Hey guys, a few notes: 1. So I know that this format is different than we usually do. We wanted to play around with Steph doing the VO sometimes, in that sort of Andong/Ragusea/Weissman style. This style won't be a replacement for what we usually do, but it is something that we wanna potentially play around with, both to give Steph an even more pronounced voice on the channel as well as mitigate some of borderline-absurd lengthy 'hand modeling' exercises that're almost unavoidable in the 'hands-only' medium. We love the hands-only approach because of its focus on the food, but sometimes when we're doing stuff with cultural and historical content it can prove to be quite challenging to cut. 2. In an ideal world, we kinda want to scatter a bit of videos that'd follow that format among our usual style. But... we'll see how you guys like it. Steph was kinda unsatisfied with her performance with the Laozao, but I (Chris) thought it was a great start (MUCH better than me when I first started doing the VOs). I think it was cool enough where I definitely want to try it again. I'm thinking we can have Steph do the VO for some of these smaller videos for practice, then later we can potentially do the more involved cultural/historical stuff in the same way. There's a lot I (Chris) need to work on though too - indoor lighting setups and such (and now I know the purpose of HD powder...). 3. In this and all fermentation projects, the cleanliness is of the utmost important. Remember to use clean utensils, free of water and any oil. 4. For cooling the rice, some would pour cool water into the rice and repeat the process til it comes down to temperature. That's also a cool method and provides moisture needed for the next step. But personally, we find it a bit difficult to have a whole set up where we can have enough clean water, pouring watering into the rice, collecting the water, and repeating the process. So I let it cool by flipping, then dissolve the rice leaven and mix in. Either way would work, depends on your preference (the more traditional way would be pouring water to cool down). When going the pouring water route, you can collect the water that dripped down from the rice and reuse that water. The lukewarm water would help the rice cool down more gradually and evenly. 5. The amount of liquid used in dissolving the rice leaven is usually 1/3 or 1/4 of the weight of rice. This ratio provides a pretty sweet end product. We also went up to 0.5:1 or even 1:1 water/rice ratio... it also worked but the end result was a lot more liquidy and less sweet. 6. When making the hold in the middle of the rice, make sure that it reaches the bottom of your container so that the rice at the bottom part also have access to air. 7. As "@Jeffrey Archer " points out in the comment, "Both of those species are aerobic organisms. I recommend removing the plastic wrap and replacing it with cheese cloth to allow it to breath.". So the traditional way of making laozao uses tofu cloth to cover in the summer and uses a thick comforter to cover and keep warm in colder days. You certainly do it this way too, just make sure to store it in a clean area where nothing would drop on it. 8. For storage, you can either store the whole thing in the fridge for about a week. Or you can steam your finished laozao for about 30 minutes, completely stop the fermentation process, put it in clean mason jars when hot, cover tight, then they should be able to store in the fridge for up to a month or two. If it grows mold, in the jar then it means it's not good any more. 9. So - big question: what if it grows mold? The color of rhizopus oryzae strains is white, with grey-ish black spores on top. So sometimes when the laozao fermentation is going too fast (hot weather may cause that), you may see some white molds with black spots on top of your laozao. Don't panic, just scrape it off, it's still good. However, if it grow more... 'colorful' mold (like orange, green, etc.), that means it's contaminated by other bacteria/fungi, and thus not good any more. 10. You can use the active laozao to make a 'sourdough starter' of sorts for super fluffy Baozi. It's... an awesome method. We'll try to make a video on that sometime (within the year?). 11. As a completely random aside, if you're looking for potential uses of Laozao in western cuisine, I (Chris) LOVE adding it to my blended hot sauce. Such a great way to balance the heat from chilis, way deeper of a flavor than just using granulated sugar. 12. And as always, whenever there's a more technical topic like this, there're always great discussion in the comment section by professionals and hardcore hobbyists, so do remember to check out the hearted comments before starting to make it. That's all for now. Apologies that this one came out a bit late, we've been traveling and such. I'm aiming to get the next video (Suzhou big meat noodles) out ~Sunday - that one'll be back with me doing the VO in the hands-only way.
There's an error at the 2 minute 33 second mark where Steph says to cool to 35 degrees celsius but the closed captions say centigrade (Edit: I was unaware that celsius and centigrade could be interchangeably used, please see KL005's comment below. My apologies for the annoyance caused.) ua-cam.com/video/szyEompz004/v-deo.html
Steph nailed it in the VO department, especially for her first go. It's only up from here 😁 I for one really appreciate the mixup, it's nice to see you guys evolving as your channel grows. Best of luck to you both, and many thanks for getting me interested in cooking again!
Steph did a great job with the VO! As much as I like your usual "hand-modeling" style of production, I can definitely see the benefit of these styles for projects and recipes which have fewer things to do.
One of the best things about Chinese Cooking Demystified is that it shows dishes that just don’t really exist in the West and are unique and often have interesting stories. Thank you so much for showing us!
I completely agree with you. A brief aside about today's topic ... most people on this side of the Pacific are unaware that the USA actually has a growing Sake industry. Link follows listing some domestic breweries (kura). www.umami-insider.com/top-10-sake-breweries-america Sake used to be a passion of mine ... still is, but some of the meds i'm on nowadays dont play nice with alcohol, so I only rarely buy it now. Youth is wasted on the young. 😏
Roving Punster I live in Australia, where there is a sizeable Japanese population and sake is pretty common here too although I am not an expert on it.
@@aussiereptilesandherping It's such a wonderfully different flavor palatte from grape wine, and generally lower acidity too. And Japanese Chinese and Korean wines are all astonishing different from one another. Of the three I'm most familiar and experienced with Japanese varieties.
I was big into zymurgy back in the mid 1990's ... I did ales (both partial mash and all grain), mead, wine from grapes, and cider, in descending order. Never tried making rice wine though, because at the time there wasnt enough information commonly available nor was there access to koji cultures. Much has changed since then ... the microbrew renaissance in the US, the proliferation of the internet, and youtube, and an increasingly global economy.
This makes me so happy to see make this! I have been this myself after seeing your bingfen video. It’s nice to see alternate methods plus your usual in-depth explanations.
I've been using the rice cooker method of making amazake. Basically you make your rice porridge/congee, allow it to cool to 50-60 degrees C, then add your crumbled koji rice. I use the Miyako brand koji rice, which tells you to use koji rice to (uncooked) rice in a 200g:150g ratio, good to know from your video that the fermentation is still successful with a lesser ratio!.
This is perfect! I actually ordered laozao culture off of taobao in November when I was back home visiting family in Sichuan, off of the recommendation of my favourte laozao vendor at my local outdoor market. I've been sitting on it for the past few months but this video is the best motivation to make some amazing homemade sichuan laozao :)
My grandparents make Jiuniang (Laozao) and it just tastes so much better than the store-bought stuff. If you have the time and you live in America, I would definitely recommend making this instead of buying it.
Welcome to the world behind the mic! (Steph's voiceover here definitely beats a few words outside on the balcony in terms of clarity/sound quality) Is this the same alcohol that tangyuan are sometimes served in? Because I definitely didn't like that when I first tried it but I also want to give it another chance too.
I was wondering why the recipe for Japanese amazake is different temperature than the Chinese fermented rice recipe I read online. Thank you so much for answering this! I didn't know it's 2 different bacteria. No wonder they are so different.
the only really nice way I can put my feelings...is I greatly enjoy your voice, Chris. though tbh I kinda still miss the ""And devour" clause at the end of a dish's prep.
I wonder, since this, in its basic form, a fermented rice, does that mean this is the Chinese equivalent of Indonesian tape/tapai? Because if it is then it would be very convenient for me to substitute jiuniang with sticky rice tapai.
Vietnamese just add the rice wine yeast in the sticky rice to make a sweetened alcoholic rice dish. I've added Koji before. It just makes a sweet syrup. You need to add yeast to make alcohol.
I've loved fermented rice since infancy probably because my mom and her parents made this all the time. The last time I made it (decades ago in California), the leaven came in the form of hardened balls which needed to be crushed into powder. Never understood why the leaven came packaged like that.
You should definitely do (lots) more of the "Chinese Ingredients centred" videos where the recipe is secondary and centering Steph would be perfect for those. Like the one "What is Shaoxing Wine, and why's it in almost every Chinese recipe?" which is one of the best videos on you channel and very unique to you - there's a great many Chinese cooking channels but no-one else does that kind of approach. I found that one utterly fascinating and learned more in 6 minutes than hours of watching other channels which just splash Shaoxing in in passing - I now know why it's used and it's not just magic. Many of your videos has something similar as part of them, but generally secondary to the recipe to set the scene and while great a regular video of "Shaoxing" type which flips the emphasis would be superb - because of where you are and who you are you can do that much, much better than anyone else could. If you ever think of writing a book chapters based around such aspects would also be a great, and unique, way to go.
I am quite delighted to find this channel today when I tried to browse Chinese vegetarian cooking. I thought this channel should be and ads channel for Chinese food because of the VO... but tbh, I don’t mind it because I was focused on the recipes and techniques of cooking, more happy to see that big round traditional wok that was used to fry the toufu :) There are some channels I have tried to watch but at the moment I find this one should be the best for me. I always miss Chinese cooking especially since I moved and lived in Germany. I love rice, all types of soya based food, seaweed, Chinese fermented stuffs etc. although I cannot speak Chinese fluently because I was born in Indonesia and grown up in Singapore but I am an authentic Chinese as my parents, grand parents and great grandparents are Chinese from Guangdong province. That is why I am so happy to find out that Steph is from Guangzhou. I hope I can watch more vegetarian Chinese cooking from this channel 😊
Ginormous yes to steph-overs and fermented products. I’d really love to see more of these, they seem so central to Chinese cooking. Could you do ya cai? Maybe lap yuk? Could you develop a Bourdain style travel and history side channel? I love your work. Keep it up!
In Thailand, there is a similar thing called "ข้าวหมาก" (khao mak) which is made in similar manner, fermentation of sticky rice with mould to yield sweet and slightly alcoholic dessert.
i think this is worth mentioning the chinese one heated at 30 C (86F), that's such a low temp, you will be growing the mold. the mold will then release the enzyme that will break down some starch to sugar. with the japanese one at 60C (140F), that is so hot it will kill the mold, but it will be just barely not hot enough to break down the enzyme. so the enzyme will be very active, and break down lots of starch into sugar. amylaze enzymes chemically break down and get destroyed at 140F. but since it will take a long while to heat up to 140F, most of the enzymes will still be there converting starch to sugar. the one thing i dont know, in japanese koji rice, is the mold there dead, or is it just dried out? if it's not dead, i think you could heat it at a lower temp and get more alcohol flavors.
We talked to our Patraons that are into fermentation about this subject (the rice koji) during testing. They think the molds are dead already and what's in it is just the enzyme. I did the test with Japanese rice koji at a lower temperature (40C), it did end up growing some mold, it's orange though (in sake making the mold seems it should also be white), and the taste is also very sweet, so I'm not sure if that's the remaining mold or is it just other fungu that got in during the process.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified ah. Ok. As I understand it, actual Koji mold is white. So if you grew red mold, that's just other random possibly unsafe mold from the air or your hands.
Er, when it comes to Koji, it's not really used as a proper yeast. It's used to break down starch so it can be fed to your actual brewer's yeast. So you probably would end up with something interesting, but don't expect like proper alcohol.
Really enjoyed this change of pace and would be happy to see this style interspersed with your usual 'hands-only' content. Keep up the great work as always!
A couple points from someone who's watched their dad make this many times: - You don't have to let it ferment in the oven at a certain temperature. Usually we just leave it in the warmest part of the house and let it sit for a couple days, and then just check it occasionally to see if the liquid has appeared/if it smells right haha. Obviously this method isn't as precise and depending on the temperature or how long we've let it sit we might get something that is a little sweeter or more alcoholic tasting than usual, but it definitely works if you don't want to leave the oven on for a long time. - Re: the other comment about replacing the saran wrap with cheesecloth: I've never tried this but I trust the other guy knows what they're talking about haha but I just wanna reassure people that it will definitely work if you don't have cheesecloth or even saran wrap! Actually, my dad always makes jiuniang in tupperware containers, which I guess cuts off all the air... but oh well it still works just fine haha - In my experience jiuniang definitely lasts for more than a week in the fridge, so don't panic and throw it away if you have some left by the end of the week! Honestly I've had jiuniang in my fridge for over a month before and it was still 100% fine. - If you have an Asian grocery store near you, check to see if they sell Rhizopus balls, because it is WAY cheaper at an Asian grocery store than on Amazon. We've been using the same pack for several years haha though I don't remember how many were originally in the pack. But point is if you can, check the Asian grocery store because it'll probably be way cheaper.
Thanks for the detailed comment sharing your experience! We've been trying to look at the Rhizopus balls that're sold in the west, do you think they work the same as the one in China? LIke the traditional ones that're made with herbs and stuff?
I just made this, well a rendition of it which we call 'zu fang" Where I'm from. I put it in a plastic container and I wanted to know if I should tight seal it or if I should seal it loose to let air in? It's been a day and there's already visible amount of water
So cool to see Steph doing the whole video, she did an amazing job! It’s great that you guys are looking into adding variety to your format. Looking forward to going along this journey with you! 👍
Both of those species are aerobic organisms. I recommend removing the plastic wrap and replacing it with cheese cloth to allow it to breath. Doing it this way can reduce your time from 36 hours to just 12.
Make sense, the traditional way of making laozao covers it with tofu cloth (thick comforter in colder days to keep it warm). But I'm worried about other bacteria in the air (also cat hair in our house, lol), you think the fungi would be strong enough to not be disturbed by stuff in the air? Regarding the time, I think 24h is still needed, or we should use whether the hold has liquid as a judgement. 12 hours seems a bit too short.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I would say in the short amount of time that it will be sitting out warm, there shouldn't be too much of an issue with contamination. Although, if you left it out long enough, you'd probably catch some wild yeast floating through the air and the sugar will start to ferment into alcohol. Some of the best Loa Jiu is made using wild fermentation due to the more complex character it develops compared to commercial yeasts.
this recipe reminds me a lot of something called "cơm rượu" or "wine rice" in Vietnamese. It is basically rice with alcoholic taste. It is eaten to prevent bugs from biting you on a certain day of the year. I think the whole process is super similar to how you guys do laozao, but probably different fungi. I think the fungi that my mom uses looks like a white button (???)
If you haven't already, check out Rene Redzepi's book, The Noma Guide to Fermentation. It gets pretty in depth regarding these types of cultures and also explores some other methods, including lacto-fermentation, miso and soy sauce making, garum/fish sauce making, etc. Not very traditional, but they get into some of the science. The fun part is when they apply traditional techniques from across cultures(hah!) to alternative ingredients.
Hi, hope you're having a nice day! Sorry I'd want to know if it's possible to Ferment the rice and obtain a similar result without using the leaven. Love your videos, they're very explanatory, detailed, informative and entartaining. Thanks for opening a new world of knowledge and cooking for all of us, wish you a lot of success!
Making your own rice leaven from scratch in the Chinese style is an excruciatingly complex process that is well beyond our current skill level, unfortunately :/ To illustrate... it covers the space of like a whole chapter on it in Needham's Science and Civilization in China lol Using already made rice leaven to make more rice leaven is a bit more straightforward, if you're interested in that process.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea. I'll try to get at least a bit of it someday and try this out, so that I get kilos and kilos from a little handful! Thanks a lot dudes, keep thriving with these amazing videos, god bless you!
Totally. She was a translator by profession (most recent job as one of editors for marketing materials and such for the Mariott Group in China) before we went full time on the project. Her English ability makes my ~B2 Chinese language ability seem like the epitome of amateur hour lol. In addition to putting in the work, she's also one of those people that're just super quick with languages. When we travel around Southeast Asia, she ends up picking up basic survival Thai/Malay/Indonesian and such by... the end of the trip. All while I'm still having to point and wave my hands like a buffoon haha. We were saying that one day we should go to Kunming or Guizhou and she could study some of the minority languages in the southwest (Dai/Tai, Miao/Hmong, etc) and maybe we could explore those cuisines more... :) One day!
I haven't even finished watching this video, but I just want to express how excited and happy I am that you guys are making a video on this! My grandmother used to frequently make tian mi jiu for me from scratch, as soon as I saw a mao jin bei bundle in the corner of her apartment I knew what was coming soon! (I remember oftentimes she'd let me get the first spoonful from the center of her jiu niang when it was ready). Unfortunately my grandmother passed away before I had become fluent enough in Chinese to properly communicate with her and my mother never bothered to learn her recipe - I swear her jiu niang tasted better than anything store bought. For the longest time I'd been meaning to find some recipe on the Chinese internet to try - lo and behold you guys make a video on this! (In English no less, which is going to be way easier/faster for me to comprehend). Thank you so much guys!!!!
Glad we could help :) This kind of thing is really what makes doing the channel feel so worthwhile, so really, thanks for sharing. I'm sure your grandmother made a better jiuniang than us, but I hope it can be a starting point! And yeah, homemade is like... crazy better. We were actually testing the next video (Suzhou big meat noodles), and one of the things that they add to it is some active jiuniang fermented ~one day with water. We originally felt that we could just use half bottled Laozao/half water to hit the same note... and while that's not a *bad* addition to the soup, for the sake of completeness we felt we just had to try the traditional way too. In the end, the homemade sort was just SO much richer and flavorful that we felt it was important to cover this one first.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I read the pinned note before commenting...and then I just re-read the pinned note again! Seems like there's even more information now haha. After watching the video and noticing you were fermenting in a far more controlled environment, and reading some of the comments below, I was starting to wonder about mold growth and such since my grandmother didn't have an oven and was using blankets to ferment over several days, and yet I don't remember any significant mold growth. I see now point 7 makes mention that's the more traditional way, though that's probably a bit riskier/advanced for someone like me who has no experience with fermenting things. I've followed some of your other recipes already and I just want to thank you guys again for all the hard work and research that go into the videos and recipes!!!
In Indonesia, we have a version of this called Tapé/Tapai Ketan. However, it differs from Laozao in a couple of ways. Tape Ketan is usually (though not traditionally) colored green, either with Suji leaves, or more commonly, with green food coloring. It is also usually served in small packets made from banana leaves, although nowadays one can buy a small tub of it in a supermarket. It is used pretty much the same as with Laozao, in icy cold soups/jellied drinks(?) and curiously enough, despite it being a fermented rice product, it is an essential Eid Al-Fitr snack. Edit: After speaking with my family's housemaid, I found out that her mother did this little trick where she would rub a bit of garlic water to the banana leaf package.... Supposedly this helps the tape release more water??? I will come back to comment once I tried this, and see if it tastes weird or not...
I'm watching from the United States where the popular term here for "sticky rice" is the kind of rice I like to eat, essentially koshihikari-type rice. In this video, are you using "sticky rice" in the way we would in Asia for glutinous/mochiko type rice? Is that correct? Also, Steph doing the voice over is a nice twist!
Thank u for clearly explaining the difference between laozao and amakaze.. I have koji and wasn’t sure if it was the same but this video really helped Question- can u use the instant pot to steam the rice, and incubate using the yogurt button?
I've been getting into fermentation lately (kombucha) so I was really excited to see a video on it from you guys! It's cool learning about laozao and its relation to amazake, which I've been wanting to make for a while (and definitely will now). I really like Steph doing the VO and hope to hear her voice more!
Quick question, do you think it’s possible to make a new batch of laozao by adding some Laozao i already made previously？so I don’t have to buy new leaven constantly. Thanks
So I decided to make this, I used chinese yeast balls as my source of fungus/yeast. It looks the same as yours, liquid is sweet and tastes good, no bad smells either, but the rice itself has the texture of wet paper, I take it I screwed up, where did I go wrong?
Yes, this can be used to make mantou. I mentioned it in the notes. But I'm digging my written notes too trying to find the recipe for it, it's buried somewhere...
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. So I know that this format is different than we usually do. We wanted to play around with Steph doing the VO sometimes, in that sort of Andong/Ragusea/Weissman style. This style won't be a replacement for what we usually do, but it is something that we wanna potentially play around with, both to give Steph an even more pronounced voice on the channel as well as mitigate some of borderline-absurd lengthy 'hand modeling' exercises that're almost unavoidable in the 'hands-only' medium. We love the hands-only approach because of its focus on the food, but sometimes when we're doing stuff with cultural and historical content it can prove to be quite challenging to cut.
2. In an ideal world, we kinda want to scatter a bit of videos that'd follow that format among our usual style. But... we'll see how you guys like it. Steph was kinda unsatisfied with her performance with the Laozao, but I (Chris) thought it was a great start (MUCH better than me when I first started doing the VOs). I think it was cool enough where I definitely want to try it again. I'm thinking we can have Steph do the VO for some of these smaller videos for practice, then later we can potentially do the more involved cultural/historical stuff in the same way. There's a lot I (Chris) need to work on though too - indoor lighting setups and such (and now I know the purpose of HD powder...).
3. In this and all fermentation projects, the cleanliness is of the utmost important. Remember to use clean utensils, free of water and any oil.
4. For cooling the rice, some would pour cool water into the rice and repeat the process til it comes down to temperature. That's also a cool method and provides moisture needed for the next step. But personally, we find it a bit difficult to have a whole set up where we can have enough clean water, pouring watering into the rice, collecting the water, and repeating the process. So I let it cool by flipping, then dissolve the rice leaven and mix in. Either way would work, depends on your preference (the more traditional way would be pouring water to cool down). When going the pouring water route, you can collect the water that dripped down from the rice and reuse that water. The lukewarm water would help the rice cool down more gradually and evenly.
5. The amount of liquid used in dissolving the rice leaven is usually 1/3 or 1/4 of the weight of rice. This ratio provides a pretty sweet end product. We also went up to 0.5:1 or even 1:1 water/rice ratio... it also worked but the end result was a lot more liquidy and less sweet.
6. When making the hold in the middle of the rice, make sure that it reaches the bottom of your container so that the rice at the bottom part also have access to air.
7. As "@Jeffrey Archer
" points out in the comment, "Both of those species are aerobic organisms. I recommend removing the plastic wrap and replacing it with cheese cloth to allow it to breath.". So the traditional way of making laozao uses tofu cloth to cover in the summer and uses a thick comforter to cover and keep warm in colder days. You certainly do it this way too, just make sure to store it in a clean area where nothing would drop on it.
8. For storage, you can either store the whole thing in the fridge for about a week. Or you can steam your finished laozao for about 30 minutes, completely stop the fermentation process, put it in clean mason jars when hot, cover tight, then they should be able to store in the fridge for up to a month or two. If it grows mold, in the jar then it means it's not good any more.
9. So - big question: what if it grows mold? The color of rhizopus oryzae strains is white, with grey-ish black spores on top. So sometimes when the laozao fermentation is going too fast (hot weather may cause that), you may see some white molds with black spots on top of your laozao. Don't panic, just scrape it off, it's still good. However, if it grow more... 'colorful' mold (like orange, green, etc.), that means it's contaminated by other bacteria/fungi, and thus not good any more.
10. You can use the active laozao to make a 'sourdough starter' of sorts for super fluffy Baozi. It's... an awesome method. We'll try to make a video on that sometime (within the year?).
11. As a completely random aside, if you're looking for potential uses of Laozao in western cuisine, I (Chris) LOVE adding it to my blended hot sauce. Such a great way to balance the heat from chilis, way deeper of a flavor than just using granulated sugar.
12. And as always, whenever there's a more technical topic like this, there're always great discussion in the comment section by professionals and hardcore hobbyists, so do remember to check out the hearted comments before starting to make it.
That's all for now. Apologies that this one came out a bit late, we've been traveling and such. I'm aiming to get the next video (Suzhou big meat noodles) out ~Sunday - that one'll be back with me doing the VO in the hands-only way.
There's an error at the 2 minute 33 second mark where Steph says to cool to 35 degrees celsius but the closed captions say centigrade (Edit: I was unaware that celsius and centigrade could be interchangeably used, please see KL005's comment below. My apologies for the annoyance caused.)
ua-cam.com/video/szyEompz004/v-deo.html
Steph nailed it in the VO department, especially for her first go. It's only up from here 😁 I for one really appreciate the mixup, it's nice to see you guys evolving as your channel grows. Best of luck to you both, and many thanks for getting me interested in cooking again!
Steph did a great job with the VO! As much as I like your usual "hand-modeling" style of production, I can definitely see the benefit of these styles for projects and recipes which have fewer things to do.
@@ongjunhong not sure if you're trolling, but Celsius and centigrade can be used interchangeably
I think Steph should do more VOs, perfectly nice and clear even with me bieng ESL.
One of the best things about Chinese Cooking Demystified is that it shows dishes that just don’t really exist in the West and are unique and often have interesting stories. Thank you so much for showing us!
I completely agree with you.
A brief aside about today's topic ... most people on this side of the Pacific are unaware that the USA actually has a growing Sake industry. Link follows listing some domestic breweries (kura).
www.umami-insider.com/top-10-sake-breweries-america
Sake used to be a passion of mine ... still is, but some of the meds i'm on nowadays dont play nice with alcohol, so I only rarely buy it now.
Youth is wasted on the young. 😏
I second that!
Roving Punster I live in Australia, where there is a sizeable Japanese population and sake is pretty common here too although I am not an expert on it.
@@aussiereptilesandherping It's such a wonderfully different flavor palatte from grape wine, and generally lower acidity too. And Japanese Chinese and Korean wines are all astonishing different from one another. Of the three I'm most familiar and experienced with Japanese varieties.
Roving Punster I personally don’t drink alcohol and only use it in cooking but these all sound like really interesting topics.
So cool seeing Steph do the whole video! Hope you guys can trade off more often :)
I was big into zymurgy back in the mid 1990's ... I did ales (both partial mash and all grain), mead, wine from grapes, and cider, in descending order. Never tried making rice wine though, because at the time there wasnt enough information commonly available nor was there access to koji cultures.
Much has changed since then ... the microbrew renaissance in the US, the proliferation of the internet, and youtube, and an increasingly global economy.
This makes me so happy to see make this! I have been this myself after seeing your bingfen video. It’s nice to see alternate methods plus your usual in-depth explanations.
I've been using the rice cooker method of making amazake. Basically you make your rice porridge/congee, allow it to cool to 50-60 degrees C, then add your crumbled koji rice. I use the Miyako brand koji rice, which tells you to use koji rice to (uncooked) rice in a 200g:150g ratio, good to know from your video that the fermentation is still successful with a lesser ratio!.
She did great! I could still heard your voice and cadence in the script. Love the videos, keep up the great work guys!
This is perfect! I actually ordered laozao culture off of taobao in November when I was back home visiting family in Sichuan, off of the recommendation of my favourte laozao vendor at my local outdoor market. I've been sitting on it for the past few months but this video is the best motivation to make some amazing homemade sichuan laozao :)
I love this channel so much. Been trying to learn to cook more during quarantine because I miss my family and home cooking reminds me of that
Go Steph!! Yes, the change in format from time to time will be nice.
thank you for adding the differences in taking time between winter and summer!
Great job, Stef! You're a natural.
I had wondered what they use in china for making rice wine so now we know
and so weird not hearing " laujou AKA shaoxing wine" thanks for sharing
My grandparents make Jiuniang (Laozao) and it just tastes so much better than the store-bought stuff. If you have the time and you live in America, I would definitely recommend making this instead of buying it.
Steph please do all the voice overs from now you're amazing 😍😍😍😍
Welcome to the world behind the mic! (Steph's voiceover here definitely beats a few words outside on the balcony in terms of clarity/sound quality) Is this the same alcohol that tangyuan are sometimes served in? Because I definitely didn't like that when I first tried it but I also want to give it another chance too.
Thank you very much for these videos
I was wondering why the recipe for Japanese amazake is different temperature than the Chinese fermented rice recipe I read online. Thank you so much for answering this! I didn't know it's 2 different bacteria. No wonder they are so different.
the only really nice way I can put my feelings...is I greatly enjoy your voice, Chris. though tbh I kinda still miss the ""And devour" clause at the end of a dish's prep.
back in college, I approximated this by adding sake and sugar to a thick congee. Taste was not that far off, all things considered.
I wonder, since this, in its basic form, a fermented rice, does that mean this is the Chinese equivalent of Indonesian tape/tapai? Because if it is then it would be very convenient for me to substitute jiuniang with sticky rice tapai.
I was just wondering how to do this! Thank you!!
hypothetically could I take some of the rice wine early in fermentation and freeze it to make my own starter?
Can you cook the rice in a rice cooker instead of the soaking/ steaming process?
Thank you
Is the Rhizopus the same as apog or "lime balls"?
Thank you so much!!!!!
This is a nicely informative video
I just tried making laozao, but it came out bitter! What happened?!?
Vietnamese just add the rice wine yeast in the sticky rice to make a sweetened alcoholic rice dish.
I've added Koji before. It just makes a sweet syrup. You need to add yeast to make alcohol.
@@enokii or com ru
Whats that fermenter yall are using?
Steph flying solo, hope to see more.
In Indonesia, this is known as "tape ketan"
amazaking!
Lovely :)
Do you also make makgeoli?
Thank, great video! Where do u get an oven that can do 30 and 60° Celsius. My lowest is 120° C. I realy like ur small oven, im a big fermenting fan.
Yeah that was a specific function of an oven that we were looking for. If you're China-based, we can send a Taobao link :)
InstantPot on yogurt low is specifically for jiuniang. But usually ambient temp or oven with light is fine.
You might be able to use a dehydrator. Just keep it very well covered.
I remember my parents used to buy this from the Chinese grocery and my mom would act like she was really wasted off the rice wine
Pokemon Season 1 Episode 2
10 minutes In
Professor Oak's Pizza
"Anchovies, Spinach, and Pineapple"
Can you make your Asian Pizza?
When you're able to.
This is such a niche request I love it 🤠
I mean, we've been thinking about how to make the ever popular durian pizza good, lol.
I've loved fermented rice since infancy probably because my mom and her parents made this all the time. The last time I made it (decades ago in California), the leaven came in the form of hardened balls which needed to be crushed into powder. Never understood why the leaven came packaged like that.
This is looking suspiciously like tapai makan.
Can I ask a difficult question? Chris was super defensive about wet markets early in COVID. I'm just wondering what his/your thoughts are now.
epic
tape ketan
You should definitely do (lots) more of the "Chinese Ingredients centred" videos where the recipe is secondary and centering Steph would be perfect for those. Like the one "What is Shaoxing Wine, and why's it in almost every Chinese recipe?" which is one of the best videos on you channel and very unique to you - there's a great many Chinese cooking channels but no-one else does that kind of approach. I found that one utterly fascinating and learned more in 6 minutes than hours of watching other channels which just splash Shaoxing in in passing - I now know why it's used and it's not just magic.
Many of your videos has something similar as part of them, but generally secondary to the recipe to set the scene and while great a regular video of "Shaoxing" type which flips the emphasis would be superb - because of where you are and who you are you can do that much, much better than anyone else could. If you ever think of writing a book chapters based around such aspects would also be a great, and unique, way to go.
not hearing Chris' voice in the voiceover was unusual, but I like it
So right
i like 'but i like it':)
I am quite delighted to find this channel today when I tried to browse Chinese vegetarian cooking. I thought this channel should be and ads channel for Chinese food because of the VO... but tbh, I don’t mind it because I was focused on the recipes and techniques of cooking, more happy to see that big round traditional wok that was used to fry the toufu :)
There are some channels I have tried to watch but at the moment I find this one should be the best for me. I always miss Chinese cooking especially since I moved and lived in Germany. I love rice, all types of soya based food, seaweed, Chinese fermented stuffs etc. although I cannot speak Chinese fluently because I was born in Indonesia and grown up in Singapore but I am an authentic Chinese as my parents, grand parents and great grandparents are Chinese from Guangdong province. That is why I am so happy to find out that Steph is from Guangzhou.
I hope I can watch more vegetarian Chinese cooking from this channel 😊
Ginormous yes to steph-overs and fermented products. I’d really love to see more of these, they seem so central to Chinese cooking. Could you do ya cai? Maybe lap yuk? Could you develop a Bourdain style travel and history side channel?
I love your work. Keep it up!
Thumbs up for coining the term 'Steph-overs' :)
In Thailand, there is a similar thing called "ข้าวหมาก" (khao mak) which is made in similar manner, fermentation of sticky rice with mould to yield sweet and slightly alcoholic dessert.
i think this is worth mentioning the chinese one heated at 30 C (86F), that's such a low temp, you will be growing the mold. the mold will then release the enzyme that will break down some starch to sugar.
with the japanese one at 60C (140F), that is so hot it will kill the mold, but it will be just barely not hot enough to break down the enzyme. so the enzyme will be very active, and break down lots of starch into sugar. amylaze enzymes chemically break down and get destroyed at 140F. but since it will take a long while to heat up to 140F, most of the enzymes will still be there converting starch to sugar.
the one thing i dont know, in japanese koji rice, is the mold there dead, or is it just dried out? if it's not dead, i think you could heat it at a lower temp and get more alcohol flavors.
We talked to our Patraons that are into fermentation about this subject (the rice koji) during testing. They think the molds are dead already and what's in it is just the enzyme. I did the test with Japanese rice koji at a lower temperature (40C), it did end up growing some mold, it's orange though (in sake making the mold seems it should also be white), and the taste is also very sweet, so I'm not sure if that's the remaining mold or is it just other fungu that got in during the process.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified ah. Ok. As I understand it, actual Koji mold is white. So if you grew red mold, that's just other random possibly unsafe mold from the air or your hands.
Er, when it comes to Koji, it's not really used as a proper yeast. It's used to break down starch so it can be fed to your actual brewer's yeast. So you probably would end up with something interesting, but don't expect like proper alcohol.
Really enjoyed this change of pace and would be happy to see this style interspersed with your usual 'hands-only' content. Keep up the great work as always!
A couple points from someone who's watched their dad make this many times:
- You don't have to let it ferment in the oven at a certain temperature. Usually we just leave it in the warmest part of the house and let it sit for a couple days, and then just check it occasionally to see if the liquid has appeared/if it smells right haha. Obviously this method isn't as precise and depending on the temperature or how long we've let it sit we might get something that is a little sweeter or more alcoholic tasting than usual, but it definitely works if you don't want to leave the oven on for a long time.
- Re: the other comment about replacing the saran wrap with cheesecloth: I've never tried this but I trust the other guy knows what they're talking about haha but I just wanna reassure people that it will definitely work if you don't have cheesecloth or even saran wrap! Actually, my dad always makes jiuniang in tupperware containers, which I guess cuts off all the air... but oh well it still works just fine haha
- In my experience jiuniang definitely lasts for more than a week in the fridge, so don't panic and throw it away if you have some left by the end of the week! Honestly I've had jiuniang in my fridge for over a month before and it was still 100% fine.
- If you have an Asian grocery store near you, check to see if they sell Rhizopus balls, because it is WAY cheaper at an Asian grocery store than on Amazon. We've been using the same pack for several years haha though I don't remember how many were originally in the pack. But point is if you can, check the Asian grocery store because it'll probably be way cheaper.
Thanks for the detailed comment sharing your experience! We've been trying to look at the Rhizopus balls that're sold in the west, do you think they work the same as the one in China? LIke the traditional ones that're made with herbs and stuff?
I just made this, well a rendition of it which we call 'zu fang" Where I'm from. I put it in a plastic container and I wanted to know if I should tight seal it or if I should seal it loose to let air in? It's been a day and there's already visible amount of water
Hit that like faster than Bolt!
Really enjoy hearing Steph's voice.
So cool to see Steph doing the whole video, she did an amazing job! It’s great that you guys are looking into adding variety to your format. Looking forward to going along this journey with you! 👍
Both of those species are aerobic organisms. I recommend removing the plastic wrap and replacing it with cheese cloth to allow it to breath. Doing it this way can reduce your time from 36 hours to just 12.
Make sense, the traditional way of making laozao covers it with tofu cloth (thick comforter in colder days to keep it warm). But I'm worried about other bacteria in the air (also cat hair in our house, lol), you think the fungi would be strong enough to not be disturbed by stuff in the air?
Regarding the time, I think 24h is still needed, or we should use whether the hold has liquid as a judgement. 12 hours seems a bit too short.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I would say in the short amount of time that it will be sitting out warm, there shouldn't be too much of an issue with contamination. Although, if you left it out long enough, you'd probably catch some wild yeast floating through the air and the sugar will start to ferment into alcohol. Some of the best Loa Jiu is made using wild fermentation due to the more complex character it develops compared to commercial yeasts.
Was thinking about making this tomorrow so this is perfectly timed
this recipe reminds me a lot of something called "cơm rượu" or "wine rice" in Vietnamese. It is basically rice with alcoholic taste. It is eaten to prevent bugs from biting you on a certain day of the year. I think the whole process is super similar to how you guys do laozao, but probably different fungi. I think the fungi that my mom uses looks like a white button (???)
Keep refrigerated Jiuniang can actually last several months as long as it's not contaminated.
Do not make this without Koji, rice fungi that can grow can be very deadly
If you haven't already, check out Rene Redzepi's book, The Noma Guide to Fermentation. It gets pretty in depth regarding these types of cultures and also explores some other methods, including lacto-fermentation, miso and soy sauce making, garum/fish sauce making, etc. Not very traditional, but they get into some of the science. The fun part is when they apply traditional techniques from across cultures(hah!) to alternative ingredients.
Hi, hope you're having a nice day! Sorry I'd want to know if it's possible to Ferment the rice and obtain a similar result without using the leaven.
Love your videos, they're very explanatory, detailed, informative and entartaining. Thanks for opening a new world of knowledge and cooking for all of us, wish you a lot of success!
Making your own rice leaven from scratch in the Chinese style is an excruciatingly complex process that is well beyond our current skill level, unfortunately :/ To illustrate... it covers the space of like a whole chapter on it in Needham's Science and Civilization in China lol
Using already made rice leaven to make more rice leaven is a bit more straightforward, if you're interested in that process.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea. I'll try to get at least a bit of it someday and try this out, so that I get kilos and kilos from a little handful!
Thanks a lot dudes, keep thriving with these amazing videos, god bless you!
wow okay stephanie speaking like a native omg. The amount of dedication she put into learning english is very obvious. Polyglot QUEEN 😍😍
Totally. She was a translator by profession (most recent job as one of editors for marketing materials and such for the Mariott Group in China) before we went full time on the project. Her English ability makes my ~B2 Chinese language ability seem like the epitome of amateur hour lol.
In addition to putting in the work, she's also one of those people that're just super quick with languages. When we travel around Southeast Asia, she ends up picking up basic survival Thai/Malay/Indonesian and such by... the end of the trip. All while I'm still having to point and wave my hands like a buffoon haha. We were saying that one day we should go to Kunming or Guizhou and she could study some of the minority languages in the southwest (Dai/Tai, Miao/Hmong, etc) and maybe we could explore those cuisines more... :) One day!
I haven't even finished watching this video, but I just want to express how excited and happy I am that you guys are making a video on this! My grandmother used to frequently make tian mi jiu for me from scratch, as soon as I saw a mao jin bei bundle in the corner of her apartment I knew what was coming soon! (I remember oftentimes she'd let me get the first spoonful from the center of her jiu niang when it was ready).
Unfortunately my grandmother passed away before I had become fluent enough in Chinese to properly communicate with her and my mother never bothered to learn her recipe - I swear her jiu niang tasted better than anything store bought. For the longest time I'd been meaning to find some recipe on the Chinese internet to try - lo and behold you guys make a video on this! (In English no less, which is going to be way easier/faster for me to comprehend).
Thank you so much guys!!!!
Remember to read the pin notes, there're some other small things to note about during the process. :)
Glad we could help :) This kind of thing is really what makes doing the channel feel so worthwhile, so really, thanks for sharing. I'm sure your grandmother made a better jiuniang than us, but I hope it can be a starting point!
And yeah, homemade is like... crazy better. We were actually testing the next video (Suzhou big meat noodles), and one of the things that they add to it is some active jiuniang fermented ~one day with water. We originally felt that we could just use half bottled Laozao/half water to hit the same note... and while that's not a *bad* addition to the soup, for the sake of completeness we felt we just had to try the traditional way too. In the end, the homemade sort was just SO much richer and flavorful that we felt it was important to cover this one first.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I read the pinned note before commenting...and then I just re-read the pinned note again! Seems like there's even more information now haha.
After watching the video and noticing you were fermenting in a far more controlled environment, and reading some of the comments below, I was starting to wonder about mold growth and such since my grandmother didn't have an oven and was using blankets to ferment over several days, and yet I don't remember any significant mold growth. I see now point 7 makes mention that's the more traditional way, though that's probably a bit riskier/advanced for someone like me who has no experience with fermenting things.
I've followed some of your other recipes already and I just want to thank you guys again for all the hard work and research that go into the videos and recipes!!!
Your grandma is a treasure!
My dad makes this all the time with regular white sticky rice and purple sticky rice
That is very nice and you must be a lucky guy
In Indonesia, we have a version of this called Tapé/Tapai Ketan. However, it differs from Laozao in a couple of ways. Tape Ketan is usually (though not traditionally) colored green, either with Suji leaves, or more commonly, with green food coloring. It is also usually served in small packets made from banana leaves, although nowadays one can buy a small tub of it in a supermarket. It is used pretty much the same as with Laozao, in icy cold soups/jellied drinks(?) and curiously enough, despite it being a fermented rice product, it is an essential Eid Al-Fitr snack.
Edit:
After speaking with my family's housemaid, I found out that her mother did this little trick where she would rub a bit of garlic water to the banana leaf package.... Supposedly this helps the tape release more water??? I will come back to comment once I tried this, and see if it tastes weird or not...
The clergy had decided long ago, that since it waa eaten, not drunk, it is not counted as wine. That's what my religious teached taught me at school.
@@baabaaer thank you for the explanation wkwkwkwk
Yes, I ever tried that before! I love tempeh from Indonesia, I always look for it if I travel to Indonesia for holiday
@@HepiMoni This is about tape, though, not tempe 😅
Filipus Andika oh sorry 😐
I lowkey thought this is a sponsored video by a fermentation starter mold company hahahahha.
LOL we have same experience
Wow interesting new information for me,thanks for sharing 😀😁😀😁😀
Hello guys
I'm watching from the United States where the popular term here for "sticky rice" is the kind of rice I like to eat, essentially koshihikari-type rice. In this video, are you using "sticky rice" in the way we would in Asia for glutinous/mochiko type rice? Is that correct? Also, Steph doing the voice over is a nice twist!
No, try Glutinous rice
I'm from thailand
It's my favorite thing...!!!
❤️❤️❤️
Thank u for clearly explaining the difference between laozao and amakaze.. I have koji and wasn’t sure if it was the same but this video really helped
Question- can u use the instant pot to steam the rice, and incubate using the yogurt button?
I've been getting into fermentation lately (kombucha) so I was really excited to see a video on it from you guys! It's cool learning about laozao and its relation to amazake, which I've been wanting to make for a while (and definitely will now). I really like Steph doing the VO and hope to hear her voice more!
You misspelled Jiuniang in your description box
Can you use this ferment in other types of recipes or ferments, like koji kin?
Very interesting.
Quick question, do you think it’s possible to make a new batch of laozao by adding some Laozao i already made previously？so I don’t have to buy new leaven constantly. Thanks
So I decided to make this, I used chinese yeast balls as my source of fungus/yeast. It looks the same as yours, liquid is sweet and tastes good, no bad smells either, but the rice itself has the texture of wet paper, I take it I screwed up, where did I go wrong?
Hey I hope u can answer me. My rice devolop black spots on it. I scrape it off but rice underneath is fine and smells great. What to do?!?!
Oh does fermenting in stainless steel bowl leech as the fermentation is acidic? Metallic favour isn’t yummy !
What should I do if I'm going to do this in winter and I don't have an oven to keep the fermentation process at 30 degrees?
how do you get 60° in hot & humid country?
Chinese or not, this clip is the most detailed one about the types of organisms!
Well that was different 😳...🤗👍
No idea how to do this but it’s rice beer. Beer is from grains wine is from fruit.
Who are you calling lazy?! I'm going to the store now.
this was fascinating
nice but our gov not allow to make at home. its too bad for cooks.
@sarcasmo57 has joined the chat...
Sweet! I had requested this a while back with the tangyuan recipe. I make mine using the special setting on an instant pot lol
Joseph Kyo Any tips on making it in the IP? I was thinking of trying it.
You should show us how to done one with rose petals next time too!
Steph should do more VO in videos
Fermentation is fun!
Wow i Loved this recipe. Thank you so much for your Video 😊😊😊😊👍👍👍👍 top Channel 👍👍👍👍
amazing video!!!!!
Very interesting.
Press F for Chris
Tang yuan next?
isn’t this also used to make the south western chinese mantou? sorry if you mentioned this in the video i haven’t watched fully yet
Yes, this can be used to make mantou. I mentioned it in the notes. But I'm digging my written notes too trying to find the recipe for it, it's buried somewhere...
Chinese Cooking Demystified okay, thanks for replying!!
👏👏👏
Asian recipes are so interesting compared to what I normally see in the US