The origin of vinegar
1. The culture of vinegar in China
China is the earliest country in the world to brew vinegar from grains. It is already mentioned in "The Rites of Zhou" written by the Duke of Zhou in 1058 BC and Confucius' "The Analects of Confucius - Gong Zhi Chang". There are written records of vinegar making. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, workshops specializing in making vinegar appeared. In the book "Essentials of Qi Min" in the Northern Wei Dynasty, 22 methods of making vinegar were recorded, some of which are still used today. Vinegar is a liquid containing acetic acid brewed from grains or distiller's grains. In ancient times, it was called "vinegar", "bitter wine", "rice vinegar", etc.
2. The culture of vinegar abroad
In foreign countries, we have also accumulated rich experience in using vinegar to prevent and treat diseases. The founder of Western medicine, the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 BC) appreciated the medical value of vinegar and used vinegar to treat respiratory diseases, rashes, rabies bites and other diseases. Vinegar was widely used in Roman folk medicine to treat wounds. There are also records in the Bible that vinegar can alleviate diseases.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans carried fruit vinegar with them when they traveled overland. Before drinking water, they would add a few drops of vinegar to the water to kill viruses, sterilize and prevent infectious diseases. Vinegar also has a long history in Japan. The Japanese attach great importance to the health-care functions of vinegar, and "less salt and more vinegar" is listed as the second important position in the "Longevity Mission".
3. Basic discussion of vinegar in traditional Chinese medicine
1. Nature and flavor. Sour, warm. "Bie Xun" "Taste sour, warm, non-toxic".
2. Meridian tropism. Enters the liver and spleen meridian. "Lei Gong Pao Pharmaceutical Properties" "enters the liver meridian".
3. Indications: dispersing blood stasis, stopping bleeding, detoxifying, and killing insects. "Suixiju Food Spectrum". "Appetizing, nourishing the liver, strengthening muscles, warming the stomach, sobering up, and digesting food."
Chinese Famous Vinegar
Zhenjiang Balsamic Vinegar
Zhenjiang Balsamic Vinegar is famous for its “sour but not astringent, fragrant but slightly sweet, strong color and fresh taste, and the longer it is stored, the better it will be. It ranks first among the four famous vinegars in terms of its characteristics such as “mellow alcohol”.
Shanxi Mature Vinegar
Shanxi Mature Vinegar: Mature vinegar is produced in Qingxu County and is one of the four famous vinegars in my country. The color of aged vinegar is black and purple.
Baoning Vinegar
"Baoning Vinegar" has a history of nearly 400 years and is one of the four famous vinegars in China. However, among the four famous vinegars in China, "Baoning Vinegar" is Production scale and economic benefits have been left far behind. Baoning vinegar is the only medicated vinegar and is known as the "Oriental Magic Vinegar". In 1915, it won the gold medal at the "Panama Pacific International Exposition" together with the national liquor Moutai, thus establishing its position among the four famous vinegars in China. .
Zhejiang rose rice vinegar is a traditional famous product in the Jiangnan region of my country. It is as famous as my country's famous Shanxi mature vinegar, Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, Sichuan Baoning vinegar and Fujian red yeast vinegar, and is listed as one of the five famous vinegars in my country.
Zhejiang rose rice vinegar has been produced for hundreds of years. The product is named after its bright, transparent and rose-red color. At the same time, it has a special fragrance that stimulates appetite. The taste is sour but not irritating, with a slight tinge. Fresh and sweet characteristics. It uses rice as raw material. After it is washed and steamed, it is allowed to mold naturally in a wine jar or a large vat. Then it is fermented with water for 3 to 4 months. When the vinegar mash matures, it is pressed and sterilized to become the finished product. During the brewing process, natural beneficial molds, wild yeasts, bacteria and other microorganisms are used to participate in the fermentation to produce a type of raw vinegar - pressed vinegar. Therefore, the vinegar contains rich and subtle ingredients. Mainly include: organic acids, sugars, amino acids and trace amounts of vitamins, minerals, aromatic ingredients, etc. It is precisely because of the natural flowering and mixed culture of multiple bacterial strains that the unique color, aroma, taste and body of rose rice vinegar are formed, and it has many functions such as nutrition, seasoning, cooking, and health care, fully embodying the uniqueness of Zhejiang rose rice vinegar. Some flavors and distinctive local characteristics.
Since rose rice vinegar uses beneficial microorganisms in nature, its production is greatly limited by seasons. The general production and feeding period starts from the beginning of summer in the lunar calendar, ends in the Great Heat, and ends in the beginning of winter when fermentation matures. Therefore, rose rice vinegar is said to be ripe once a year, and the output is extremely limited.
Among the major categories of famous vinegars in the country, only rose rice vinegar and Fujian red yeast vinegar use a special liquid surface fermentation process. However, rose rice vinegar is different from Fujian in the formation of color, aroma and taste. Red yeast rice vinegar is different.
Rose rice vinegar uses indica rice as raw material, without adding any sugar, sesame and other seasonings. In terms of brewing process, it is based on the natural culture of rice and multi-strain mixed fermentation, making full use of wild molds, yeasts and bacteria in the environment. After saccharification, fermentation and acetification, the metabolites produced by these wild bacteria form the unique color, aroma, taste and body characteristics of rose vinegar.
Vinegar brewing
An acidic seasoning containing acetic acid. Also known as vinegar. It was called fermented wine in ancient times, also known as fermented wine, and also known as bitter wine. Vinegar includes rice vinegar, mature vinegar, balsamic vinegar, bran vinegar, wine vinegar, white vinegar, various fruit juice vinegar, ginger vinegar, health vinegar, etc. Due to different raw materials and manufacturing methods, the finished product has different flavors. Vinegar is a commonly used acidic seasoning. The acetic acid content per 100ml of vinegar is more than 3.5g for ordinary vinegar and more than 5g for superior vinegar. Because vinegar can harmoniously regulate the body's metabolism, its demand as a dietary condiment continues to grow.
There are 4 categories of raw materials and production methods: 1. Traditional Chinese vinegar raw materials, glutinous rice and rice (japonica rice) are the main ones south of the Yangtze River, and sorghum and millet are the main ones north of the Yangtze River. Nowadays, broken rice, corn, sweet potato, dried sweet potatoes, dried potatoes, etc. are mostly substituted. The raw materials are first cooked, gelatinized, liquefied and saccharified to convert starch into sugar, and then yeast ferments alcohol to produce ethanol. Then, acetic acid fermentation occurs under the action of acetic acid bacteria, and ethanol is oxidized to produce acetic acid. 2. Use sugary raw materials to brew vinegar. Grapes, apples, pears, peaches, persimmons, dates, tomatoes, etc. can be used to brew various fruit juice vinegars. Honey and molasses can also be used as raw materials. They only need to go through two biochemical stages: ethanol fermentation and acetic acid fermentation. The wine vinegar produced by the Orian method in Orian in northwest France was once famous all over the world. 3. Using ethanol as raw material and adding acetic acid bacteria only undergoes one biochemical stage of acetic acid fermentation. For example, low-alcohol liquor or edible alcohol diluted with water can be used as raw material to make vinegar using the quick-acidification method. It only takes 1-3 days to obtain wine vinegar. 4. White vinegar is prepared by adding edible glacial acetic acid and water, and adding seasonings, spices, colorants, etc. to make it a vinegar with a flavor similar to that of brewed vinegar.
The production process is divided into two categories: solid state method and liquid method.
Solid-state vinegar brewing process There are three main traditional solid-state vinegar brewing processes. 1. Use Daqu to make vinegar: use sorghum as the main raw material, use the enzyme secreted in Daqu to perform low-temperature saccharification and alcoholic fermentation, place half of the mature vinegar fermented grains in a smoked fermented grains tank, and heat it with a slow fire. After the fermented grains are smoked, Then add the vinegar liquid from the other half of the mature vinegar fermented grains to soak, and then pour out the new vinegar. Finally, the new vinegar undergoes the aging process of Sanfu-Yidong sun-drying liquid and fishing ice to produce vinegar with black color, thick texture, mellow sour taste and special aroma. The famous one is Shanxi mature vinegar. 2. Use Xiaoqu to make vinegar: Using glutinous rice and rice as raw materials, first use microorganisms such as rhizopus and yeast in Xiaoqu (also known as wine medicine) to conduct solid culture on the rice grains, and ferment while saccharifying. Add water and wheat koji to continue saccharification and alcoholic fermentation. Then stir the bran into the wine mash into a solid state and put it into the vat, add high-quality vinegar mash as seeds, and use solid-state stratified fermentation to gradually expand the reproduction of acetic acid bacteria. After brewing with aged vinegar, the vinegar juice is leached out using the cascade method, and mixed with fried beige and white sugar. After clarification, it is heated and boiled to obtain balsamic vinegar. The famous one is Zhenjiang Balsamic Vinegar. 3. Using bran as the main ingredient, add glutinous rice with wine or polygonum juice to make vinegar mother, carry out acetic acid fermentation, and age the vinegar fermented grains for one year to produce bran vinegar with a unique flavor. The famous ones are Sichuan Baoning (now Langzhong County) bran vinegar and Sichuan Quxian Sanhuite vinegar.
The solid-state vinegar making method uses wild microorganisms in nature, so the fermentation cycle is long, and acetic acid fermentation requires turning the fermented grains, which is labor-intensive. At present, pure cultured bran koji is used as a saccharifying agent, distiller's yeast made from pure cultured yeast is added to perform alcoholic fermentation, and then vinegar mother made from pure cultured acetic acid bacteria is used to perform acetic acid fermentation to produce vinegar. There is also an enzymatic liquefaction ventilation and reflux method. After the raw materials are soaked in water and ground, bacterial α-amylase is first added to heat and liquefy, then bran is saccharified, the saccharified mash is cooled, and distiller’s sake is added for alcoholic fermentation. After the alcoholic fermentation is completed, the wine is After the fermented grains, bran, rice bran and mother of vinegar are fully mixed, they are sent to an acetic acid fermentation tank with a false bottom. There are ventilation holes under the false bottom to allow air to enter naturally. Natural ventilation and vinegar reflux are used instead of turning the fermented grains, and Make the vinegar fermentation temperature uniform until mature. The output, vinegar production rate and labor productivity of the enzymatic liquefaction ventilation and reflux method are higher than those of the traditional method.
Liquid vinegar brewing process There are many traditional liquid vinegar brewing processes. 1. Use rice as raw material. After steaming, it will mold naturally in a wine jar. Then add water to form a liquid state and ferment at room temperature for 3-4 months.
After the vinegar mash is matured, it is pressed, clarified, disinfected and sterilized to obtain a finished product with bright color, fragrant smell, not pungent sour taste and mellow taste. The famous one is Jiangxi Rose Rice Vinegar. 2. Use glutinous rice, red yeast rice, and sesame as raw materials, use the divided addition method to carry out natural liquid fermentation, and age it for 3 years. Finally, add sugar to prepare the finished product. The famous one is Fujian red yeast vinegar. 3. It is made from diluted wine liquid as raw material and acetic acid fermentation in a quick-brewing tower with filler, such as Liaoning Province Dandong white vinegar.
Vinegar produced by liquid fermentation is also gradually adopting a new process of deep fermentation. After the starch raw materials are liquefied, saccharified and alcoholic fermented, the mash is sent into the fermentation tank, where a pure culture of acetic acid bacteria liquid is gradually expanded to control the product temperature and ventilation volume, accelerate the oxidation of ethanol, generate acetic acid, and shorten the production cycle . There are many types of fermentation tanks, and self-priming inflatable fermentation tanks are now being used. It was first used in the production of vinegar by the Federal Republic of Germany in the early 1950s, called the Flins acetic acid fermentation tank, and was patented in 1969. Japan and European countries have adopted it one after another. China has been using it since 1973.
Several uses of vinegar
●Put newly purchased porcelain tableware, tea sets, and wine sets in 10% vinegar and boil them for two to three hours before use. The trace amounts of aluminum contained in porcelain can prevent aluminum poisoning from harming the body.
●When cooking aquatic products such as crabs, shrimps, and jellyfish, soak them in 1% vinegar for one hour to prevent food poisoning caused by Halobacteria.
●Vinegar-boiled peanuts or soybeans are a delicacy for patients with hyperlipidemia, obesity, hypertension, and coronary heart disease because it has the medical effect of lowering lipids and blood pressure.
●If fish bones or bones get stuck in the throat when eating, you can use vinegar to decoct the traditional Chinese medicine Clematis. Use the decoction to moisten and wash the throat, which can soften the bone spurs without causing danger. .
●Those who feel full and bloated after eating at a banquet can dilute 50 to 100 ml of vinegar and take it to increase gastric acidity, promote digestion, and eliminate bloating and food accumulation.
●If you drink too much and are already drunk, you can take 100 to 200 ml of 50% vinegar to cause a chemical reaction of "ethyl acetate" between vinegar and wine to detoxify the body and nourish the liver and kidneys.
●Tableware, tea sets, and wine sets after meals can be boiled and sterilized with 1% vinegar solution to prevent viral hepatitis, dysentery, typhoid, enteritis and other digestive tract infectious diseases.
●To prevent the occurrence and spread of respiratory infectious diseases, doors and windows can be closed. Fumigating a house with 150 ml (three ounces) of vinegar has a significant preventive effect on influenza, whooping cough, measles, etc.