Food from all over the world | Celebrate the Little New Year with Guandong candy! How much do you know about "Zaotang"?

In the blink of an eye, it’s already the Little New Year!

As the saying goes, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, sugar melons are sticky. On the day of the Little New Year, people eat Guandong sugar. Guandong sugar is a traditional New Year food. According to folk customs, on the day of the Little New Year on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kitchen God will return to heaven to report on the affairs of each family. Guandong sugar is prepared for the Kitchen God to sweeten his mouth and make him say more good things, "say good things to the heavens and bring good luck to the world below."

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Traditional Kanto candy is made from boiled malt sugar through complicated steps such as kneading and pulling sugar. Some are dipped in sesame seeds, while others are not.

What is the difference between maltose and the sucrose that is available in every kitchen?

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01

maltose

Sweet flavor originated in China

The most common sucrose that is available in every kitchen is granulated sugar and caster sugar. It is a disaccharide consisting of 1 molecule of glucose and 1 molecule of fructose.

Maltose is also a disaccharide, composed of 2 molecules of glucose. It is a kind of sugar obtained by boiling and concentrating grain juice after the action of amylase. Although the sweetness is less than half of sucrose and it does not taste as sweet as sucrose, maltose is the sweetness that belongs to us Chinese.

Our ancestors started enjoying it more than 3,000 years ago!

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This was a very luxurious taste in that era. People didn’t have many sources of sweetness before. Apart from fruits, there was almost only honey, which was very precious and rare. Collecting wild honey even risked one’s life.

Malt syrup is also one of the oldest and most widely used sweeteners.

02

Various maltose

· Stir-fried sugar

I had never seen it in Beijing before, but I saw it when I went to Chongqing for a temple fair one year. An old man had a big bowl of syrup in front of him and many small sticks beside him. If you buy one, you will get two sticks with a lump of syrup hanging on them. Use the two sticks to stretch the sugar alternately. As the air in the syrup increases, the sugar will slowly turn from the initial amber color to white. You can simply experience the steps of making Guandong sugar or Longxu sugar.

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· Dragon Beard Candy

Dragon's Beard Candy can be regarded as the result of the extreme stretching of maltose. The initial syrup is repeatedly stretched and folded until each strand of sugar is as thin as a hair, and then wrapped with raw materials such as bean flour, and sometimes stuffed with peanuts, coconut shreds and other seasonings. It is the XX specialty dragon's beard candy that we can see in various tourist attractions and snack streets across the country.

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· Blowing sugar figures and drawing sugar paintings

Sugar figures and sugar paintings are also made from maltose.

Sugar painting is very common at temple fairs. You can specify some simple patterns. If you want a complex pattern, there will usually be a turntable, and it is up to you to turn it to a dragon or a phoenix.

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Honeycomb candy

This is an old-fashioned maltose candy bar, and it's not too common.

The vendor pushes a cart or has a bamboo basket in front of the stall, covered with a white quilt. When someone wants to buy something, the quilt is lifted to reveal a whole piece of bright yellow honeycomb candy. The vendor holds a hammer in one hand and an awl-like tool in the other. You point out how much you want, and he hammers it down. The piece that comes out is weighed, paid for, and it's yours.

Honeycomb candy is made by adding baking soda to heated and bubbling maltose syrup. The baking soda releases carbon dioxide, which creates many gas holes inside the syrup when it cools. When boiling sugar, the heat is very important, and only experienced chefs can make honeycomb candy that is crispy and delicious.

· Sorghum candy

Maltose is actually another name for maltose.

From the name, you can tell that this candy is closely related to grain. In fact, it is a soft candy containing maltose, and the ingredients include white sugar, starch, maltose syrup, water, sorghum flour, etc. It tastes very interesting when chewed and can relieve boredom.

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· Cantonese Crispy Soup

Crispy skin water is inseparable from maltose. Under the action of high temperature, the syrup hanging on the skin undergoes a caramelization reaction. Not only does it look good in color, but the tempting aroma of caramel also becomes a powerful weapon to make the food captivating.

03

Why does sugar come in so many forms?

Sugar is a great material for carving. When water is added to sugar and it is heated and boiled into syrup, it becomes extremely plastic and can be used to make candies of various textures, some of which are soft and chewy, some are crispy and delicious, and some are as hard as a rock.

Although candies come in a variety of final forms and textures, they are all essentially made from two main ingredients: sugar and water.

The ratio of sugar to water is controlled during the cooking of the syrup, and the physical arrangement is determined by the adjustment during cooling. The temperature at which the syrup is heated, the speed at which it is cooled, and the degree of stirring will all affect the texture.

04

Other sugars in the world

Sugar played a major role in the history of slavery in Africa and America, where people were enslaved just to satisfy Europeans' desire for sweetness. However, as sugar was industrialized and costs decreased, the amount of sugar added to many foods increased, causing many "rich diseases" to develop. Therefore, sugar should be consumed in moderation.

Maple syrup

Among artificial sugars, tree syrup is the most similar to honey because it is less refined and preserves the components of the tree sap more completely. People extract the thin sap of the plant and then evaporate the excess water to make syrup.

The Indians in North America had already made and used maple syrup before the European invasion. They used a tomahawk to chop into the tree trunk, then hammered in a wooden wedge to prop up the wound, and then placed pieces of elm bark as containers to collect the sap. Then they cleverly used the low temperature at night to freeze the water into ice, and then removed the ice to get a more concentrated sap.

Compared with other tree species, maple trees have the sweetest sap and the most abundant yield.

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Birch syrup

Residents of the Arctic Circle have long used birch sap to make syrup, as many species of birch are the dominant species in northern latitudes.

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Palm sugar

Palm sugar is produced in tropical regions.

If you travel to Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, etc., you can buy palm sugar in specialty stores.

Agave syrup

Agave is a native desert plant in the Americas. Its syrup is 70% fructose and 20% glucose, so it tastes sweeter than most syrups.

Author｜Carbohydrate Xiaoyuzi

Source: Kafei

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