Glutinous rice can be used to make sweet fermented glutinous rice, and of course it can also be used to make sweet maltose.

Chopped malt and malt seeds are like the baking powder sprinkled on glutinous rice when making fermented rice. The amylase contained in them can bring out the sweetness in the glutinous rice.

It's like there are digestive enzymes in the mouth, the more you chew rice, the sweeter it becomes. This is also maltose.

These are all chemical principles, essential for medical students.

For Chu Yue, a talented student, it was an easy task.

The freshly steamed glutinous rice is too hot and can easily kill the amylase in the malt, so the glutinous rice needs to be cooled down and then the two are mixed together.

Cover with a piece of white gauze and place in a cool place to ferment for six hours.

After six hours, the malt and glutinous rice had fully reacted. As soon as the white gauze was opened, a slightly sweet fermentation smell could be smelled, and a lot of moisture had been produced in the large basin that was originally filled with glutinous rice.

This moisture is the sugar water forced out from the glutinous rice.

The next step is filtering, using coarse-meshed white gauze to filter out all the sugar water little by little.

If you squeeze the remaining mixture of malt and glutinous rice hard, you can squeeze out a lot of sugar water.

Chu Yue didn't waste anything. Although she had no shortage of food, she had seen too many people in this era who couldn't afford a bite of white rice. Cherishing food was something everyone should do, so she squeezed out all the sugar water.

In the end, I got a full iron pot of sugar water.

Next is the last step in making maltose, and also the most difficult one - boiling the sugar.

Because the fire and the large iron pot needed are not suitable to be placed in the Lingbao space, one cannot enjoy the changes in the flow of time, but can only do it slowly in the real world, bit by bit, by enduring time.

Chu Yue calculated the amount of syrup she had to cook. She couldn't use high heat, but only low heat, and boil it down little by little into syrup. It would take at least eight or nine hours, which was longer than running a marathon.

During the process of boiling sugar, you need to stir it from time to time to ensure even heat and prevent the bottom of the pot from sticking.

If it gets burnt, all her hard work of several days will be wasted.

So once you start the fire, you cannot leave the stove and someone must be watching it at all times.

Therefore, Chu Yue picked a morning time, starting from the time Lu Yuanbao went out for school, and started making candy.

After breakfast, Lu Yuanbao saw that the fire was still burning in the kitchen and steam was coming out. He stretched his head to look into the kitchen curiously, but Chu Yue pushed him back and prevented him from looking.

Lu Yuanbao was not convinced and asked with his bright eyes, "Are you making something delicious again?"

"Yes, it is delicious." Chu Yue nodded, "But I can't tell you what it is now. When you get home from school in the afternoon, it will be almost ready. Then bring Da Zhuang to eat together."

Lu Yuanbao was still very curious about what was in the kitchen and how Chu Yue could cook so many delicious foods he had never seen before. But since Chu Yue didn't say anything, he could only bear it.

After school in the afternoon, he wants to rush back as soon as possible.

but--

Lu Yuanbao asked again, "Where's Tan Rourou? Can she come eat with us?"

Recently, Tan Rourou gets along well with Lu Yuanbao and Chen Dazhuang. They go to school and go home together every day. Although Tan Rourou still loses her temper sometimes, she no longer quarrels with Chen Dazhuang like before.

Chu Yue thought of the proud little girl and nodded, "If she wants, she can come along."

Tan Rourou's family can't even finish the most expensive White Rabbit milk candy, so they probably look down on her homemade maltose.

At this time, Chen Dazhuang's energetic shout was heard outside the house.

"Yuanbao——come out——go to school——"

Chu Yue handed the water bottle to Lu Yuanbao and patted his shoulder. "Go to school."

"Okay, bye, mom."

Lu Yuanbao ran out of the yard and walked quickly towards Chen Dazhuang. He could still hear their happy laughter.

As time passed, after the water was evaporated over low heat, the sugar water slowly began to turn into syrup.

At the beginning, the syrup squeezed out from the glutinous rice is milky white. Slowly, the milky white liquid becomes turbid and the color does not look good, but this is a normal process.

Slowly after a period of time, the turbid color gradually turned into the color of aged gold.

It looks like bronze, or like the color of sugar when making braised pork belly. [Photo]

When it was boiled into this color, the whole house was filled with a sweet fragrance. The fragrance drifted out and could be smelled by everyone passing by, attracting the attention of many sisters-in-law.

"Do you smell it? It's sweet! It's coming from Captain Lu's house. It's so sweet that it makes me drool."

"Captain Lu has been away for the past few days, and I see that Miss Chu has stopped going to the city. Is she making something delicious at home? How much sugar did she use to make it so sweet?"

"Sister Chu is rich, and Captain Lu is willing to pamper her. What's wrong with eating more sugar? Captain Lu doesn't care, but you're still thinking about it?"

"I'm not thinking about it, I'm envious! I'm happy just by smelling the fragrance. If I could eat so many candies in one go like Miss Chu, wouldn't I be in heaven?"

This sister-in-law told the truth. In the 1970s, white sugar water was used to entertain guests. This shows how precious white sugar was. People would not even eat a bite of it on ordinary days.

How much sugar is used to emit such a strong sweetness?

The sisters-in-law were talking about it, and Chen Fengying knocked on Chu Yue's door directly.

"Sister Chu, it smells so good - have you cooked anything delicious? Can I go in and take a look?" Chen Fengying said what she wanted to say directly without hiding anything.

Chu Yue liked Chen Fengying's personality. When she glanced behind Chen Fengying, she saw a group of sisters-in-law hurriedly hiding their heads.

She smiled, pretended not to see it, and invited Chen Fengying in as usual.

"Mrs. Chen, feel free to come in and take a look. I used the wheat you gave me last time to make something."

Wheat? Sweetness? Sugar?

When Chen Fengying walked in, she was full of doubts. When she saw the pot of golden syrup in the iron pot, her eyes widened.

"This... this... is all sugar? It's really all sugar..." Chen Fengying looked at Chu Yue with wide eyes.

Chu Yue took a clean chopstick and dipped it in the syrup. Because it was not yet fully boiled, it was not in the state of a sticky syrup, but in the form of drops of liquid.

But it's enough to taste it.

Chen Fengying took the chopsticks and took a sip. "Oh my god, it's so sweet! So sweet! Sister Chu, such a big pot of sugar, you said it was made of wheat... wheat?"

Wheat = sugar?

Chen Fengying has been a farmer for many years, but she never knew about this.