Zhengchang Town, located in Jianghan silting area, has a history of planting soybeans since ancient times. Jianghan Plain was flooded for ten years in ancient times. After the flood every year, because vegetable crops have no time to grow, the food supply of ordinary people has become a problem, and lobster sauce has become an emergency dish on the table. The soybean growing environment in Zhengchang has a characteristic, which is called "oily sand, night tidal field", which means that the soil in Zhengchang is mixed with oil and sand, which is particularly fertile; The fields in Zhengchang are dry during the day and wet at night, which is convenient for the rapid and healthy growth of soybeans. Soybeans grown in this environment are most suitable for pickling douchi, and their contents of protein and trace elements are unmatched by other beans.
When you walk into the standardized production workshop, you will see big vats marinated with lobster sauce, and each vat will marinate about 250kg of lobster sauce. When you open one of the tanks, you can see that there are four layers just by sealing, and the middle layer is covered with a thick layer of salt, which is an isolation layer to prevent bacteria and dust from entering.
There are many secrets of making fermented soybean. It's just that the choice of soybeans is particular. Generally, it is concentrated after Grain Rain every year, and the soybeans purchased are soybeans that farmers have not finished planting. An agricultural proverb says, "Before Grain Rain, cotton was well planted; After Grain Rain, I planted beans. " After Grain Rain, farmers began to sow soybeans. Generally speaking, farmers will leave more seeds for themselves. There is so much left that we can't plant it all, so we have to sell it. Soybeans at this time have many advantages. First, it has been selected with high quality; Second, the storage time is long, and it is drier after June. Third, it is easier to taste when pickled. However, because the new soybean is not dry enough and left for a long time, the sugar core of soybean, the central part, deteriorates, which affects the quality of fermented soybean. The main raw materials of douchi, as well as pepper. The peppers used in Zhengchang Douchi are all purchased from the north. The pepper in the north is dry and spicy, which is more suitable as raw material for pickling fermented beans than the local pepper. In addition, the raw materials are ginger, garlic, sesame and sesame oil. It is also used after strict screening.
The production technology of Zhengchang Douchi is a traditional sauce-making technology for farmers. Generally, it includes manual screening, dustpan, fine soaking, cooking, fermentation, sun drying, pickling and other links. The whole production process adopts manual operation and natural fermentation, without adding baking powder and preservatives, which belongs to standard green food. A series of Douchi brands such as "Exposure in June", "Xiangjiang Spring" and "Hanshuiyuan" are well-known at home and abroad.
Nowadays, in Zhengchang, the phrase "friends bring good wine" is often changed to "friends bring lobster sauce". That ray of spicy food contains local flavor, showing the warm and heroic temperament of Zhengchang people.
Hubei province
Zhengchang douchi
Zheng Chang dou chi association
1237944 1
Fermented soybean