In the private kitchen on the first floor of the bun shop, Li Youran stood near the door, watching with interest as Chef Liu and a guy were busy in front of the gas stove in the corner.

There is a large stainless steel steamer on the stove, the blue flame licks the bottom of the pot, and a special cylindrical wooden retort is set on the steamer, the lid of the retort is like a hat, and it is exuding steam.

This is a few days ago Chef Liu went outside to find a carpenter to customize, a wooden retort, a wooden basin, are made of cypress, the wooden retort has a layer of retort grate, can hold about ten kilograms of clean glutinous rice. This is an essential piece of equipment for the traditional sake making process. Of course, if it is a special brewing workshop, the wooden retort is much larger, at least 50 kilograms of glutinous rice must be contained.

"The choice of glutinous rice is very particular, not too coarse, not too refined, there is a degree of certainty in this." Chef Liu explained to the guys.

"Oh, what's the point of that?" Li asked leisurely.

"Too coarse glutinous rice with seed coat and embryo, that is, milled rice bran, contains more fat and protein, especially protein, if the content is too much, it will cause various microorganisms to ferment too vigorously, and the acidity in the wine is too high, which will damage the mellow flavor of rice wine." Chef Liu explained.

"Then use refined rice with the skin removed." Li Youran understood, nodded and said.

"There are troubles when it is too refined, the stickiness of the glutinous rice itself is large, and in the process of steaming and stirring, the steamed glutinous rice will stick to the wall of the wooden retort and it is difficult to pour out. Also, when pouring it into a wooden basin and stirring, it is also very laborious, and it is not easy to sprinkle the wine and medicine evenly. Therefore, I wanted to choose glutinous rice with a little bit of dark red grain husk, which I specially went to the farmers' market to choose, and did not ask the logistics department to buy it. There is also the heat of steaming glutinous rice that should also be controlled, and it should be steamed thoroughly, but it should be transparent but not rotten, loose and not mushy. If it is steamed too badly, it will not be stirred, and a bucket of rice will be wasted. Xiao Shen, you remember something. Chef Liu reminded the man.

"Master Liu, I remember." Guy Xiao Shen took a basin and fetched a basin of water. At the same time, he agreed.

It's not easy to learn anything. It's a blessing to have such two talented chefs under my hands. Li Youran was secretly happy in his heart.

After a while, Chef Liu lifted the corner of the retort lid and blew down to look inside. The unique flavor of glutinous rice suddenly overflows, making people salivate.

"Okay, almost. Carry away. As he spoke, he reached out and turned off the gas stove.

Guy Xiao Shen stepped forward. Together, they lifted the bucket off the stove and walked out of the kitchen.

Li Youran helped push open the door of a small warehouse next to it and let them in.

The warehouse has been emptied, and the original things inside have been packed up and moved to the large warehouse on the second floor of the north store of the steamed bun shop. In the future, this place was specially used as a wine-making laboratory, and a special rectangular wooden frame was placed in the center of the room, which was made by Uncle Qi and his men with stock wooden recipes.

Liu Senjiang and the two of them threw the retort bucket onto the rectangular wooden shelf, and a stainless steel basin was placed under the wooden shelf, facing the bottom of the retort. Chef Liu instructed his men to get buckets and scoops.

"Master Liu, what are you doing now?" Li Youran asked, he didn't know much about the local brewing process, only knew that rice wine was made by mixing glutinous rice with wine and fermentation.

"This process is called cold water pouring. Cool down the cooked glutinous rice with cold water to facilitate fermentation. Chef Liu said as he lifted the retort lid. Put it aside.

White steam then rose and filled the room.

The guy Xiao Shen came back with a tin bucket, and there was a water scoop floating in the bucket.

"This water is special water from the backyard, don't use tap water." Chef Liu confirmed.

"Don't worry, Master Liu, the special water that has been used from the beginning to the present." The guy hurriedly replied. …,

Liu Senjiang nodded and copied the water scoop. Pour the cold water in the retort bucket over the glutinous rice one by one, one scoop after another.

Cold water trickles through the sticky rice and drips into the stainless steel basin below. It became hot water.

Liu Senjiang took a closer look, and asked his partner Xiao Shen to pour the hot water in the stainless steel basin back into the tin bucket, saying that this was a second pouring, commonly known as "pouring soup".

After the warm water from the tin bucket is poured through the glutinous rice again, the process ends.

After waiting for another ten minutes, it was estimated that the water in the retort bucket was almost drained, and Chef Liu motioned to the men to tilt the retort bucket sideways, pour it into the large wooden basin prepared in advance, and scrape off the sticky glutinous rice on the wall of the retort bucket with a spoon.

Then let the sticky rice continue to cool in a wooden bowl. Taking advantage of this, Chef Liu went out for a trip, and when he came back, he held a paper bag in his hand and took out a few oval things from it.

"Is this koji?" Li leisurely leaned over to take a look.

"Yes, it's a farmer's handmade koji made from natural ingredients." Chef Liu nodded, washed his hands first, then crushed the koji, sprinkled it evenly on the surface of the glutinous rice, and then inserted his hands into it, stirring it constantly.

"This must be mixed well, otherwise the fermentation will be inconsistent, and the taste of the wine will be affected."

After mixing the koji and glutinous rice, he flattened and compacted the cooked glutinous rice in the wooden basin with both hands, and then dug a round hole in the center of the rice pile, which was still relatively deep, and compacted the wall and its edges.

"I know this, it's called 'Sakai.'" Li Youran said on the side.

Chef Liu nodded, took another bowl, dipped his hand in water and poured it evenly on the surface of the glutinous rice, and then covered it with a wooden lid.

"That's it here today, put it for about 30 hours, and then carry out the process of mixing water and soaking wine, followed by several processes of straining wine, twisting wine, squeezing wine, and distillation, about a week's appearance, you can make rice wine." Chef Liu introduced while washing his hands in the basin.

Guy Xiao Shen handed him a towel to wipe his hands.

"Don't look at this home-brewing method, the process is quite complicated. However, I heard that now the farmer's pure grain brewing has begun to be popular, and many people regard it as a treasure. Li Youran said that now many things have a trend of return, perhaps it is inevitable that industrialization has developed to a certain extent.

"By the way, Master Liu, the smell of this sake lees is very strong after it comes out, will it affect the store?" Li Youran remembered a new question, in his impression, the air near those breweries was filled with a pungent smell, which would be unimaginable if he made this in the steamed bun shop in the future, allowing customers to dine in such an environment.

"It's not a big problem for us to do this, and I'm afraid it won't work if we do it in the future, so it's better to find another place." Chef Liu said, wiping his hands clean with a towel.

Li Youran thought about it, this is really the case, but it is still in the experiment, and the final quality of the rice wine cannot be determined. Let's ask the logistics department to go to Zhang Luo in a few days.

So, he said his hard work to Liu Senjiang and the others, and then left the laboratory.