The Tofu Masters at the foot of the Zhongnan Mountains
Gecun Village is a hamlet at the foot of the Zhongnan Mountains located in the Chang’an District of Shaanxi Province with a 120-year history of manufacturing Tofu. Up to this day, more than ten households still make pot tofu by hand. The 53-year-old Li Liang and his wife Wang Bingli have been making tofu for the past 28 years. Their skills have been passed down for four generations. With the customers they have won for years, they make and deliver tofu every day, which makes them the typical tofu masters of Gecun village.
The traditional pot tofu is made through six steps, including the processes of grinding, stirring, boiling, dropping with the gypsum liquid, pressing, and molding. Continuous stirring the filter cloth, which is the most laborious step, is required to accelerate the filtering of the soy milk. One box of tofu needs 260kg of the soy milk to be shaken. Even in summer, the off-season of tofu, it takes the couple almost four hours a day to make 5 boxes of tofu. The long-term stirring has caused Li Liang and his wife to suffer from neck and shoulder problems, so they take care of each other and take a shift every half hour.
The pot tofu is tofu pudding molded by dropping with a little bit gypsum liquid after the soy milk is boiling with a big fire and the scum is skimmed. “Only the boiled tofu dropped with a little bit gypsum liquid tastes smooth and tender. The pot is necessary to make tofu,” said Wang Bingli. The chopped wood is better than the charcoal to burn during this period, because the soy milk cooked by the latter tastes bitter. The chopped-wood-fired pot has been used as a tradition for more than 100 years in the village.
The more times the soy milk is filtered, the better it will taste. Li Liang insists on three steps of filtration: grinding filtration, stirring filtration, and scooping filtration. “I don’t know how many times other people filter the soy milk. I filter three times,” said Li. There is almost nothing to filter in the scooping filtration before dropping with the gypsum liquid. But this step is so important, so it is called a process with conscience in the tofu workshop.
Molding with the gypsum liquid is a traditional method in Gezun village, which hasn’t changed for over a hundred years. By dropping the gypsum liquid into the boiling soy milk, the soy milk is molded into pudding. In this process, the rhythm of dropping the gypsum liquid and the stirring speed are the key processes that affect the quality of the tofu, for they determine the lumpiness and hardness of the tofu pudding. Dropping the gypsum liquid seems simple but finicky in practice, and each family has their own tricks.
Summer is the off-season for tofu. The couple makes 5 boxes of tofu every day. In winter, they double their production. “Summer is too hot to keep the tofu fresh. Therefore, many customers who want tofu at noon are refused, and we only provide tofu for those who want it in the morning.” “5 pots of soy milk make 5 boxes of tofu. During the Spring Festival, we make 15 boxes at most, and only sleep for 3 hours a day, which makes us very tired,” said the couple.
The steps in the tofu workshop are one after another. The steaming tofu pudding is quickly packaged after being poured into the tofu box, and then being pressed squeezed under the stone. The tofu that the couple made is packed and squeezed twice. Li Liang said, “Twice packaging and pressing can pull all the water out, so that the tofu will be chewy.”
After being shredded and packaged, the tofu was moved to the well-ventilated courtyard for the second pressing and squeezing for a whole night. “Be sure to press it for a long time,” Li Liang said. Everyone knows the steps to make the tofu. The key lies in the details. “There is no supervisor in the tofu workshop. We are doing this all by conscience and I believe that good people make good tofu.”
Excluding the characteristics of smoothness, chewiness and richness of the soy flavor in Gecun village, the tofu made by Li Liang is more delicate and tender due to his three different steps of filtration. “The key to make tofu depends on the details. You do all the steps in detail, and you will make delicious tofu,” Li Liang said proudly.
