were all over the place, as far as Jiangnan, Zhejiang, as close as Binzhou, Guangrao, Jinan, Qingdao and many other places. 50 years ago, the original Old North Town, a big set of five days, at that time, they were all picking up burdens to sell crisp candy, and every New Year's Festival sold quickly, and our family would give it away for free when they met the poor. In the 1970s, my family's sesame shortening equipment was all confiscated, and my grandfather Chang Baoqing gave up the sesame shortening craft and could only rely on farming to support his family.
Unfortunately, he died of illness at the age of 40, which made the inheritance of the craft worse, and the burden of the inheritance fell on the shoulders of my grandfather Chang Yunluan, who regained the craft.
Let me talk about the production process, making shortbread is not an easy task, the raw materials are: white sugar 500 grams, white sesame seeds 1.5 kilograms, 5 grams of caramel, 50 grams of sugar cinnamon. Place sugar, sesame oil, caramel, spices and water in a stainless sodium saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes.
When the surface of the syrup is browned yellow, boiling golden flowers, immediately pour on the oil rubbing stone slab.
Making shortbread is not an easy task, the temperature of boiling sugar should be high, the temperature of pulling sugar should be taken advantage of 80 degrees Celsius, picked up with two bamboo sticks, repeatedly stretched and stirred, pulled white silk is better, from boiling sugar to pulling strips for about 20 minutes, depending on the weather cold and warm.
Forming: Quickly place the pulled sugar blank into a sesame pot and use your index finger to punch a hole in the center of each small piece. Rotate the silk with both hands repeatedly, and dip the sesame seeds with the flip. Sesame seeds are peeled, fried, crushed, boiled sugar, pulled strips, and drawn, and the last three steps are the key processes.
Quickly reach the twisting of the flower molding, hand fine, the color is light yellow, the silver wire is oily, fluffy and sweet. The hemp flavor is rich, crispy and delicious. Each piece is evenly about 32,000 wires.
Place on a table and let it dry at low temperature.
You see, this thin thread can be threaded with needles.
Wrap the cover in cellophane.
6 pieces are packed into a box, wrapped in cellophane cover, net weight of about 160 grams. Now there are three flavors, 11 yuan on the next box, you say expensive?
As an inheritor, I am very happy and feel a great responsibility, I am not just to make money now, but more to pass on this craft. Sweet and crispy sesame shortening is now famous throughout the country and has become our designated product for tourism in Binzhou. In 2007, sesame crisp sugar was rated as a municipal intangible cultural heritage list item in Binzhou. In 2016, it was rated as one of the top ten brands with local characteristics in Shandong.
Pinching the fingertips of the sugar cubes with a little force, the wisps of silk fell down the fingers, the sugar cubes melted in the mouth, still retaining the ancient taste of a hundred years ago, I am also on the road to continuous innovation, I have now invented several other flavors, but the original taste of sesame has not changed. Binzhou sesame shortbread is different from the old Beijing dragon whisker crisp, but also different from the sweetness of Jiangsu shortbread, it will play the effect of sesame to the extreme, I want to pass on the taste and craftsmanship of the ancestors, not only to my children, but also to more people.