Method for making Zhaotong sauce

The production method of Zhaotong sauce is not complicated, but the materials are exquisite and the fermentation time is long. The first step is to make bean noodles. Select the best soybeans, stir-fry them with slow fire until crisp, grind them into fine flour, and sieve them for later use. The second process is to make "sauce noodles". Add spring water to the bean powder, stir well, and wet it to knead the bean powder into a block. There is a saying of "Zhajiang Noodles" among the people. When kneading the dough rope, there is an emphasis on "three hands tight, three hands loose and three hands not loose", mainly to make the soy sauce dough uniform and dense. The brewed "sauce noodles" were put into a bamboo basket with straw, covered with straw and stored for 60 days. During this period, the dough pieces in the bamboo basket should be regularly adjusted up, down, left and right to make the dough pieces fully and evenly fermented. When yellow and white moldy clothes can be seen in the pimples, take them out of the bamboo basket, break them into pieces, dry them in the sun, and then grind them into fine flour. The third production process is commonly known as "sauce". Add a proper amount of salt, pepper, pepper, star anise, fennel, tsaoko, sesame and other seasonings to the ground, mix them evenly, put them in a crock, then add spring water, and put them in the open air after full stirring. The crock can only be covered with a pointed bamboo stick, which is waterproof and breathable. They can only be made into finished products after being stirred every other day or three days and left for 100 days. Every winter, every household basks in "sauce noodles" and "sauce", which has become a part of Zhaotong folk custom and a striking landscape in Zhaotong urban and rural areas.

Zhaotong sauce ingredients made by the people are extremely particular. Soybeans and peppers must be produced locally. Well salt produced in Zigong should be used as salt, and "Jinhe Pepper" should be used as pepper. The spring water in Dalong Cave in Zhaotong does not use water. It's a little mysterious. Zhaotong sauce with authentic and pure flavor can only be produced in Zhaotong, which obviously has a special relationship with climate and water quality. During the Republic of China, a foreign businessman hired master Zhaotong to make Zhaotong sauce. The basic materials are the same and the technology is the same, but the color, fragrance and taste of the finished product are far from those made locally in Zhaotong. Some Zhaotong people living in other places have tried to bring Zhaotong's "sauce noodles" to other places to complete the last process of "sauce", and the results are not satisfactory. "Oranges born in Huainan are oranges, and oranges born in Huaibei are oranges. Disciples are similar, but in fact they taste different. Why? Soil and water are different. "

With the development of society, it is difficult for Zhaotong sauce to stick to the defense line of traditional production technology. In order to meet the needs of consumers and adapt to the changes in the domestic market, the "time-honored" Zhaotong Wanhe Sauce Garden Factory adopted a new production technology based on the traditional technology. The mass-produced Zhaotong sauce fully met the ministerial standards and won the titles of high-quality products and famous products for many times. And developed a variety of derived sauces, such as famous fresh meat sauce, oil sauce, pepper sauce, Toona sinensis sauce, sweet clover sauce, ham sauce and so on. Long storage time, convenient carrying, delicious and prosperous business.

The color of Zhaotong sauce is reddish brown, and the high-quality Zhaotong sauce is as red as agate, spicy and salty, and the sauce is fragrant. When cooking dishes, adding a proper amount of Zhaotong sauce can make the dishes taste better and increase appetite.