Chapter 439: [Rice Cake A Rank]

In Jiang Chengde's video tutorial, the most cumbersome step in making rice cakes was pounding the glutinous rice and rice into rice milk.

This was a physical task, and also a technical task. The rice milk for making rice cakes needed to be fine; the finer it was, the better the texture of the rice cake. For a snack like rice cake, which only had the original taste of rice and the sweetness of white sugar, texture was a very important factor.

Such a physical and technical task became something anyone could do in front of modern technology juicers/blenders.

Set the time, start the machine, and it would be as fine as you wanted it to be.

While watching the juicer's rice milk stirring crazily, Qin Huai sighed that modern technology had truly greatly liberated the hands of pastry chefs.

If a modern person brought a juicer that didn't need charging, wouldn't break, and could be used infinitely to Jiang Chengde's era, even a grandmaster like Jiang Chengde would be dumbfounded and then sigh that there was such a genius in the world for making rice milk.

Accompanied by the glutinous rice and rice being beaten into fine rice milk, Qin Huai's gradually diverging thoughts of "Rebirth: I Am a Kitchen God in the Last Century" were also pulled back. He very cautiously added yeast and white sugar to the rice milk and stirred.

From Jiang Chengde's video tutorial, the biggest technique Qin Huai learned was not to make mistakes.

As long as every step was not wrong, it was impeccable.

It sounded like nonsense literature, but it was very difficult to execute. If you really want to achieve no mistakes or omissions, you must have a high degree of control over snacks. This is not something that can be achieved by simple concentration; first, you must know what is not wrong or missing.

Fortunately, Qin Huai now knew.

Qin Huai stirred the rice milk evenly at a constant speed.

This constant speed felt very slow to Tan Weian. When making pastry snacks, especially pastry snacks like rice cakes that emphasize large quantities and fast output, speed is very important. When it should be fast, it should be fast; when it should be slow, it should be slow. In Tan Weian's view, stirring can be very fast.

Tan Weian should have gone back to work long ago, but he wanted to stay and watch the fun, to see what big thing Qin Huai was going to pretend to do. Master Zhou also had no intention of managing Tan Weian, so Tan Weian took the opportunity to stay by Zhao Cheng'an's side and eat melons in the front row.

"What is Qin Huai doing? Why are his movements so slow?" Tan Weian whispered.

"Shh, don't talk." Zhao Cheng'an stared at Qin Huai, his face full of seriousness, "Look carefully. Did you bring your phone? If you brought it, take it out and record a video."

Tan Weian:? Still need to record a video?

Although he didn't understand, Tan Weian really ignored the store rules and put his phone in his pocket. Hearing Zhao Cheng'an say this, he took out his phone openly and started recording.

The rice cake stirring was finished, and it needed to be covered with plastic wrap for fermentation. In Jiang Chengde's video tutorial, it was covered with gauze. The difficulty of this method was higher; the chef couldn't see the state of the rice milk inside the porcelain bowl or wooden bowl covered with gauze.

A glass bowl + plastic wrap was different. After Qin Huai covered the rice milk with plastic wrap, he didn't walk away; he stayed by the side, watching and waiting.

Qin Huai saw what the rice milk in the best state of fermentation looked like in the video tutorial. He couldn't see the fermentation process in the video tutorial, but now he could see it.

Zhao Cheng'an, Tan Weian, and Master Zhou stood by Qin Huai's side and waited. Wang Jiayi came over to pass a message halfway, and then never left, standing by the side and waiting.

Master Hua came over to ask Qin Huai what noodles to eat tomorrow. As a result, the person came, but the question wasn't asked, so he waited on the side.

Boss Su looked for Master Zhou to discuss the meeting next month. Master Zhou refused to discuss it with him, so Boss Su had no choice but to wait for Qin Huai's rice cake to be made before discussing it, and he also waited on the side.

As the rice milk was about to finish fermenting, there were more and more people on the side.

Zhou Yan, Master Wang, Master Li, Master Zhao...

Tan Weian was directly squeezed out, and the phone recording the video was taken over by Zhao Cheng'an—to be precise, it was snatched away by Zhao Cheng'an. Zhao Cheng'an was afraid that if two more masters came due to his seniority, he would also be squeezed out, so he had to take over the recording job to ensure his front-row position.

Tan Weian:?

Finally, Qin Huai found the best time point.

Fermentation is not like heat control; the most critical point might be only one or two seconds, or even less than a second. Fermentation is looking for an optimal state; it doesn't need to race against time, just grasp the opportunity.

Qin Huai decisively poured the fermented rice milk into the prepared mold and steamed it over high heat.

Following Qin Huai's actions, the watching masters expressed their feelings one after another and discussed with each other.

"That rice milk just now was beautiful. That state, that luster, Old Zhao, you saw that rice milk poured into the mold... I find it hard to describe, it was beautiful, really beautiful."

"Indeed, I didn't expect Xiao Qin to have a hand in making rice cakes. Why didn't Xiao Tan tell us before?"

"Exactly, Xiao Tan's intelligence gathering is really not good; he didn't say the most critical thing."

"The state of that rice milk is really good. It's a pity to just make rice cakes. If it were used to make rice milk tangyuan, it would be great. Xiao Qin makes four-joy tangyuan so well, making rice milk tangyuan certainly wouldn't be bad!"

"Forget it, aren't you just trying to show off that you know how to make rice milk tangyuan? If you ask me, such good rice milk should be used to make rice milk cake. This is not more difficult than rice cake, and it's better than rice cake."

"What do you mean? What do you mean rice milk cake is more difficult than rice cake? Isn't your rice milk cake just boiling syrup and steaming in layers compared to rice cake? What's the difficulty? If you ask me, it's not as good as rice cake. Rice cake tastes purer, and your rice milk cake tastes sweet and sticky."

"What do you mean sweet and sticky? Do you understand rice milk cake? Rice milk cake is supposed to be sweet!"

The masters chatted and argued again. Those who knew were watching Qin Huai make rice cakes; those who didn't know would think the morning meeting had started early.

Master Zhou ignored everyone and didn't follow up to see how Qin Huai steamed the rice cakes. In fact, no one followed up to see how Qin Huai steamed the rice cakes; this step didn't need to be seen at all.

"Old San, did you film it clearly?" Master Zhou asked Zhao Cheng'an.

"The latter part was filmed clearly. When Tan Weian filmed the front part, he didn't know how to zoom in; it was always one perspective. The fermentation step of the rice milk was filmed very clearly. Master, look." Zhao Cheng'an handed over Tan Weian's phone.

Master Zhou squinted his eyes and looked carefully for a while, then shook his head helplessly and sighed: "Xiao Tan's work is still not good."

Tan Weian:??? Master Zhou, this is my phone. Among so many people, only I violated the store rules and put my phone in my pocket!

Twenty minutes later, Qin Huai returned with several plates of rice cakes that had been steamed, cooled for a few minutes, were at a temperature that could be eaten, and had a very beautiful appearance.

Qin Huai used the simplest square mold without any extra styling; the steamed rice cakes were in the shape of small squares.

Each rice cake was round and bulging, like a small purse that had been sewn up. The overall color was rice-white, shining with a very beautiful luster. The surface was visibly fine and smooth, not to the extent of being exaggeratedly shiny, but it was definitely more eye-catching than ordinary rice cakes.

If these two plates of rice cakes were put among the rice cakes sold on the market, it would be like mixing a supermodel with fair skin, beautiful appearance, and long legs into ordinary people; you could tell at a glance.

Qin Huai distributed rice cakes to each master. After distributing them, there was still half a plate left, so he picked one up from the plate and ate it with everyone.

Qin Huai had already eaten one when he was by the stove just now. The taste was far beyond expectations, so Qin Huai could be said to be confident now.

Qin Huai chewed the rice cake carefully.

To say it was delicious, this rice cake couldn't be considered very delicious. Its texture wasn't rich, it had no layers, and it had no fancy flavors. It was just an ordinary rice cake, a bit slightly sweet, the same taste as rice cakes all over the world, because it was just a rice cake.

But it was a delicious rice cake that surpassed normal rice cakes and delicious rice cakes.

Its texture was very fine, its rice fragrance was very rich, and its sweetness was just right. It didn't have any strange fragrance when eaten, but it was very comfortable.

It was a textbook-like rice cake. Whether it was texture, softness, or taste, it was the same as the rice cakes in everyone's imagination, memory, and cognition, but better than those rice cakes.

A rice cake that scored 100 points would have to bow respectfully in front of it, because it was an example in the textbook; it was the standard delicious rice cake that conformed to public cognition.

It was the standard answer.

It was also the beauty in snacks that Qin Huai had been pursuing.

It was both aesthetics and deliciousness.

Master Zhou had let Qin Huai read so many books about aesthetics before, wanting Qin Huai to find answers or ideas from them. To find his own path, to explore characteristics and styles—the difference between Wang Jiayi and Zhou Yan had already told Qin Huai that to become a master, one must have one's own style. ===== CHAPTER 440 =====