140 Days of Brewing — All-Natural Handmade Wheat Sauce

Clean the wheat and soak it for four to five hours first.

Steam it in a steamer until cooked, but it should not be steamed too soft.

After cooling, drain the water.

Then take a winnowing basket, dustpan, or baking tray, spread a layer of corn husks, then spread the cooked wheat on the corn husks about 1-2 cm thick, and then cover with another layer of corn husks.

Then take a winnowing basket, dustpan, or baking tray, spread a layer of corn husks, and then spread the cooked wheat on the corn husks about 1-2 centimeters thick.

Cover with another layer of corn husks. If you don't have a flat pan or similar utensils, a steamer or something similar will also work.

The wheat begins to ferment, and white mycelium gradually grows on the surface. Fermentation continues until the wheat stops heating up, and when the surface feels cool to the touch, it is ready.

Take out the well-fermented wheat (fermented wheat), spread it out, and dry it in the sun.

Sun-dried sourdough. Take a look at a close-up.

Grind it into powder again. You can use a small stone mill, a food processor, or go out and find a mill to grind the fermented wheat into powder.

Well-ground sourdough flour.

Moisten the yeast flour with a little water and knead it into a dough.

Put it into an appropriate container.

Let sit for about 12 hours.

In the container, vigorously knead the wheat dough with your hands, and mix in an appropriate amount of salt (about the same saltiness as the usual noodle paste you eat, a little saltier is fine. I used about 2 jin of salt for 10 jin of wheat, so be sure to taste and adjust the saltiness while making it).

Add an appropriate amount of pure water or cooled boiled water, moisten the wheat flour thoroughly, and mix into a slightly thick paste. It is recommended to use cooled boiled water, as the microorganisms and bacteria it contains are killed during the high-temperature process.

Put the dough sauce into a sauce jar or glass container, stir it occasionally until fermentation is complete, and the richly aromatic wheat sauce is formed. At that time, I couldn't find a suitable jar, so I temporarily put it in a stainless steel pot.

This fermentation lasted 140 days. The malt sauce is rich and subtly sweet. Another batch is prepared to ferment until 180 days are completed.