There are all kinds of "candied food" in national food. The "preserved fruit" in the north is processed without salt, and the production process does not ferment. After raw material treatment (fruit selection, cleaning, peeling, cutting, etc. ), they are cooked with sugar; Drying. After controlling moisture and sugar, it is packaged and sold, such as various preserves produced by enterprises in Beijing and surrounding areas, so it is also called "Beijing preserves".
The processing methods in the south are different. Due to the humid climate in the south, the products produced by the above method are not easy to preserve, the shelf life is not long, and the products are prone to mildew. Therefore, the traditional processing method in southern China is to peel fresh fruit with coarse salt (the skin is slightly cracked or cracked due to friction) and pickle it with appropriate salt into semi-finished products (dried or not dried after pickling, called dry embryo or wet embryo), which can be preserved for a long time without deterioration. Soak (soak, bleach) with water until the salt content is appropriate, blanch with boiling water, and then cook with sugar (called "step-by-step cooking"). After the sugar is ready, add "seasonings" such as licorice and aniseed (boiled), and then dry or dry (mainly drying, which is different from drying in the north) to become the finished product. Therefore, the southern preserved plum, also known as "candied fruit", has some "medicinal flavor" in traditional products, and also has some health care and nutrition functions. For example, "Snowflake Ruth" produced by Guangzhou Fruit Food Factory is one of them.
There is an enterprise "Xiangxue Pharmaceutical Factory" in Guangzhou, which was very famous during SARS. Guangzhou Fruit Food Factory has a factory in Luogang District, Guangzhou, which produces snowflake seeds. In the past ten years, Luogang District has built a characteristic park called Xiangxue Park. The "snowflake" and "fragrant snow" here refer to the flowers of plums. Around Guangzhou, there is Conghua, and the "Xiangxue Festival" is also held every year.
Every year before the Spring Festival, plum blossoms are in full bloom, and the fragrance of Bai Shu in Baishan is overflowing. This is "Xiang Xue", which most northerners have never seen, and it is not surprising. After that, the flowers grow green leaves and bear countless fruits, which are plums. Among many fruit trees, there are few flowers of Li Ziyi tree, one tree bears one fruit, and plums are also called "Shi Li", which accords with the traditional wish of China people to have more children and more happiness. "Snowflake Ruth" came from this; The "Xiangxue Garden" also came from this.
Plum originated in the Central Plains of China. As a fruit tree, it has a history of 3,000 years, which is recorded in the Book of Songs. "There are plums in the mountains" and "Give it a peach and repay it with a plum".
Jia Yingzi is an alias of Plum, which was called Jia Qingzi in ancient times. According to Shu Wei's Two Notes in Beijing in the Tang Dynasty, "There are plum trees in Jiaqing Square in Kyoto, which are really sweet and fresh, and they are the beauty of Kyoto, so they are called Li Jiaqing. Today, people say that Jia Qingzi is familiar with the title and can remember it without adding Li. " In the south of China, there are still people who call Li Jia Qingzi or Jia Yingzi (this is the result of the homonym of "Qing" and "English", which has become a habit over time).
Therefore, in the south, there are no preserved plums, only Zi Ying, Jia Ying and Jia Ying. Among the standards still being implemented, the enterprise standard of "Snowflake Ruth" became the industry standard of the former Ministry of Commerce (Ministry of Light Industry) in 1992, and the "QS" certification of candied food factory still needs to be adopted.