Chapter 1696 - Food Factory (Continued)
"The quality of this batch is comparatively... lower." Yun Suji weighed his words carefully. "The meat used isn't exactly... respectable."
As for what "not respectable" meant—the ingredients could be imagined. Roughly the same category as roadside stall dumpling fillings in another timeline, collectively termed "scrap meat." Blood neck was considered premium; heaven knows what else went in. After becoming food factory director, Yun Suji had come to fully appreciate why German sausage claims that "not a single drop of blood is wasted."
"Let's move on." Xi Yazhou's appetite had suddenly diminished. Chen Sigen, however, was intrigued and asked: "Is the dry sausage prepared for the troops made from this kind of filling? The nutritional indicators still seem acceptable."
"Which specific sausage gets supplied to the troops depends on their needs and Joint Logistics' procurement quotation. Of course, it also depends on raw material supply—meat has always been the bottleneck."
"Old Yun, just be straight with us. Exactly how many kinds of meat are in these so-called sausages?" Xi Yazhou frowned.
"Theoretically, any meat works—even... And I guarantee you can't taste the difference." Yun Suji laughed. "All joking aside: pig, cow, sheep, horse, donkey, mule, fish, chicken, duck, goose—I've used them all here. Including animal organs and blood, of course."
"Can it be customized?" Chen Sigen asked.
"Yes. Different raw material proportions can be adjusted in the filling based on procurement price and supply conditions. The simplest adjustment is starch content."
"I think we could order more ham sausages. They look like meat, taste like meat..."
"No—ham sausage is meaningless. The main component is still starch, just with more grease." Chen Sigen rejected this categorically. "Right now we need to supplement soldiers with more protein."
"If meat supply were sufficient, we could directly produce pemmican. Very simple to manufacture."
"What's pemmican?"
"I know—it's the so-called Indian meat cake." Chen Sigen had spent many years in America and was familiar with it. "Supposedly invented by Indians: North American bison meat roasted dry and ground, then mixed with grease, ground nuts, and such, pressed into blocks. Later, white people learned to make it too. It's actually quite good—high fat, high protein, durable storage."
"Isn't that raw meat?"
"It's all roasted dry—how can it be raw? But as instant food, I imagine it's not very palatable. Probably tastes better after cooking."
"Pity there isn't that much meat." Xi Yazhou sighed.
"If we want cheap and plentiful with adequate protein, we should consider fish sausages. Follow me."
The next production line was for fish sausages—"surimi products" in food industry parlance. The product range was extensive: fish balls, fish cakes, fish paste, chikuwa, imitation crab sticks—all belonged to this category.
Upon entering the surimi workshop, a powerful fish stench assaulted them, perceptible even through masks. In the open area stood baskets of various sea fish transported from the marine products processing factory. Workers in coveralls busied themselves moving raw materials and finished goods. Steam hung heavy in the air.
"Surimi products typically use trash fish with poor commercial value and low grade," Yun Suji explained, indicating the raw fish in the baskets. "But only white-fleshed fish can be used, and the meat can't be too fatty."
Chen Sigen and Xi Yazhou surveyed the baskets of assorted large and small fish, feeling somewhat bewildered. But the last row, neatly arranged on straw mats along the wall, they recognized immediately: sharks.
There was quite a variety—at least seven or eight species, large and small.
"Can shark be eaten?" Chen Sigen had spent years abroad and was knowledgeable. He recalled the terrifying experience of locals treating him to fermented shark during a visit to Norway. "I remember this stuff excretes urine through its whole body—the flesh reeks of ammonia..."
"Because it's not tasty, it's used for surimi."
Shark meat contains considerable urea and has a strong ammoniac odor, so it cannot simply be beaten into paste directly. The first step was to cut it into fillets and rinse them in 5% salt water for five minutes. After washing clean, the fillets were soaked in acetic acid solution tanks for deodorization, then rinsed again and air-dried.
"This is the processed shark fillet. Smell it—no odor at all." Yun Suji casually picked up a piece of white fish meat and handed it to Chen Sigen. "This can be used for paste."
They continued forward. Ahead, a machine rumbled. A worker was pouring a basket of fish into a funnel. Below was a huge stainless steel drum covered with dense perforations. Fish remains—already squeezed nearly to mush but still roughly recognizable—rolled across its surface.
"What's this doing? Making paste?"
"This is meat separation—or meat squeezing. The holes on this drum are sieves. Through continuous rotation and pressure, fish bones and skin are excluded, leaving only pure meat."
"Damn—really advanced!" Xi Yazhou was visiting a food factory for the first time and was fascinated. He stared at the machine for a long while. "Does this mean the problem of spitting out fish bones when eating fish is solved right here in the factory?"
"If you're not pursuing the integrity of whole fish or the texture of fish meat, there are many mechanical methods to remove bones." Yun Suji said. "Otherwise, how would people say the power of industry is infinite?"
Chen Sigen suddenly shouted: "Wait—that's not sea fish. That's catfish!"
"Correct—catfish." Yun Suji explained that catfish were very common in Guangdong and Hainan. Among the rice-fish polyculture promoted by the Heaven and Earth Society, catfish farming featured prominently—mainly Walking Catfish and Large-mouth Catfish. They grew quickly and tolerated poor water quality and low oxygen. The disadvantage was mediocre flesh quality. But they produced abundant meat with no troublesome intermuscular bones. The food factory used them as filler for surimi products.
"I remember this fish has a strong muddy taste."
"Just raise them in clean water for a few days. Besides, there's post-processing. If even shark meat can be used, catfish is hardly a problem."
After meat separation, the fish was poured into a grinder and run through two or three passes with a spiral cutter. Then several types of ground fish were combined in a large stone mortar. The worker engaged the clutch, and a belt began driving a machine with three stirring rods to mix the paste. Controlled by planetary gears, the rods rotated and revolved simultaneously, easily churning large quantities of minced fish into surimi.
"This is a Silent Cutter—specifically for making surimi paste. Manual work is possible, but naturally far less efficient."
While he spoke, a worker continuously ladled small amounts of water into the mortar.
"That's salt water, which increases the surimi's viscosity. Adding salt is key to making surimi products."
Watching the paste grow stickier with stirring—stickier than kneaded dough—the worker added cooking wine and seasonings, then poured in a bag of white powder.
"Sweet potato starch—also a filler. Generally not exceeding 25%. However, depending on procurement prices, 50% or even higher can be added—or none at all. By the way, surimi products this factory supplies to special supply shops contain absolutely no filler."
"I think 25% is sufficient for military use; adding more is pointless." Chen Sigen said. "How do you preserve them? Things like chikuwa need refrigeration."
"Same method as sausages: cooked, dried, smoked."
Next they toured the dried fish and fish floss workshops. Yun Suji indicated that all these products could be listed as military food. He especially recommended various roasted dried fish as portable rations.
"What about dried meat?"
"Very easy to make—I have finished products. We can also produce items like dried pork slices."
"No, no—we can't make it too delicious, or soldiers will snack on it." Xi Yazhou shook his head. "It must be easy to swallow but shouldn't be tasty."
Yun Suji had originally intended to show them other workshops, but both men—having suffered enough visual and olfactory assault—declined further education. He led them instead to the Product R&D Institute.
The R&D Institute was actually another workshop, just much smaller in scale, containing various small processing equipment. Yun Suji took them directly through a corridor to a large room at the back.
Against the wall stood a row of heavy gas refrigerators and display cabinets containing all manner of foods.
"These are all trial products—items our current production capacity can manufacture." Yun Suji opened a cabinet and removed a paper box. "This is experimental military biscuit. Give it a try."
The biscuits were small blocks, extremely hard. Xi Yazhou knew military biscuits were generally baked quite dry for preservation purposes. The disadvantage was needing large quantities of water to wash them down. He took a bite. The texture was extremely hard. After chewing a few times, sesame aroma emerged; it seemed sugar and salt had been added. Not bad to eat—and not as difficult to chew as expected.
"I think they're fine," Chen Sigen said. "The taste is acceptable."
"That's about right." Yun Suji nodded. "Many things can't be made without wheat flour. Actually, quite a lot of rice flour is mixed in here."
He explained that besides rice flour, the biscuits contained potato flour, sesame, and hops. Both preservation and palatability were adequate.
"The product is decent, but it's worthless if it can't be mass-produced." Xi Yazhou said. "What other good things do you have?"
Chen Sigen suggested: "These could be issued in small quantities to scouts—they need this kind of food."
Yun Suji pointed to a glass display cabinet. "These are the dehydrated vegetable series. All suitable as military non-staple food."
The varieties were impressively diverse. Chen Sigen identified at a glance more than ten types: cabbage, white radish strips, carrot strips and slices, eggplant, potato, cowpea, pumpkin, lotus root, spinach, calabash...
"We still can't do low-temperature vacuum drying, unfortunately. This will have to suffice—the nutritional value is considerably lower, of course. But dehydrated vegetables are light and keep well. Better than hauling pickles and salted vegetables. Though not instant-eating, they're fine for boiling soup or making vegetable rice when camping."
(End of Chapter)