"The quality of these is relatively poor." Yun Suji considered the words, "The meat used is not so, um... serious."
The so-called not so "serious" can be imagined. It is roughly the same as the way roadside stalls used to make steamed buns in the old days. It is collectively called "offal meat". The blood neck is considered good, and God knows what else.
Stuff. After Yun Suji became the director of a food factory, he fully understood why German sausages are said to be 'not a drop of blood is wasted'.
"Let's go quickly." Xi Yazhou's appetite suddenly lost its appetite. Chen Sigen was very interested and asked: "Is this the kind of dried sausage that is going to be supplied to the troops? I think the nutritional indicators are pretty good."
"The specific type of enema supplied to the troops depends on the needs of the troops and the procurement quotation of the joint logistics. Of course, it also depends on the supply of raw materials - the supply of meat has always been a pitfall."
"Old Yun, just tell me honestly, what kind of meat is in your so-called enema?" Xi Yazhou frowned.
"Theoretically, any kind of meat is fine, even... and I guarantee you won't be able to eat it." Yun Suji chuckled, "No kidding, pig, cow, sheep, horse, donkey, mule, fish, chicken, duck, goose
I’ve used them all here. Of course, they also include animal offal and blood.”
"Can it be customized?" Chen Sigen asked.
"Yes, depending on the purchase price and raw material supply, different raw material ratios can be adjusted in the enema filling. The simplest adjustment is the starch content."
"I think we can order more ham sausages. It looks like meat and tastes like meat..."
"No, ham sausage is meaningless. Because the main ingredient is starch, it just has more fat." Chen Sigen flatly denied, "Now we need to supplement the soldiers with more protein."
"If the meat supply is sufficient, Indian meat patties can be made directly. It is very simple to produce."
“What is a Cajun patty?”
"I know, it's the so-called pem fan," Chen Sigen, who has been in the United States for many years, still knows this. "It is said to be invented by the Indians. The meat of North American bison is roasted, dried and ground, and then mixed with fat, ground nuts and the like.
Mix the ingredients and make them into lumps. Later, white people also learned to make it. This stuff is quite good, high in fat and protein, and stable to store."
"Isn't that raw meat?"
"How can it be raw meat after it's been roasted dry? But it's probably hard to eat as a fast food. It should taste pretty good after cooking."
"It's a pity that there isn't that much meat." Xi Yazhou sighed.
"If you want to implement a cheap and big bowl, you must also have enough protein. You can consider fish sausage. Follow me."
The next production line is the fish sausage production line, which is called "surimi products" in the food industry. There are many types of product lines, such as fish balls, fish slabs, fish cakes, bamboo wheels, crab sticks, etc.
As soon as you enter the surimi workshop, you can smell a strong fishy smell, which can be smelled even if you are wearing a mask. On the open space are baskets of various marine fish shipped from the seafood processing factory. Workers in work clothes are busy carrying them
Raw materials and finished products. There is heavy moisture in the workshop.
"Surimi products generally use low-quality, low-grade trash fish," Yun Suji introduced the raw fish in the basket, "but only white-fleshed fish can be used, and the fish meat cannot have too much fat."
Chen Sigen and Xi Yazhou looked at the baskets of various large and small fish and felt dazzled. When they saw the fish piled neatly on the straw mat in a row along the wall, they recognized them: sharks.
Speaking of which, there are quite a few species of sharks here, at least seven or eight species, large and small.
"Can sharks be eaten? I remember that this thing urinates all over the body, and the fish smells like urine..." Chen Sigen has been abroad for many years and has experienced a lot. He recalled that when he went to Norway, the locals treated him to the local specialty pickled shark.
Horrible experience.
“Because it doesn’t taste good, it’s used to make surimi products.”
Shark meat contains a lot of urea and has a strong fishy smell. It cannot be used directly for pulping. So the first step is to cut the fish into fillets and rinse them with 5% salt water for five minutes. After rinsing, put them into a pool of acetic acid solution and soak them.
Deodorize, rinse, and dry to remove moisture.
"This is processed shark meat slices. If you smell it, it won't smell at all." Yun Suji casually picked up a piece of white fish meat and handed it to Chen Sigen, "This can be used to beat it."
They continued to walk forward. A machine in front of them was running rumblingly, and workers were pouring a basket of fish from the funnel. Below was a huge stainless steel roller, which was covered with dense holes. Many of them were already crowded.
It was very messy, but it could still be roughly seen that the remains of a fish were rolling on it.
"What are you doing, beating?"
"This is meat harvesting, or meat squeezing. The hole on this big roller is a sieve. Through constant rotation and squeezing, the fish bones and skin are removed, leaving only clean meat."
"Damn. It's so advanced!" Xi Yazhou entered the food factory for the first time and was very curious. He stared at the machine for a long time, "Doesn't this mean that eating fish and spitting out fish bones is not a problem in the factory?"
"If you don't pursue the integrity of the fish and the taste of the fish meat, there are many ways to mechanically remove fish bones." Yun Suji said, "Otherwise, how can we say that the power of industry is infinite."
Chen Sigen suddenly shouted: "No, you are not a sea fish, you are a catfish!"
"Yes, it's catfish." Yun Suji said, saying that catfish are very common in Guangdong and Hainan. In the rice field fish farming promoted by Tiandi Society, catfish are cultured - mainly leatherbeard catfish and large mouth catfish. They grow very fast.
It is fast, has very low requirements for survival water quality, and is resistant to hypoxia. The disadvantage is that the meat quality is not very good. However, it produces a lot of meat and does not have intermuscular spines that are troublesome to handle. Food factories use it as a filler for surimi products.
"I remember this thing had a strong earthy smell."
"It only takes a few days to breed in clear water, and it also requires post-processing. Even shark meat can be used, let alone this."
After the meat is collected, the fish meat is poured into the meat grinder, and the spiral reamer is used to grind the meat two or three times in a row. Then several different kinds of fish meat are poured into a large stone mortar. The worker pulls the clutch and the belt starts to drive a meat grinder.
The machine uses three stirring rods to stir and beat. The stirring rods are controlled by planetary gears and can revolve and rotate. It can easily mix a large amount of minced fish meat into surimi.
Yun Suji said: "This is a crushing machine. It is specially used to beat the pulp to make surimi. You can also do it manually, but the efficiency is naturally far behind."
As he said this, a worker took a spoon and poured a little water into the stone mortar.
"This is salt water, which can increase the viscosity of surimi. Adding salt is the key to making surimi products."
Seeing that the surimi became more and more sticky as it was mixed, and it felt even stickier than the dough. The worker added some cooking wine and seasonings and poured in a bag of white powder.
"This is sweet potato starch, which is also a filler. Generally, it does not exceed 25%. However, depending on the purchase price, you can also add 50% or more or not add it at all. By the way, the surimi products that our factory supplies to stores are not added at all.
of."
"I think adding 25% for military use is enough. Adding more will be meaningless," Chen Sigen said, "How to preserve it? Things like bamboo wheels need to be refrigerated."
"Preserved in a manner similar to enema, cooked, dried and smoked."
Then they looked at the dried fish and fish floss workshops. Yun Suji said that these can be included in military food. He especially recommended various baked dried fish. It is recommended to carry them as military rations.
"Where's the jerky?"
"It's easy to make, and I have finished products." Yun Suji said, "It can also be made into products such as pork jerky."
"No, no, it can't be too delicious, otherwise the soldiers will eat it as a snack." Xi Yazhou shook his head, "It must be easy to eat, but it must not be delicious."
Originally, Yun Suji wanted to take them to other workshops, but the two, who were tortured by their sense of sight and smell, no longer wanted to increase their knowledge, so Yun Suji had no choice but to take them to the product research and development institute.
The product research and development institute is actually a workshop, but on a much smaller scale, with all kinds of small processing equipment. Yun Suji took them directly through the corridor and into a large room at the back.
Against the wall of the room is a row of bulky gas refrigerators and display cabinets. There are all kinds of food in them.
"All of these are trial products, products that can be manufactured with our current production level." Yun Suji opened the cabinet and took out a cardboard box, "These are experimental military biscuits. You can try them."
The biscuits are small and very hard. Xi Yazhou knows that military biscuits are generally baked dry to facilitate preservation. The disadvantage is that you need to drink a lot of water when eating them. He took a bite and found that the texture was very hard and he chewed it a few times.
, has the aroma of sesame, and seems to have added sugar and salt. It is not unpleasant to eat, and it is not as difficult to chew as expected.
"I think it's good." Chen Sigen said, "The taste is okay."
"That's it." Yun Suji said, "You can't make many things without flour. In fact, there is a lot of rice flour mixed in."
Yun Suji said that in addition to rice flour, the biscuits also contain potato flour, sesame seeds, and hops. They have good shelf life and palatability.
"It's a good thing, but it's a pity that it's worthless if it can't be mass-produced." Xi Yazhou said, "What other good things do you have?"
Chen Sigen said: "A small amount can be distributed to the scouts, they need this kind of food."
Yun Suji pointed to a glass display case: "These are a series of dehydrated vegetables. They can all be used as military supplementary food."
The varieties are rich and colorful. At a glance, Chen Sigen can see more than a dozen varieties such as cabbage, white radish shreds, carrot shreds and slices, eggplants, potatoes, cowpeas, pumpkins, lotus roots, spinach, gourd melons, etc.
"It's a pity that we can't do low-temperature vacuum drying now, so this is just fine. Of course, the nutritional value is far inferior. Dehydrated vegetables are easy to store. They are better than bringing pickles. Although they are not ready to eat, they can be used to make soup or cook while camping.