Ferment Culture

Part 1: Ferment

The fermented food I choose to make is milk tofu. The reason why I choose this food is that I like dairy products very much, and milk tofu is the food fermented from fresh milk. Milk tofu can not only be eaten directly, but also be soaked in milk tea, or made into shredded milk tofu, which is very delicious. I can’t buy milk tofu in the city where I live, so I plan to try it myself.

Research:

Origin:
Milk tofu(also translated as cheese curd and aaruul-dried curd), called “huruda” in Mongolian, is a common milk food of Mongolian herdsmen. It originated in Mongolia, has nearly a thousand years of history, spread through the grassland silk road. Mark Polo said that in ca. 1300, “And I tell you also, that when necessary [the Mongols] ride full ten days without food, and without lighting a fire; but piercing a vein of their horse, they drink his blood. They have likewise their milk dried into a species of paste, which, when about to use, they stir till it becomes liquid, and can be drunk.”

Although milk tofu is a traditional food of ethnic minorities, it is not widely popular, but its taste caters to many people’s preferences. It is a fermented dairy product, similar to yogurt, suitable for people all over the world. It’s not very difficult to make, it meets people’s needs for dairy products, and it also meets most people’s appetites, so I think it has a lot to do with today’s food system.
As I said, its consumer market is actually very large. Most consumers have a demand for dairy products, and the taste of milk tofu is acceptable. Once it is sold in the global market, it will certainly drive Mongolia’s development and promote regional economic development. At the same time, it can improve the food chain of dairy products.

History of Chinese Dairy Industry:

In primitive society, a large number of cattle, horses, and sheep had been domesticated by human beings. According to the ancient Chinese book “Old News of Ancient History”, domesticated livestock had been used as meat food as early as the Fuxi era.

During the period of slave society, cattle and horses became the main animal power from the source of people’s meat and used both their fur and dairy products. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, dairy products were widely used in daily life and national rituals; During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, there was no difference in livestock raising from today. Cattle and sheep were used as sacrificial objects, and dairy products were also used as sacrificial aids.

In feudal society, the contribution of dairy products to Chinese history began to be combined with national cultural exchanges. In the pre-Qin period, people began to eat cheese. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the production and processing of dairy products were further developed. According to records, during the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the Huns could make horse milk wine from horse milk. During the period of Sixteen States in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the minorities invaded the Central Plains on a large scale, which brought very detailed dairy processing technology. In Qi Min Yao Shu, Jia Sixie of the Northern dynasty recorded how the northern minorities used dairy products to make the food they needed. At the same time, Qi Min Yao Shu also recorded the methods of making milk powder, cheese, and dried milk, which are almost the same as today. The technology of aseptic fermented milk powder in China is more than 1200 years earlier than that in foreign countries. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were commercial dairy processing methods, and the sales of dairy products had formed a certain scale.

During the Tang Dynasty, cheese and other cheese products were a tribute to the royal family of the Tang Dynasty by the frontier minorities of the Tang Dynasty.
The Yuan Dynasty is an important period for the Mongols to rule China, and it is also an important period for the Han people in the Central Plains to change their diet structure. In ancient times, the nomadic industry was the main source of energy for Mongolian people, and dairy products were the important products of the nomadic industry. During the Yuan Dynasty, China invented the earliest ice cream, which also provided a prototype for the creation of dairy ice-creams such as cheese and milk powder. Later, the army of the Yuan Dynasty used horse milk and dried milk as regular military food to supplement soldiers’ energy.

In Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist in Ming Dynasty, further elaborated dairy products such as milk, goat’s milk, horse’s milk, and camel’s milk, and on this basis, summarized the use and production methods of dairy products such as cheese, pastry, mince, milk rot, milk ball, and milk thread.
In the middle and early Qing Dynasty, cheese was popular all over China. It was not until after the Opium War that Western cheese products were introduced into China in the late Qing Dynasty that the traditional Manchurian cheese was impacted.

Since the Opium War in 1840, the modern dairy industry began to get rid of the shackles of the feudal small-scale peasant economy and move forward to the modernization of the dairy industry. The mark of the modern dairy industry is to set up pasture, raise cows and goats, process dairy products mechanically, and the products enter the market circulation. During this period, our country introduced Holland cattle and ELSIA cattle from England, France, and other advanced countries. At the same time, China also introduced a group of pastors from more developed dairy countries to China to set up dairy factories in Shanghai, Tianjin, Harbin, and other places, including condensed milk, milk powder processing, and ice cream production, and then further developed in Guangzhou, Tangshan, Kunming and other places, which once again brought vitality to the development of China’s dairy culture.

Around 1923, the Chinese established their first dairy factory. Dairy products gradually from the countryside into the city market, become part of the public consumption. However, in the later period of modern industry, foreign capital invaded China. About 23 countries imported 2600 tons of dairy products into China. A large number of foreign goods flooded China’s market, which led to the collapse of China’s dairy industry.

From the early days of the founding of the people’s Republic of China to the period of reform and opening-up, China’s dairy industry made full use of its resource advantages to develop dairy livestock, restore the development of productive forces, transform, expand and build new processing enterprises, introduce western advanced technology and equipment, and increase production capacity, which led to the rapid development of China’s dairy industry. But the three-year natural disasters, man-made disasters, and ten years of turmoil led to the economic downturn, which made the newly rising Chinese dairy industry suffer setbacks again.

With the deepening of reform and opening up and the improvement of people’s living standards, the dairy industry in this period showed a high growth trend. This benefits from the introduction of Western technology and the progress of science and technology in China. However, the production quantity of dairy products far exceeds the consumption quantity, which leads to the supply exceeding the demand, resulting in the surplus of products and the overstock of a large number of dairy products. China’s dairy industry has been hit hard again, so at this time, the dairy industry has experienced structural reform.

Since 1999, after the structural reform of overcapacity in China’s dairy industry, the overall operation of the market has been greatly improved. People’s demand for dairy products has increased greatly. The liquid milk, which accounts for the main part, has been growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 60%. The output of dairy products has also increased year after year. Finally, China’s dairy industry has become a sunrise industry with good growth from traditional industry. During this period, China’s dairy products have entered a stage of rapid mature development.

Citation: