The wheat seedlings would consume a large amount of their own malt enzyme. If there was too little malt enzyme, it would naturally affect the process of the starch being decomposed into caramel sugar.
The wheat that Jiang Yue and Xue Yan had with the sieve to distribute at the beginning only took three days to complete. They could now start making caramel candy.
It just so happened that they had found out about it early in the morning. When Li Hehua and Liu Guixia were making breakfast, they conveniently cooked the glutinous rice as well.
One pot was for breakfast, while the other was for glutinous rice.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan were processing the caramel while Sifu was watching them carefully. He was afraid of missing out on any details and even gave them a hand from time to time.
The roots of the wheat had penetrated through the holes under the sieve. Jiang Yue asked Xue Yan to bring a wooden basin to catch the roots, then she pulled out all the wheat in the sieve and put them in the wooden basin.
The wheat needed to be washed. The roots of the wheat were a little dirty. Afraid that the two children couldn’t carry the water bucket, Xue Sifu quickly went to get a bucket of water. There was a ladle swimming in the bucket of water.
“Just wash this clean and cut it into pieces. The more crushed it is, the better.” Jiang Yue said. “It’ll be good to mix it with the glutinous rice.”
With both hands in the basin, Xue Yan washed the wheat carefully. “Okay.”
“I’ll do the chopping.” Xue Sifu, who was also squatting down, laughed as he scooped more water for them.
“Alright,” she said. Jiang Yue and Xue Yan had no objections.
When breakfast was ready, the glutinous rice was also ready. At this time, the glutinous rice was still very hot and could not be mixed with the chopped wheat. They had to wait until the glutinous rice was warm enough to be mixed.
Jiang Yue and the others took the opportunity to have breakfast.
After breakfast, the glutinous rice was almost dry. Jiang Yue poured the crushed wheat malt into the glutinous rice and wanted to mix the two well.
“Let me do it, let me do it.” Xue Sifu hurriedly said.
After Xue Sifu used a spatula and chopsticks to mix the malt and glutinous rice very well, Jiang Yue said, “Pour it into the pot again.”
“Alright,” he said. Xue Sifu quickly poured it into the pot.
With Sifu’s help, Xue Yan could only stand aside and watch.
Liu Guixia and the others were also curious, so they stood by and watched.
“Cover the pot,” Jiang Yue said.
“Alright.”
Jiang Yue replied, “This has to be left here for about four hours, it’ll probably be ready by then. It’s best to leave fire as is.”
Yes, the fire needed to be there.
If the fire was too high and the temperature in the pot was too high, the malt enzyme would denature and there would be no way to decompose the starch into caramel sugar. However, if the temperature was too low, it would not work either. The activation temperature of the enzyme would not be enough, so naturally, it would not fully decompose the starch.
She was afraid that Xue Sifu and the others wouldn’t understand, so she didn’t say it out loud.
However, it was impossible to keep the temperature within the most suitable range by manually controlling the temperature at all times. In any case, it was impossible for the starch in the glutinous rice to be completely decomposed into caramel sugar in the end.
She had no choice because of the limited conditions.
“Alright,” he said. Xue Sifu agreed. No matter the reasoning, as long as he knew the steps, that would be enough.
Liu Guixia and the others also couldn’t help but agree, “Alright.”
“Xue Yan and I will look after the fire. If you have anything to do, you can go and do it. “Jiang Yue said.
It would still take about four hours to ferment, so Liu Guixia and the others went to work in the fields. The accumulated ash at home had not been scattered for many days. Not only did they have to scatter it on the ground, but they also had to scatter it on the field.