If you don’t drink a bowl of bean juice, you haven’t been to Beijing. Where does the charm of “stinky” come from?

As autumn deepens, Beijing begins to enter the most pleasant season of the year. Autumn is the golden season for tourism in Beijing. The cool weather, blue sky and white clouds, and red maple leaves make the city particularly beautiful in this season.

When it comes to foreign tourists' yearning for Beijing, in addition to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and climbing the Great Wall, the infamous "Old Beijing Soy Milk" must also be mentioned.

Although I have heard about the reputation of douzhi for not tasting good and have heard many vivid descriptions, I can't help but become more and more curious and always want to try it.

Before coming to Beijing

After drinking soy milk

So that after drinking it, I asked the question of my soul

Of course, some people also discovered the "New World"

So, how is Old Beijing Douzhi made? Where does this unique flavor come from?

1. The charm of fermentation

Douzhi is made from mung beans . Specifically, it is made from mung bean starch or the leftovers of vermicelli.

However, the original soy milk was not carefully made. No one wanted to process something with this flavor. Its appearance was the result of an accidental fermentation deterioration .

In the midsummer of the early Qing Dynasty, a semi-finished product processed by a flour mill in Beijing fermented and deteriorated due to negligence. The owner of the flour mill tried it and found that it tasted special, sour, fresh and mellow, so he came up with an idea: try heating and boiling it, and the delicious taste of bean juice will be more obvious. This discovery prompted the flour mill to specialize in producing bean juice, and set off a "bean juice" trend in Beijing.

This new drink was welcomed by people from all walks of life, from high officials to ordinary people. The delicious taste of douzhi also spread to the royal family. Emperor Qianlong ordered an inspection of the hygiene of douzhi, and after confirmation, it was made in the imperial kitchen of the palace. This move made douzhi a palace delicacy and was served in the palace every year.

From a mistake made by a flour mill to the imperial kitchen of Emperor Qianlong, a cup of sour, fresh and mellow soybean juice has been passed down to this day. However, it is not an easy task to make soybean juice appear in your bowl.

The production of soy milk requires three steps: soaking - fermentation - boiling soy milk .

**① Soak the mung beans. ** Soak the mung beans in clean water until the beans absorb enough water and swell up, then remove the bean skins;

**② Grind and ferment. **Add water to grind into fine pulp, pour into a large vat for fermentation, the white powder that sinks to the bottom of the vat is starch, the top layer of gray-green foam should be skimmed off, and the middle layer is raw bean juice.

**③Cook soy milk. **Put a small amount of water in a pot, boil the water over high heat, then pour in the raw soy milk. When the soy milk is heated to the point of overflowing the pot, turn off the heat.

The fermentation process gives soy milk its unique sour taste and flavor.

It smells sour and rotten, like泔水; it tastes mainly sour when you drink it, and after staying in the mouth for a few seconds, it has a sweet aftertaste and is accompanied by a bean flavor.

The fermented bean juice is better absorbed by the human body than the mung beans themselves. It has the effects of reducing dryness and detoxification, promoting spleen and stomach function, stimulating appetite, and relieving heat and cooling down.

Studies have shown that raw bean juice contains 39 flavor compounds, of which alcohols and acids are the majority, with 18 and 6 types respectively; cooked bean juice contains 31 flavor compounds, of which alcohols and aldehydes are the majority, with 12 and 6 types respectively.

Lactic acid bacteria are the main bacteria that produce flavor substances in soy milk. During the fermentation process, lactic acid bacteria will produce lactic acid, acetic acid, aldehydes, ketones and other substances. These substances interact with each other to form unique flavor substances after lactic acid bacteria fermentation.

2. The correct way to open douzhi

The taste of soy milk requires the cultivation of taste buds to appreciate its beauty.

**First of all, you should drink douzhi while it is hot. **Mr. Liang Shiqiu once described it this way: The beauty of douzhi is that it is sour with a strange smell of rot. It is hot, so you can only slurp it, not gulp it down. It is spicy like pickles, so spicy that the tip of your tongue becomes numb. The spicier it is, the more you drink it, and the hotter it gets, and in the end you are sweating profusely.

In terms of matching, many people know that douzhi, fried dough sticks, and shredded pickled vegetables are a perfect match.

For most people, the more acceptable way to eat it is: first take a bite of the fried dough sticks, then drink a sip of soy milk, and finally take a bite of pickles.

Jiaoquan, also known as small fried dough sticks, is golden in color, evenly foamed, crispy and fragrant. Oily carbohydrates can best suppress the taste of bean juice. The spicy pickles have a strong flavor and a strong aroma that covers the sour smell of bean juice. Just a few pickles, slurp a few sips of bean juice, and then dip the crispy fried dough sticks in it and take a bite. It is sour, spicy, hot, and comfortable!

There are also netizens who have shown off their talents and found many ways to make douzhi taste better.

Advanced way of eating – drink it directly!

Eat with caution

Don't make yourself feel like you're drinking soy milk, the main point is a deception

It is said to be a delicious way to eat

Whether you are a die-hard fan of Old Beijing Douzhi or a novice who is curious about it, please remember: Douzhi may smell "stinky", but it contains the unique flavor of Old Beijing. When you pick up a bowl of hot Douzhi, you taste not only the flavor, but also the tradition and history of Old Beijing.

You might as well calm down and try to feel the unique experience that Douzhi brings us. Perhaps, you will find that Douzhi is not as "stinky" as you imagined, but has an indescribable charm.

As for those friends who are still hesitant, don't listen to what others say, go and try this legendary Old Beijing Douzhi yourself! Whether you like its taste or not, at least you will not regret having tried it. After all, Douzhi brings us not only a taste enjoyment, but also a spiritual satisfaction.

References:

1. Lu Xiaodan, Zhang Min, Miao Jing. Comparison of flavor substances and sensory evaluation of raw and cooked Beijing bean juice from different sources[J]. Food Science, 2015.36(6):103-108

2. Jiang Yan, Liu Chang, Yu Hailong. Optimization of canned bean fermentation parameters with different types of fermentation agents[J]. Grain Processing, 2017, 42(3): 46-48.

3. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DGr1ymylr0zNFbM_L9I_TA

4. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FAQkBim4dWnQCR_fK-PlfQ

Written by: Dang Min

Cover image source: Baidu Encyclopedia

Image source: Internet

Editor: Guru

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