Face-grass maltose (continued)

Unable to return to the Riverside Tribe in time, he and Wu Jiong stayed an extra day in the Mengshui Tribe.

When they returned home, the Flying-Winged Beast and the Pack-Pack Beast had been fed by the tribe, and the house was still in good order. The only difference was that the sprouting Flour Grass wrapped in cloth had grown to two or three centimeters long, and its color had changed from pale yellow to yellowish-green.

Wu Jiong opened the cloth bag with him and asked, "Are we going to plant it?"

Jian Mo: "I don't think it'll work yet. Look, the buds outside have all withered from the cold. Let's wait a bit longer."

Wu Jiong: "Then should I pull it out and use it for cooking?"

Jian Mo quickly stopped him. "No, it's too thick. It probably won't taste very good when stir-fried. I thought of another food, let's try it."

Seeing Jian Mo's enthusiastic expression, Wu Jiong asked, "What?"

Jian Mo: "Maltose!"

Jian Mo hadn't actually eaten much maltose, but thanks to the prevalence of social media, he was quite familiar with it.

Flour Grass is a type of grass that grows from millet. If it were made into a delicacy, it could probably be made into maltose.

After listening carefully, Wu Jiong said, "I'll cut it."

Jian Mo: "I'll find the filter cloth. If it works, we'll have another source of sugar."

The two were making maltose at home.

Following the method from her memory, Jian Mo instructed Wu Jiong to first chop the Flour Grass sprouts, then put them in a stone mortar and pound them thoroughly, and then filter them with water several times.

The filtered water smells a bit like grass juice extracted from a juicer, and it smells very nice.

Jian Mo took a deep breath and poured it directly into the pot to simmer slowly.

Jian Mo confidently told Wu Jiong, "Once all the water inside evaporates, a thick syrup will remain."

Wu Jiong looked at the earthenware pot. "How long will it take to simmer?"

Jian Mo wasn't quite sure either. "Half a day should be enough. You can't leave the syrup unattended while it's cooking; you have to stir it constantly. We'll know when it's ready."

The fire under the earthenware pot was very strong, and steam rose out, carrying a slightly sweet aroma, warming the whole room.

Jian Mo opened the doors and windows, simmering the maltose while waiting for it to be extracted.

Unexpectedly, as I simmered it, the water almost evaporated, and the soup turned into a slightly yellowish broth. When I scooped some out and tasted it, it still didn't have much sweetness.

Clearly, they failed to hold on.

"How could this be?" Jian Mo was dumbfounded. "This shouldn't be happening. I've seen other people endure this."

Although he had never formally learned how to make maltose, he had watched so many others make it that he couldn't be wrong, since it didn't require much skill.

Wu Jiong was used to seeing him succeed and thought his expression when he succeeded was dazzling. Now that he had failed for the first time, his bewildered expression was also cute, and his wide-eyed look resembled that of a big cat.

Of course, you can't say that now, or he'll get furious.

Wu Jiong rubbed Jian Mo's head. "Maybe the Flour Grass is different from the malt in your tribe, so it failed."

Jian Mo hesitated for a moment. "That's possible."

Wu Jiong: "Don't think about it anymore. Go wash up, I'll get ready. Let's go to bed early."

Jian Mo said listlessly, "I'm going to take a shower."

They were boiling maltose today, and the fire had been burning for a long time. There was plenty of hot water in the house, so they could take a thorough shower from head to toe.

Sigh, so much firewood wasted, and we still didn't make any sugar. It's unbelievable.

While taking a shower, Jian Mo reviewed the entire process, but still couldn't figure out why she had failed.

Doesn't a plant convert starch into sugar when it germinates?

Since it contains sugar, why isn't the concentrated extract sweet? Is it because the Flour Grass sprouts grew too tall and used up all the sugar inside?

Perhaps it was because she had been thinking about it during the day, but last night, after falling asleep, Jian Mo dreamed of making maltose.

In his dream, he actually succeeded in making it; the maltose he made was a bright, translucent, sweet, and sticky caramel.

After tasting maltose in his dream, he suddenly realized he was dreaming and immediately sat up.

Startled by his commotion, Wu Jiong immediately sat up and patted his back. "Had a nightmare?"

"No, no, no, don't talk." Jian Mo rolled over, ran barefoot to the charcoal brazier, found a piece of unused charcoal, and wrote on the wooden board, "Maltose, malt, rice, right! How could I forget to ask for rice?"

Wu Jiong walked over. "Still thinking about maltose?"

Jian Mo turned her head and nodded vigorously. "Yes! I remembered everything in my dream! Look, we still need rice. If we don't have rice, sweet potatoes will do, or tubers and the like should work too."

In just a short while, the contents of Jian Mo's dream had faded away, but what he had written down was still on the wooden board.

Wu Jiong: "And what are rice and sweet potatoes?"

Jian Mo said, "It's a key ingredient in the food we eat there, used to make maltose."

He explained that the reason why Flour Grass sprouts cannot be boiled down to sugar is that Flour Grass sprouts are just enzymes, and what needs to be boiled down is the sugar that they convert into sugar.

Jian Mo looked at the notes she had just written with satisfaction, "Shall we do it again?"

Wu Jiong readily agreed, "Okay."

Jian Mo: "I'll go scoop out Flour Grass seeds. I won't need too many; two bowls should be enough."

It's already daylight outside; time to get up and get to work.

Jian Mo ran downstairs to get a bowl, scooped up Flour Grass seeds, and put them in a large basin, planning to soak them in warm water later.

Practice makes perfect, and the second time he sprouted the Flour Grass, Jian Mo was much more skilled than the first time.

In just three days, he obtained a piece of cloth covered with grass sprouts.

The sprouts of this Flour Grass are growing lush and plump, with an even more tender yellow color.

Without any ceremony, Jian Mo and Wu Jiong chopped up the Flour Grass sprouts, mashed them into a paste, mixed them with the steamed stems, and left them to ferment in the pot.

Jian Mo glanced at it. "It should be fermenting by tonight."