Tofu is a very common ingredient in later generations, whether it is a rural market or a supermarket mall, it can be found everywhere, and it can be bought for only two to three yuan.

The method is also very simple, first, put the selected soybeans into a pot and soak them for 8~10 hours, and soak them until they are swollen.

Then, use a stone mill or a blender to grind the soaked soybeans into juice and filter them with gauze.

Finally, pour the filtered bean juice into a pot and boil, add brine or gypsum, put it into a mold, and wait for it to solidify.

Soybeans Zhang Ran has at home, although there is no gauze, but the last time he went to the market, Zhang Ran also bought a lot of fine linen, which can also be used instead, as for the mold, it is easy to say, it does not take much time to make one with bamboo.

But Zhang Ran's family doesn't have this thing for stone grinding, and if you want to grind tofu, you can't do without it...

"I remember that Sankui's house has a big grinding plate, which is placed in the backyard and used to grind wheat, I don't know if it's still there, why don't you go to his house to see it?"

Zhang Ran vaguely remembered that Sankui's house had a stone mill, but now it was already dark, and it was not appropriate to run to Sankui's house at this time, so Zhang Ran could only temporarily press the restlessness in his heart and wait patiently for one night.

"No, you have to soak the soybeans first, so as not to be blind tomorrow!"

Thinking that soybeans would have to be soaked for at least 8 hours, Zhang Ran couldn't lie down. When he got dressed, he took advantage of the moonlight to find a fire fold from the side of the bed, blew it and lit it, and then took it and went straight to the kitchen next door.

With the light of the moonlight and the faint light of the fire fold, Zhang Ran found a wooden bucket of water from the kitchen, scooped out a dozen spoonfuls of soybeans from the clay pot, and poured them into the bucket...

"Ah Ran, you don't sleep in the middle of the night, what are you doing?"

Hearing the movement behind him, Zhang Ran turned his head to look and found that his mother, Zhang Li, was wearing a coat, leaning on the door frame, frowning at him.

"Uh" Zhang Ran saw that the soybeans and water in the wooden barrel were almost full, so he hurriedly closed the lid of the clay pot again, and said to his mother: "Mother, it's useless!" It's just that I suddenly want to drink some soybean juice tomorrow morning, so I'll come over and soak some soybeans..."

"You kid" Zhang Li glared at Zhang Ran with disgust, and told Zhang Ran with some dissatisfaction: "Hurry up and go to sleep when you're done, it's cold at night, be careful of the cold..."

"Got it, Mother!"

......

The next day, early in the morning, as soon as the sky was bright, Zhang Ran got up from bed early, first ran to the kitchen in a hurry, and checked the soybeans he had soaked last night.

It was found that after a night of soaking, the soybeans had fully absorbed a lot of water and were very full. He happily poured out the water in the bucket, carried half a bucket of soaked soybeans, and went straight to Sankui's house.

Hearing that Zhang Ran was looking for a stone mill, Sankui didn't say a word, and took Zhang Ran directly to his backyard and found the place where the stone mill was stored in the northeast corner.

"This millstone is a bit big!"

After going around the stone mill, looking up and down, Zhang Ran found that there was a gap between the stone mill of Sankui's family and the stone mill he expected for grinding tofu.

There is no other reason, because this stone mill is too big, according to Zhang Ran's visual inspection, the diameter of this stone mill in front of him is at least one and a half meters, and it may even be more.

In addition, Zhang Ran also found that the workmanship of this stone mill is extremely rough, the surface is pitted, and the shape is also extremely irregular oval, and the surface of the stone mill in later generations is smooth and round. At first glance, it looks like two round stones have joined together.

Frowning and thinking about it, Zhang Ran turned his head to Sankui beside him and said, "Sankui, you can get some beans." Let's try this grind to make it good! ”

"Okay!"

When Sankui heard this, he didn't doubt him, so he happily agreed, turned around and came to Zhang Ran with the barrel, handed the barrel to him, and said, "Here you go!" ”

"Let it go!"

Zhang Ran replied casually, then scooped out a spoonful of soybeans from the bucket with a wooden spoon, poured it into the round hole above the stone mill, and then pushed the stone mill...

"Crunch squeak~"

As the stone mill slowly began to rotate, the swollen soybeans in the round hole slowly flowed into the gap between the stone mills, and as the two grinding pieces rotated each other, they were ground into bean juice little by little... A little bit of it flows into the tub below the entrance.

After all the soybeans on the stone mill were finished, Zhang Ran stopped turning the grinding plate, squatted down, reached out to scoop up some flour in the wooden basin, and twisted it in the palm of his hand...

"Such a big chunk? That's too coarse, right? ”

Reaching out and touching Zhang Ran, he found that the bean juice ground by this stone mill was actually a loose lump, such a large particle, once filtered with a muslin cloth, there was not much qualified bean juice!

After the bean juice is ground out, there are still such large pieces of loose soybeans, which must be a problem with the stone grinding.

So, Zhang Ran began to look for the reason, and after some inspection, he finally opened the round stone grinding disc, only to find that the original problem was actually in the grinding teeth.

The grinding teeth of this stone mill of the Sankui family are not the common eight-zone oblique grinding teeth in later generations, but some uneven small pits!

No wonder the beans milled by this stone mill are all lumpy particles, this kind of rough stone mill, if you can grind qualified bean juice, it is really hell!

The stone grinding workmanship of Sankui's family is too rough, it does not meet Zhang Ran's requirements, and it can't even grind qualified bean juice, so it is naturally even more impossible to use it to grind tofu.

After thinking about it, Zhang Ran felt that it would be better to build a stone mill specially used for grinding tofu in later generations.

However, rebuilding a stone mill is not an easy task, especially in terms of current productivity. If Zhang Ran is to do it himself, I am afraid that it may not be able to be done in ten days and half months.

The best way is undoubtedly to transform the stone mill in front of it and transform it into an eight-zone diagonal grinding tooth that is closer to later generations.

Moreover, this work is actually not too difficult, although the current stone mill is simple, but the basic frame structure is not much different from the stone mill of later generations, the only difference is only in the size of the head and the texture of the grinding teeth.

Lacking sufficient tools at hand, Zhang Ran turned to Zhang Meng for help, hoping that he could help find some chisels and other things to remodel the stone mill.

But Zhang Meng told Zhang Ran that ordinary people don't have such a thing as a chisel, and if you want to find it, you can only go to the stonemason's house to borrow it.

And, instead of borrowing a chisel, it would be better to ask a stonemason to help make a new stone mill, which would not cost much anyway.

After listening to Zhang Meng's words, Zhang Ran thought about it and felt that it made sense. As the so-called art industry has a specialty, Zhang Ran is not a professional after all, although he has seen the stone grinding of later generations and knows how to make stone grinding, but after all, he has not made it himself.

And the stonemasons rely on this craft to eat, their skills are much better than Zhang Ran's half-hanging, Zhang Ran only needs to provide ideas, let the stonemason do it, it is definitely much stronger than Zhang Ran to get it personally.

After inquiring about Zhang Meng, Zhang Ran learned that there was an old stonemason in the south of their Zhangli who could make all kinds of stone tools, so he took Sankui straight to the old stonemason's house.

The old stonemason in Linan is also surnamed Zhang, but it is not a branch with Zhang Ran's family, and he has long been out of the five suits, but the relationship with the Sankui family is closer, but in fact, it is also limited, and it is also outside the five suits, but according to the generations of the villagers, Zhang Ran and Sankui also have to call people "four uncles".

When he arrived at the door of the old stonemason's house, Sankui stepped forward and knocked on the door, shouting at the top of his voice, "Is there anyone?" Is there anyone in the house? Is Uncle Si at home? ”

"Who? Knocking on the door early in the morning? ”