The first legitimate son of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 42 Rock candy production in progress

It was about 20 o'clock in the evening when Liu Shaoshao was on the moon. At the rock sugar workshop in Lijia Village, a few torches illuminated the surroundings, and a group of Lijia Villagers were busy.

At this time, there was only one large stove burning in the rock sugar workshop. There was a large copper pot on the stove. You should know that copper pots are used to boil sucrose because they do not stick to the pot. Li An asked Liu Fangzi and others to pour a hundred kilograms of brown sugar into it first. into the pot, and then asked Qin Ying and Ma (Liu Xiatian’s wife) to light the fire and dissolve the pot of brown sugar.

The rest of the people were taken outside by Li An. There was loess outside. A group of people put the loess into the barrel and stirred it vigorously. After the loess and water were fully mixed, it turned into yellow mud water. The yellow mud water was poured with sugar. Among them, yellow mud water is very important. In fact, in addition to yellow mud water, if there is no loess, you can use diatomaceous earth or activated carbon, which are also acceptable.

All the people in Lijia Village worked hard to stir the yellow mud water. These men in Lijia Village did not have any doubts about Li An's request, because in their hearts, their husband was omnipotent now, so their husband What you said must be right.

In this way, with the joint efforts of the men in Lijia Village, it took about half an hour to get three large barrels of yellow mud water. Then several people carried the yellow mud water into the rock sugar workshop. At this time, the rock sugar workshop In the middle, the fire is blazing in the big stove.

Qin Ying and Mr. Ma were lighting a fire here. Liu Fangzi had already taken off his coat and stood shirtless in front of the big pot, constantly stirring the brown sugar in the pot with a wooden stick to prevent the brown sugar from being burnt. .

After Li An came in, he saw Liu Fangzi's appearance, and quickly asked Liu Fangzi to hand the wooden stick in his hand into Liu Yi's hand, and asked Liu Yi to stir it, because stirring brown sugar is a particularly tiring action. After the brown sugar is boiled, it becomes very sticky, so it takes a lot of energy. Even an adult man cannot hold on for long.

Liu Fangzi did not refuse, but smiled slightly. Liu Fangzi was still very willing to accept the kindness of his husband. Then Liu Fangzi put the wooden stick into Liu Yi's hand and said: "Liu Yi, these brown candies are all It is very difficult to stir it into that sticky state, but the difficulty will continue because Lang Jun said that all the brown sugar must be turned into black syrup again."

"Oh!" Liu Yi nodded repeatedly, then used all his strength to stir the brown sugar in the pot.

Li An showed a smile at this time and said: "Actually, the price for us to use brown sugar is a bit high now. When we go to the south to collect some sugar cane fields next year, we can directly squeeze the mature sugar cane into juice and put it into the vat. Medium, then simmer it over fire until it turns into a yellow-black syrup, then you can proceed directly to the next step."

"I hope I can go south to harvest more sugarcane fields next year." Liu Xiatian laughed and watched Liu Yi vigorously stir the black syrup in the pot.

"Brother Fang Zi, bring in the three big vats outside." Seeing that the brown sugar was almost cooked, Li An ordered Liu Fangzi.

After hearing Li An's instructions, Liu Fangzi quickly agreed.

Then he took a few men out and moved the three large vats into the rock sugar workshop, and placed them in the middle of the rock sugar workshop according to Li An's request.

Li An then put a shelf on each of the three jars, and then placed a dripper on each shelf. This dripper was made by people in the village who knew carpentry skills in the morning. Then Li An used straw to cover the mouth of the dripper. After plugging it, the opening must be blocked tightly. If it is not blocked, it will be troublesome for the sugar to leak out. "Brother Yi, now use that iron spoon to scoop all the black syrup in the copper pot into the funnel. Be careful not to burn yourself." Li An carefully ordered Liu Yi, because the temperature of the black syrup at this time It's at least a few hundred degrees, and if you iron it, the skin will peel off.

"Don't worry, Mr. Lang, if you know. I'm the most reliable one!" Liu Yi assured with a smile while carefully scooping the hot black syrup into the dripper.

The black syrup was slowly scooped into three funnels by Liu Yi. One hundred kilograms of black syrup happened to fill the three funnels. After it was completed, Liu Yi looked at Li An and asked for credit: "How is it? Sir, one pot is just right!"

"Yes, Brother Yi is very powerful." Li An also praised him at the right time.

This sound of impending arrival made Liu Yi very happy.

After that, it's time to cool down. It took about an hour to cool down the black syrup.

An hour later, the brown sugar in the dripper had basically formed into lumps. At this time, Li An asked everyone to remove the straw under the funnel.

Then everyone started to use yellow mud water to drizzle the brown sugar cubes in the funnel, and then a magical scene of brown sugar turning into white sugar appeared. It was almost a change visible to the naked eye. The black residue that was originally attached to the brown sugar was transformed when it was drenched with yellow mud water. Along with the yellow muddy water, it flows from the dripper into the tank below. The brown sugar cubes in the dripper turn into white sugar cubes. The top layer is about five inches or more, very white, just like the white sugar we eat today.

"Wow, my God, it's really turned white. This, this, this is so amazing." Liu Fangzi showed an expression of horror and disbelief while pouring water, because this scene was so shocking. Who would have thought that when brown sugar is poured into yellow mud water, the brown sugar will turn into white sugar? This is hard for anyone to imagine.

Liu Xiatian laughed in comfort: "I knew that Mr. Lang would not let us down. With these white candy cubes, our Lijia Village will definitely get better and better, at least not as good as Hua." Tamura is worse."

"Haha!" All of a sudden, the people of Lijia Village in the rock candy workshop burst into wild laughter.

Soon the pouring of sugar is over, and the sugar at this time is not the same as the rock sugar we eat. Although the color is indeed white, the sugar at this time is still a piece of candy, so to turn into rock sugar, it must be manually divided into pieces.

(The manual division into blocks is what I think it should be like. I looked at Tiangongzhiwu carefully, and the record above is just an ordinary line of text. However, he said that he waits for the brown sugar to form lumps before removing the straw. Then use yellow mud water to drizzle the brown sugar in the funnel. There are sugar cubes in front. It is unlikely that if you pour some yellow mud water, it will turn into white sugar. So I guess there should be some grinding of the sugar cubes in order to turn into white sugar. Crush it, but you don’t need white sugar, only rock sugar, then divide it into pieces. Use a small saw to cut a large piece of sugar into small pieces, and rock sugar will appear.)
Soon, three white sugar cubes that looked like pyramids were placed in the rock sugar workshop. One candy cube weighed about thirty kilograms. The top of the pyramid was black, so it needed to be sawed off. This could not be sold. Follow the black one. The sugar cubes about ten centimeters below the top of the tower are not so white, but the last five inches, which is about seventeen centimeters, are the whitest.

(End of this chapter)