Chapter 41: The Food Factory (Continued)

“The quality of these is relatively poor,” Yun Suji said, choosing his words carefully. “The meat used is not so, um… proper.”

What was meant by not so “proper” was easy to imagine. It was generally the same kind of meat filling used in roadside stall buns in the old world, collectively known as “offal meat.” Blood neck was considered good; who knew what else was in there. After becoming the factory manager, Yun Suji fully understood why German sausages were said to “not waste a single drop of blood.”

“Let’s get going,” Xi Yazhou’s appetite suddenly wasn’t so good. Chen Sigen, however, was intrigued. “Are the dried sausages for the troops of this kind? I think the nutritional indicators are still quite good.”

“Which specific type of sausage is supplied to the troops depends on the army’s needs and the logistics department’s purchase price. Of course, it also depends on the supply of raw materials—meat supply has always been a pitfall.”

“Old Yun, just be honest. How many kinds of meat are in your so-called sausages?” Xi Yazhou frowned.

“Theoretically, any kind of meat can be used, even… and I guarantee you won’t be able to tell,” Yun Suji chuckled. “Joking aside, I’ve used pork, beef, mutton, horse, donkey, mule, fish, chicken, duck, and goose here. Of course, that also includes animal organs and blood.”

“Can it be customized?” Chen Sigen asked.

“Yes, we can adjust the proportion of different raw materials in the sausage filling according to the purchase price and the supply of raw materials. The simplest adjustment is the starch content.”

“I think we can order more ham sausages. They look like meat and taste like meat…”

“No, ham sausage is meaningless. The main component is still starch, with just a little more fat,” Chen Sigen flatly rejected. “Right now, we need to supplement the soldiers’ protein.”

“If the meat supply is sufficient, we can directly make pemmican. The production is very simple.”

“What is pemmican?”

“I know, it’s called Pemmican,” Chen Sigen, having been in the United States for many years, knew this. “It’s said to have been invented by the Indians. They used dried and ground bison meat, mixed with fat and ground nuts, and made it into blocks. Later, the white people also learned to make it. This stuff is very good, high in fat and protein, and has a long shelf life.”

“Isn’t that raw meat?”

“How can it be raw meat if it’s been dried? But as an instant food, it’s probably very unpalatable. It should taste good after cooking.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have that much meat,” Xi Yazhou sighed.

“If we want to be cheap and plentiful, and still have enough protein, we can consider fish sausages. Follow me.”

The next production line was the fish sausage production line, known in the food industry as “surimi products.” The product line was diverse, including fish balls, fish cakes, kamaboko, chikuwa, crab sticks, and so on.

As soon as they entered the surimi workshop, they were hit by a strong fishy smell, which was noticeable even with a mask on. On the open ground were baskets of various sea fish transported from the seafood processing plant. Workers in work clothes were busy moving raw materials and finished products. The workshop was very steamy.

“Surimi products are generally made from low-economic-value, non-grade miscellaneous fish,” Yun Suji said, introducing the raw fish in the baskets. “However, 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, feeling dazzled. At the end, they recognized the fish neatly stacked on straw mats along the wall: sharks.

There were indeed many varieties of sharks here, at least seven or eight, large and small.

“Can you eat shark? I remember this thing urinates through its whole body, so the meat tastes like piss…” Chen Sigen, having been abroad for many years and seen a lot, remembered his terrifying experience of being treated to the local specialty of fermented shark when he went to Norway.

“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 it into fillets, rinse them in 5% brine for five minutes, wash them clean, soak them in an acetic acid solution tank to deodorize, and finally rinse them clean and air-dry them.

“This is the processed shark meat fillet. Smell it, there’s no smell at all,” Yun Suji said, picking up a piece of white fish meat and handing it to Chen Sigen. “Now it can be used for pulping.”

They continued to walk forward. A machine in front of them was rumbling. A worker was pouring a basket of fish from a funnel. Below was a huge stainless steel drum with dense holes. Many of the fish had already been crushed, but the remains, which could still be roughly identified as fish, were tumbling on top.

“What is this, pulping?”

“This is meat harvesting, or meat squeezing. The holes on this large drum are a sieve. Through continuous rotation and squeezing, the fish bones and skin are removed, leaving only the pure meat.”

“Damn, so advanced!” This was Xi Yazhou’s first time in a food factory, and he was very curious. He stared at the machine for a long time. “Doesn’t this mean that the problem of spitting out fish bones when eating fish is not a problem in the factory?”

“If you don’t care about the integrity and texture of the fish, there are many ways to mechanically remove fish bones,” Yun Suji said. “Otherwise, why would they say the power of industry is infinite.”

Chen Sigen suddenly shouted, “Wait a minute, this isn’t sea fish, it’s catfish!”

“That’s right, it’s catfish,” Yun Suji said. He said that catfish are very common in Guangdong and Hainan. The rice-fish farming promoted by the Heaven and Earth Society includes raising catfish—mainly African sharptooth catfish and largemouth catfish. They grow very fast, have low requirements for water quality, and are tolerant of low oxygen. The disadvantage is that the meat quality is not very good. But it yields a lot of meat and doesn’t have the troublesome intermuscular bones to deal with, so the food factory uses it as a filler for surimi products.

“I remember this thing has a strong earthy taste.”

“Just keeping them in clean water for a few days will do. Besides, there’s post-processing. Even shark meat can be used, let alone this.”

After the meat is harvested, it is poured into a meat grinder and continuously ground two or three times with a spiral blade. Then, several different types of ground fish meat are poured into a large stone mortar. A worker engages the clutch, and a belt begins to drive a machine with three mixing rods to beat the pulp. The mixing rods are controlled by planetary gears and can rotate and revolve. They can easily mix a large amount of minced fish meat into surimi.

Yun Suji said, “This is a refiner, specifically for making surimi. It can be done manually, but the efficiency is much worse.”

As he spoke, a worker was continuously scooping a small amount of water into the stone mortar with a spoon.

“This is saltwater, which can increase the viscosity of the surimi. Adding salt is the key to making surimi products.”

As the surimi became stickier with mixing, feeling even stickier than kneaded dough, the worker added some cooking wine and seasonings, then poured in a bag of white powder.

“This is sweet potato starch, also a filler. Generally not exceeding 25%. However, depending on the purchase price, 50% or even more can be added, or none at all. By the way, the surimi products supplied by our factory to the special supply stores have no additives at all.”

“I think adding 25% is enough for military use. Adding more would be meaningless,” Chen Sigen said. “How do you preserve it? Things like chikuwa need to be refrigerated.”

“It’s preserved in a similar way to sausages: cooked, dried, and smoked.”

Next, they looked at the dried fish and fish floss workshop. Yun Suji said that these could all be included in military food. He especially recommended various baked dried fish, suggesting they be carried as personal military rations.

“What about dried meat?”

“It’s easy to make, and I have finished products,” Yun Suji said. “We can also make products like pork jerky.”

“No, no, we can’t make it too delicious, otherwise the soldiers will eat it as a snack,” Xi Yazhou shook his head. “It should be easy to eat, but not delicious.”

Originally, Yun Suji wanted to take them to other workshops, but the two, tormented by sight and smell, no longer wanted to increase their knowledge. Yun Suji had no choice but to take them to the product development institute.

The product development institute was actually also a workshop, just much smaller, with all kinds of small processing equipment. Yun Suji led them directly through the corridor to a large room at the back.

Against the wall of the room was a row of bulky gas refrigerators and display cabinets, filled with all sorts of food.

“These are all trial products, products that our current production level can manufacture,” Yun Suji said, opening a cabinet and taking out a paper box. “This is an experimental military biscuit. You can try it.”

The biscuits were small and very hard. Xi Yazhou knew that military biscuits were generally baked drier for better preservation, but the disadvantage was that you had to drink a lot of water when eating them. He took a bite. The texture was very hard. After chewing a few times, there was the aroma of sesame. It seemed to have both sugar and salt. It wasn’t unpalatable, nor was it as difficult to chew as he had imagined.

“I think it’s good,” Chen Sigen said. “The taste is alright.”

“That’s how it is,” Yun Suji said. “Without flour, many things can’t be made. This actually has a lot of rice flour mixed in.”

Yun Suji said that in addition to rice flour, the biscuits also contained potato flour, sesame seeds, and hops. The preservation and palatability were both good.

“The product is good, but it’s worthless if it can’t be mass-produced,” Xi Yazhou said. “What other good things do you have?”

Chen Sigen said, “It can be distributed in small quantities to reconnaissance soldiers. They need this kind of food.”

Yun Suji pointed to a glass display case. “These are dehydrated vegetables. They can all be used as military non-staple foods.”

The variety was rich and colorful. Chen Sigen could see at a glance that there were more than a dozen varieties, including cabbage, shredded white radish, shredded and sliced carrots, eggplant, potatoes, cowpeas, pumpkin, lotus root, spinach, and bottle gourd.

“Unfortunately, we can’t do low-temperature vacuum drying yet, so this will have to do. Of course, the nutritional value is much worse. Dehydrated vegetables are light and easy to preserve, better than carrying pickles and salted vegetables. Although they can’t be eaten immediately, they are good for making soup or cooking with rice when camping.”