[Sca-cooks] RE: Chinese Redactions as promised :)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Craig Jones.:
>Thanks darling.  As recipes go, it looks a little a little odd.
>
>I assume that the Jiu-yao contains both Koji (which will be turning
>the Rice Starch into Glucose) and Wine Yeast (which will be turning
>the Glucose into Alcohol)?

Either that or there are airborne yeasts in the dark place this
amylase conversion occurs in... I think I followed this recipe once,
took the liquid, placed it in a carboy, took the remaining rice,
mashed it with about ten percent barley malt until the rice was
nearly dissolved, added this liquid to the carboy, and fermented it
with, I believe, Epernet 2 wine yeast. Not even remotely a historical
approach, but fun and it made a lovely, pale, straw-colored white
wine.

>I have some Sake instructions that are fiendishly complicated compared
>to this little gem of simplicity...  The sake recipes separate the
>fermentation process into a mash (using Koji) and a ferment (using
>yeast), with up to 4 additions of mash into the main ferment.

Presumably the yeast will not support above a certain alcohol
concentration before going dormant or semi-dormant, so you raise the
total mass and decrease alcohol concentration by adding fresh mash
periodically? On the other hand, would this raise overall alcohol
production? I'm not sure.

>Back to the recipe below, I assume the glutinous rice referred to is
>the standard one like I use to make "Mangoes and Sticky Rice"?  and
>now I have the Rice Yeast Balls... I'm all set... Kewl...
>
>I'll try this one first and move up to Sake.  I assume when they are
>referring to Rice Wine Lees, that they are talking about what is left
>over from the second fermentation after the wine/sake has been
>filtered through cloth.  I'm doubting that that will remain after the
>wine has been removed from the recipe below will be useful.  Right?
>Maybe?

I'd say that's a definite maybe ;-)

Adamantius