The steamed rice noodles are called rice cake flowers. The cake flowers can be eaten directly. They are very hot, but soft and fragrant. Children like to secretly grab a handful and stuff them into their mouths. After being scolded a few times by his own adults, he listened to the help of other adults to break up the fight so as not to be beaten, and finally ran away with a smile on his face.
A bucket of rice cakes and a stone mortar are used. The cloth and conical mesh underneath are torn off, and then a wet wooden mallet is used to beat the rice cakes vigorously. There will also be a person sitting next to it, regularly dipping his hand in water to turn the rice cakes in the mortar.
In the middle of winter, three stone mortars were lined up in a row in the small square in front of the cake factory, and fifteen or sixteen strong men with their upper bodies bare took turns pounding rice cakes.
There's no other way. Traditionally, beating rice cakes is physically demanding, and the wooden mallet can weigh around 20 kilograms, making it difficult for anyone but a strong worker to do. A single stone mortar needs 200 hammerings to completely crack the rice cake.
Five people work in a group, each pounding 20 times. After two rounds, the rice cake is complete. The harder and more often the pounding is applied, the more chewy and firm the rice cake becomes. This is a texture that later machine-made rice cakes cannot match.
In the beginning, this work didn't count as work points. It was a tradition that had been passed down for hundreds and thousands of years, and every household had to do it, with every household contributing someone. It was just a matter of taking turns each day. Then, at some point, some people started to try to cheat, thinking that doing less work was earning them money.
For a year or two, the quality and output of rice cakes declined rapidly, so the team discussed giving work points.
The men who swung hammers still earned 10 work points for a full day's work. Those who steamed cake flowers, moved steaming barrels, flipped rice cakes, and even the women who worked around the cake table made of door panels to shape the cakes, all had their work points calculated according to how hard the work was.
Lin Guoqing had just finished pounding another round of rice cakes. He was sweating and his forehead was smoking. He wiped his face carelessly when he saw Chen Chunhua running out after two masters, grinning and shouting,
"Here they come, these three buckets are all ours!"
"Hey, Guoqing's rice cakes are here! Everyone, work hard!" Chen Jinshui stood by the stone mortar in the middle, swung his mallet, and hammered the newly mortared rice cakes. "Hey! Guoqing! You especially have to work harder!"
"Okay!"
"Hmph!"
"Hmph!"
…
Chen Chunhua's turn to make cakes would not come until tomorrow, but she was not idle standing by. She washed her hands and squeezed directly into the long table to make cakes with the village gossips.
"This is Master Jia's rice cake! It's pure japonica rice, not even a bit of millet mixed in! It's so white!"
"It's theirs! Mrs. Jia likes to eat soft food, saying it's rougher than millet!"
"I like the ones with millet in them. They're chewy! Hey, Chunhua, do you have millet in your rice cakes?"
The two aunts in front pulled the rice cake from both sides, twisting and pinching it into a circle with a big hole in the middle. They then twisted it and broke it into rice cake strips as thick as a bowl.
The rice cake strips, beaten hundreds of times right out of the oven, are still nearly 100 degrees hot. This job is usually done by elderly women whose calluses on their palms are thicker than their skin. They are also considered the people who distribute the rice cakes.
The person who distributes the cakes must first dip his hands in cold water, then use his tiger's mouth to twist the cake strips into fist-sized cake balls, and then throw them to the young wives behind. The young wives will roll the cake balls into 15-centimeter-long round strips, and then pass them to the back. The people behind will use the cake printing board to flatten the round strips into shape.
Chen Chunhua was just stuffing rice cake strips into a cake board when she heard someone ask her a question. Without even looking up, she replied, "Yes, it's mixed in. I have 90 kilograms of rice cakes with 20 kilograms of millet. It's pure rice, and my family can't handle it."
The cake boards in their village are smooth. Some more advanced villages will even carve patterns on them. Therefore, the printed rice cakes have a flat back and stripes and patterns on the front, which looks beautiful.
However, Chen Chunhua still misses the rice cake machine. After all, you can just throw the rice cakes in and cut them with scissors when you want them to come out.
"Your family looks large, mostly children, so 90 kilograms is enough for food. My family is large, so even if I make 120 kilograms, it will only last until the beginning of spring."
"Accountant Ma seemed to have produced nearly 200 kilograms yesterday! Is that right, Chunhua?" He was referring to Lin Yulan's family.
Chen Chunhua knocked down a piece of rice cake with a snap. A young woman beside her poked it in the middle with a red seal. "Yes, it's 200 kilograms. He came to ask to borrow a tricycle yesterday. He has a big family, so of course he has to make more."
The traditional rice cakes here do not contain glutinous rice. They are made from pure japonica rice harvested from the late rice season. They are easy to digest, but more filling than rice and can be stored for a long time, so families with large numbers can make as much as possible.
The newly formed rice cakes are actually still very soft, so they have to be carefully and quickly arranged on the bamboo basket, otherwise they will become deformed.
The women at the edge put the rice cake strips one by one, at some distance, on the round drying basket, and then placed them layer by layer on the silkworm breeding rack to dry. When the rice cakes are completely cooled, they will become hard, and will not stick to each other and deform when stacked together.
"This family's rice cakes are finished, and Chunhua's family's will start next~" The person distributing the rice cakes in the front shouted over here, and everyone responded happily. The person drying the rice cakes will then separate the rice cakes from the two families and put them in the drying baskets separately.
Chen Chunhua had been waiting for her family's rice cake for a long time. Finally, it was her turn. She put down the cake board and moved a few people forward. She sat down next to the old woman who was distributing the cakes, picked up a few rice balls and started to make them.
Their traditional New Year custom is to offer "blessings" and sacrifice "five animals" such as chicken, goose, sheep, carp and pig's head. However, many families can only afford this, so they use rice cakes instead.
In just a few strokes, Chen Chunhua had made a sheep, which made the people around her envious. "Chunhua, you have such a skill! When my family comes over, help me make a few!"
Chen Chunhua: "Okay, okay~"
"My family made it yesterday. We asked Master Jia to help us make it. My husband even gave him a pack of cigarettes. If I had known, I would have called him Chunhua~"
I ignored Chen Chunhua. I don't know her. Do you think I should work for nothing?
It was already mid-afternoon and Lin Shuying had also finished school. Liang Shengdi took her four children and wandered to the cake shop. Smelling the aroma of rice, she successfully felt hungry.
Her son was hammering rice cakes with a hammer. She didn't dare to bring the child near, so she walked over to the cake stand and asked, "Chunhua, are our rice cakes ready?"
Chen Chunhua held up the little fish in her hand and showed it to her, "I'm working on it! It's almost done!"
Little Shumei, with her pigtails sticking up, ran to her mother and threw herself on her lap. She raised her head and opened her mouth, "Ah~"
Chen Chunhua smiled and grabbed a small piece of rice cake and stuffed it into her mouth. The people next to her were also very greedy and ran over to open their mouths to eat, including Liang Shengdi's old friend.
Chen Chunhua stuffed a mouthful of food into each of their mouths and then refused to give any more.
"Wait until it's done! We'll have rice cakes tonight, otherwise you won't be able to eat dinner!"
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Rice cakes are either for sale or eaten at home. In the village, everyone makes hundreds of kilograms of rice cakes, so they can be eaten until Qingming Festival.
However, food was in short supply in the 1980s, so if you consider the situation, Chunhua's taking away 90 kilograms of grain was actually not a lot.
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