Where is the specialty of aged vinegar?

The acidic condiment used by our ancestors was "plum" at first. Because there are no plums all year round, plum sauce is produced, which was called "acyl" in ancient times. Plum was used earlier than vinegar 1000 years ago.

There are many kinds of vinegar, and mature vinegar is its representative famous product. Others include original balsamic vinegar, aged vinegar, common vinegar, double vinegar, special vinegar, famous special vinegar, mellow and other varieties. If we distinguish from the raw materials for producing vinegar, there are sorghum vinegar, corn vinegar, millet vinegar, persimmon vinegar, fruit vinegar, distiller's grains vinegar, powder residue vinegar, sweet potato vinegar and so on.

Mature vinegar has the characteristics of common vinegar, such as mellow sour taste, strong taste and long taste. At the same time, it also has the characteristics of fragrance, softness and no precipitation. In addition, the longer the mature acid is stored, the more fragrant, sour and interesting it is. Moreover, it does not mildew in summer, does not freeze in winter, and its color is dark orange, which is a unique boutique in Shanxi vinegar.

Shanxi mature vinegar is one of the four famous vinegars in China. It has a production history of more than 3000 years, and there are more than 1000 vinegar producers in Shanxi. Shanxi mature vinegar is known as one of the four famous vinegars in China. It is famous for its unique flavor of cotton, sour, fragrant, sweet and mellow and its long brewing history. It ranks ahead of Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, Baoning balsamic vinegar and Fujian monascus vinegar in China. Known as "the first vinegar in the world." According to statistics, the export volume of Shanxi mature vinegar in the first quarter of this year has reached more than half of that of last year, and it has entered the Japanese market in an all-round way with excellent quality and sold to more than ten countries in Europe and Asia.

Mature vinegar is mainly made of sorghum. Firstly, a large amount of distiller's yeast was added, and then fermented with alcohol at low temperature, and then mixed with bran and bran for acetic acid fermentation. Half of the fermented grains were fumigated, the other half were drenched with vinegar, and then the fermented grains were soaked in the obtained vinegar solution to obtain new vinegar. After a long-term aging and concentration process of sun exposure in summer and ice fishing in winter, new vinegar was finally made. Mature vinegar is dark brown, clear in liquid, mellow in taste, with the characteristics of less precipitation, long storage time and not easy to deteriorate. It is not only a good condiment, but also can be used as medicine, which has certain therapeutic and preventive effects on hypertension, hepatitis and dermatosis. Now many people have a misunderstanding. Vinegar is sour, but it is not. Real mature vinegar has the characteristics of softness, acidity, fragrance, sweetness and freshness. Now there are many manufacturers called mature vinegar, which is somewhat similar to the "Chinese aging" in the wine industry. The water tower is a well-known trademark in China and a famous brand in China, and the East Lake is a famous brand in China. But all parts of Shanxi have their own. It is recommended to buy brand vinegar, which is of good quality and can be bought with confidence. Old vinegar, produced in Qingxu County, Shanxi Province [/url]. At Panama International Expo 1924, Qingxu Mature Vinegar won the first prize of fine products in one fell swoop, and has been famous at home and abroad ever since. There are 100 vinegar brewing enterprises in Taiyuan. Time-honored brands "Meiheju", "Yiyuan Qing" and several major vinegar factories are all in Taiyuan and Qingxu. Qingxu is in the southern suburbs of Taiyuan, which can be reached in more than 30 kilometers. "Shanxi has had fermented vinegar since ancient times, and the old acyl group came from Gengyangyi." Gengyang is Qingxu County, Shanxi Province, which was called Gengyang in the Spring and Autumn Period and Jin Dynasty. The vinegar township street in Qingxu [/url county is an alley 100 meters long, which is very deserted. Out of the hutong, it is the world-famous Shanxi Old Vinegar Factory, which produces the brand of "Meiheju". Shanxi Mature Vinegar Factory was formerly Qingxu Mature Vinegar Factory. 1949, in order to gather strength, the best vinegar workshops in Qingxu County, including 2 1 time-honored brands such as Meiheju, Juqingcheng and Yongquanyu, jointly established Shanxi Mature Vinegar Group with the brand of "East Lake", because East Lake is one of Qingxu. The group company is located in Madaopo Street, Taiyuan City, integrating company management, sales, warehousing and production. There is also a vinegar museum, which shows old tools for brewing vinegar and inscriptions by celebrities, including officials of the National Government. The most valuable word should be written by Mr. Fang. Fang is the founder of microbiology in China. 70 years ago, he rode a donkey to visit Shanxi Old Vinegar Factory and wrote the famous book Shanxi Vinegar. His evaluation of Shanxi mature vinegar is: "Shanxi mature vinegar and Zhenjiang mature vinegar are the most famous in China. Zhenjiang mature vinegar is not as good as Shanxi mature vinegar because of its mellow color, and the vinegar itself is produced by chemical action, which is not man-made. It is worthy of being a famous product in China." It can be seen that the secret of old vinegar lies in the word "Chen". The longer the storage time, the better, and the longer the fragrance.

The processing technology of true aged vinegar is the same as that of wine aging, which consists of steaming, fermentation, smoking, pouring and aging. These five processes constitute the unique quality and flavor of Shanxi mature vinegar, and the selection of raw materials is also different from other provinces and cities. The raw material of Shanxi mature vinegar is mainly sorghum. Sorghum has high starch content, and high alcohol and acetic acid yield after fermentation. However, it is necessary in the process of alcohol fermentation and acetic acid fermentation after sorghum steaming. In the process of "vinegar", they put the fermented raw materials into a vat filled with appropriate amount of chaff, rice husk, wheat bran, salt and flower materials and fermented them in acetic acid for more than ten days. With the increase of temperature in the cylinder, acetic acid bacteria accelerated their growth and reproduction. With traditional experience and long-term scientific experiments, they can accurately grasp the curve of temperature rise and fall to improve the quality of vinegar. Generally speaking, you can eat it by pouring it out of the can. But the vinegar in Qingxu Vinegar Factory is called mature vinegar because there is still a process of "aging", that is, "aging". The vinegar that has been drenched should be "aged" in a jar for one year: "sun drying" and "ice pumping". That is to say, using natural conditions, it is necessary to remove ice cubes after opening cans in summer, and freeze in the middle of winter to remove the water in vinegar. A jar of fresh vinegar, after removing more than half of the water, will reach a dark purple, not moldy in summer, not frozen in winter, sweet and sour smell.

The history of vinegar making in Shanxi is about 3000 years. Twenty-two vinegar making methods summarized by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty in his famous book Qi Yao Min Shu are considered by some people to be the brewing methods of Shaanxi people. Among them, "making rice mash" is the brewing method of "Shanxi mature vinegar". Although Shanxi vinegar has a long history, it became famous only after the establishment of fumigation law. During the Shunzhi period in the early Qing Dynasty, a "vinegar fairy" named Wang was born in Jiexiu. He opened a "Meiheju" vinegar workshop in Qingxu Chengguan. Taking advantage of the abundant local raw materials and excellent water quality, he added fumigation process to white vinegar, boldly reformed and innovated, and finally created the famous "old vinegar" brand in Shanxi. Wang's fumigation method is divided into five steps: steaming, fermentation, smoking, drenching and aging. The most important thing is to go through a process of "fishing for ice in winter and drying in summer". In other words, vinegar should be aged in a jar, allowing it to freeze in winter and burn in summer. Its purpose is to precipitate impurities in vinegar, and to precipitate water by evaporation or freezing, so that vinegar can reach a higher concentration. In this process, the substances in vinegar fully react with each other to produce a unique smell.

Pure old vinegar, only one jar of vinegar is made into one jar. This strict process leads to a low yield of mature vinegar, so it is very precious. The raw materials of Shanxi mature vinegar all come from local sorghum, barley, corn and peas. The sunshine in Shanxi Plateau is strong, and the temperature difference between day and night is large. The produced coarse cereals are high in sugar content and other components. A research institute in Japan once brought Shanxi mature vinegar back for analysis, which proved that all kinds of amino acids in Shanxi mature vinegar were much higher than other brands. There is another factor that cannot be replicated in other areas, that is, the cold in winter and the fierce sunshine in summer in Shanxi Plateau. In Taiyuan, its surface water is Fenhe River water flowing from Guancen Mountain, and its groundwater comes from Tianlong Mountain water system. In the early days without industrial pollution, Fenhe River water is undoubtedly a rare and excellent water body. Guancen Mountain is located in Ningwu, northwest of Shanxi, with an altitude of 2603 meters. Up to now, there are still 820,000 mu of primary secondary forests. There are six lakes in the mountain, which is one of the three Tianchi lakes in China. Its ice caves are frozen all year round, and it is also the most exquisite primary secondary forest in North China. These mountains are foggy in summer and green and white in winter.

Guancen Mountain belongs to the alpine region. The grain is naked oats, peas and potatoes, and it is rich in seabuckthorn. The average annual temperature is only 6℃. In the folk custom of Ningwu, they especially pursue green food, and they also use hydraulic stone mill to grind noodles, while the water at the source of Fenhe River is clear and sweet and can be eaten raw. During the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang Di specially built Fenyang Palace here.

In the past long years, Shanxi people relied on Fenhe River for drinking water. Now the water of Shanxi mature vinegar is taken from underground, and the water vein of this groundwater originated from Tianlong Mountain. Tianlong Mountain, formerly known as Fangshan, is a branch of Luliang Mountain with an altitude of 1.700 meters. It is located 36 kilometers southwest of Taiyuan. Tianlongshan is a national forest park, with a sandy shale in the mountain and a forest coverage rate of 70%. Vinegar is like wine. You must have good water to make good vinegar.

As the hometown of vinegar, people still have the legacy of vinegar. If you visit the rural backcountry of Shanxi in midsummer, you will find that the villagers are under the scorching sun. Put a big jar of stuffy hemp paper, and use the "old man" (vinegar jar) to dry vinegar, and the vinegar jar needs to keep moving, because it has to follow "grandpa" (the sun). Seeing this scene, the scene of "every family has a jealous jar and everyone is a vinegar maker" in Shanxi will definitely come to mind. It is a fact that Shanxi is the production base of vinegar. Now there are more than 65,438+000 vinegar factories in the province. In addition to Qingxu mature vinegar, there are Lingchuan Yuquan mature vinegar, Huguan Xinzhai mature vinegar and Yuci Nanbao mature vinegar. Varieties include mature vinegar, famous special vinegar, double vinegar, mature vinegar, special vinegar, gold vinegar, seasoning vinegar, smoked vinegar and so on. The same variety of vinegar can be divided into various varieties according to the different raw materials and production techniques. It is really dazzling and has its own characteristics.

People say that Shanxi is a good place, with fertile land, beautiful water and more fragrant vinegar. Shanxi people are good at making vinegar, because Shanxi people love to be jealous, and Shanxi people love to be jealous, which can really be called the best in the country. There is a saying in Shanxi that vinegar is tasteless. Shanxi people are good at brewing and being jealous, so they are called "old ladies". In ancient times, vinegar was called acyl, the person who brewed vinegar was called acyl, and vinegar was called old acyl. So jealousy is not jealousy, but "eating sugar". Due to the special contribution of Shanxi people to vinegar making and their love for vinegar, coincidentally, the word "acyl" and the word "west" in Shanxi are homophonic, so people from other provinces respectfully call Shanxi people "Shanxi old acyl".

"Old Xi 'er" should really write a great book about his contribution to vinegar, because vinegar has so many functions. Besides a lot of acetic acid, vinegar also contains calcium, iron, lactic acid, glycerol, amino acids and aldehydes. Vinegar is not only the first condiment that can be tasted, but also a good product for human health. Edible, it can dissolve calcium and iron in food, which is convenient for human body to absorb, and can also be used to remove radish, cabbage, garlic and other foods. Medically, vinegar is used as medicine to promote hair growth and beauty. The effect of lowering blood pressure and losing weight. In the fourth year of Qing Qianlong, Jingshitai Hospital concentrated on Ding Kundan, a famous doctor in China, and concocted it to treat blood stasis of maids. More than 20 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines are all processed with aged vinegar. For thousands of years, people have found that vinegar has many wonderful uses, and jealousy is indeed a good living habit.

Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, gave several beautiful women as concubines, but he dared not accept them in his room. Li Shimin thought the wife in the room was a bitch, so she refused to agree. So Emperor Taizong sent eunuchs to order Mrs. Fang with a pot of "poisoned wine". Instead of accepting these beautiful concubines, they were given poisoned wine. Fearless, the lady took the "poisoned wine" and gulped it down. As a result, she didn't die. It turned out that the pot was filled with vinegar, so the emperor used it to test her and made a joke. So the story of "jealousy" has been passed down through the ages as an interesting story. In modern life, some people will be jealous and jealous when they see others being praised or rewarded, and they are also dubbed "jealous".