Chapter 184 Alkali Production
Yeast is also a kind of life.
Unlike the dry yeast you buy, natural yeast is cultivated and fed, so the fermentation effect is much better than that of finished dry yeast, and the fermentation aroma is also stronger.
The operation is not difficult, but it is time-consuming and the process is a bit cumbersome.
Zhao Yeqing: "In this weather, I don't know if it will succeed."
Cultivating yeast and subsequent breeding require a relatively suitable environmental temperature, and it is indeed a bit too cold now.
She stood up and put her hand on the fireplace to feel the temperature.
It's about 20 degrees, which is suitable for putting it here.
But there is a fire inside now, and I’m afraid that if I don’t pay attention, the temperature will become unstable after the fire goes out.
After all, yeast cultivation is not a matter of one or two days. After it has been cultivated for ten days or half a month, the temperature does not need to be so high and it can be cultivated at the refrigerated temperature of the refrigerator.
I watched a documentary about Shanxi Province before, and learned that many people there don’t use yeast when making pasta. They just leave a small piece of dough after making the pasta each time and add that dough in the next time they make the pasta.
That is the practice of keeping old dough, but the yeast activity in old dough is not high.
There is also dry yeast made by fermenting flour with yeast and then drying and crushing it, but yeast made in this way is prone to contamination with miscellaneous bacteria and is not very safe to eat.
Mu Xi was stunned when he heard this. "If we grow yeast, there won't be any other bacteria?"
Just like brewing your own wine, there will inevitably be bacteria, right?
Zhao Yeqing shook his head and explained, "No, because it is made in a sealed jar. After the yeast inside is activated, it will begin aerobic respiration. When the oxygen in the jar is consumed, it will start anaerobic respiration again."
"At this point, alcohol will be produced. This alcohol is different from the alcohol produced by home brewing. This alcohol is highly concentrated and ordinary bacteria can hardly survive in this environment."
Mu Xi suddenly realized, "How come you also know this."
Zhao Yeqing blinked, "That's not true."
In fact, I used to work in the city, and I didn’t like going out. I just liked to tinker with things at home by myself.
My only hobby is growing vegetables on the balcony and cooking.
I was obsessed with bread for a while and found that many bakers would cultivate yeast themselves. There were even workshops dedicated to cultivating and caring for yeast. The method was very simple and she learned it just by watching.
"What tools do you need? I'll prepare them for you."
Mu Xi is the type of person who gets things done when they happen, which makes up for Zhao Yeqing's procrastination problem.
She rocked in the rocking chair. "Two small glass jars. You can put anything in them. Just make sure the lids are airtight."
The glass jars must be sterilized to minimize the growth of harmful bacteria.
Mu Xi washed the glass jar clean, boiled it in water and then went back to the room to call her.
The two of them wiped off the moisture inside and outside the jars. Zhao Yeqing took out the flour, scooped a few spoonfuls into one of the glass jars, added a few spoonfuls of boiled water, stirred it into a paste, and then covered it with a lid.
"Is that all?"
Mu Xi was holding another empty can in his hand and was standing there in a daze.
Zhao Yeqing nodded, "Okay, that will be used tomorrow."
Natural yeast can be made using only natural ingredients, wheat flour and water.
It would be better if we had whole wheat flour. The flour ground from wheat with the husk still on has a higher fermentation efficiency than wheat flour.
Place the glass jar of batter on the fireplace.
At the same time the next day, the batter in the glass jar began to smell like lactic acid.
Open the jar, stir it with sterilized chopsticks, transfer the batter to another jar and continue to seal it and let it stand. Wash and disinfect the empty glass jar and wait for next use.
On the third day, the yeast is activated and the feeding stage begins.
Add a spoonful of boiled water and a spoonful of flour into a glass jar, stir well, and then transfer to the previous glass jar.
After each transfer, the glass jars needed to be cleaned and disinfected. Mu Xi took the jars to wash and found it funny, "The most troublesome thing about raising yeast is actually washing the jars."
Zhao Yeqing explained, "The yeast will stick to the glass jar during fermentation, which makes it difficult to observe the fermentation and expansion each time."
On the fourth day, the yeast in the glass jar began to ferment and swell.
The batter expanded to twice its size as yesterday, and many small pores appeared. Stir the batter evenly, scoop up a lump with chopsticks and put it into another glass jar, and continue to add water and flour.
From this day on, every day thereafter, I would pick up a lump with chopsticks and put it into a clean container, then add water and flour to feed it, once in the morning and once in the evening, until the tenth day.
The weight of the flour and water fed begins to increase to two spoonfuls.
On the thirteenth day, increase the amount of flour and water to three spoonfuls.
On the fifteenth day, the yeast in the glass jar had reached nearly half of the jar.
The yeast should have expanded to three times its previous size.
Zhao Yeqing took the yeast jar off the fireplace, and Mu Xi came over to take a look.
“Is this what it means to be well?”
Zhao Yeqing nodded. "It's well-raised and can be used now, but the longer it is raised, the better."
It is considered successful if the yeast does not grow mold or hair, ferments normally, and has a normal lactic acid smell.
Next, just put it aside and feed it every three to five days.
The longer the naturally fed yeast is fed, the better the yeast activity will be. This is also a process of training the yeast activity and inhibiting and screening out foreign bacteria.
Zhao Yeqing felt a sense of accomplishment when looking at the glass jar, as he had grown it himself with just a handful of water and a handful of powder.
In half a month, the temperature outside has risen back to 0 degrees.
Finally, some different sounds can be heard occasionally outside the window, sometimes it is the singing of birds, sometimes it is the squeaking of unknown insects.
"Are you going to make steamed buns or something today?"
Mu Xi asked first, and then he would go and prepare the dough if he wanted to make it.
Zhao Yeqing shook his head. "Don't worry. There is a problem with natural yeast, which is that it has a very strong sour taste. The bread and steamed buns made from it will be very sour. We have to neutralize the sour taste and make an alkali."
It is not uncommon to make alkali in rural areas, and Mu Xi knows how to do it.
He nodded, "Then I'll go prepare the wood ash."
There was still a lot of straw at home, and Mu Xi wanted to get cleaner grass ash that didn't want to be mixed with wood ash from the fire pit, so he took the straw to the side of the stove.
Clean out the ash inside. I only baked the pizza once, so there isn't much ash inside. After cleaning it out, stuff the straw in.
The ash from the incompletely burned and carbonized straw still retains some of the shape of the straw itself and is black-gray in color.
Zhao Yeqing took a large basin and put a large piece of gauze on it, the same one he used to make Pueraria powder last time.
Mu Xi poured all the grass ash onto the gauze and used a ladle to scoop water on it.
After all the ashes are wet, start rubbing the unburned parts with your hands to obtain alkaline water.
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