Sugared Noodles

I translated another few recipes for the cooks mailing list. I had initially thought that "yellow cocoon candy" would be something like cotton candy, or pişmaniye, but this is actually noodles dry-fried and soaked in syrup.  Still neat!  I wonder how these taste.

《食次》曰：From The Sequence of Food [Lost Northern and Southern Dynasties era text on food, which survives in part here.]:

「白繭糖法：熟炊秫稻米飯，及熱于杵臼淨者舂之為𥻓 ，須令極熟，勿令有米粒。	“To make white cocoon candy [actually a kind of friend glutinous rice noodle rolled in sugar to form pellets]: take fully cooked proso millet or rice [commentary thinks it’s glutinous, but I’m not sure from the text], pound it completely in a mortar as if you are making rice cakes.  You must fully pound it, and not allow any grains to remain.
幹為餅：法，厚二分許。	Form into a cake [cakes?]: in the standard way, two fen or so thick.
日曝小燥，刀𠠫為長條，廣二分；乃斜裁之，大如棗核，兩頭尖。	Dry in the sun until a little dry, and cut it using a knife in straight divisions to form long noodles.
更曝令極燥，膏油煮之。	Again dry in the sun until very dry, and fry in oil.
熟，出，糖聚丸之；一丸不過五六枚。」	When done, take them out, and roll them in sugar [probably thick syrup] to form balls; making no more than 5-6 balls at a time.”
又云：「手索𥻓 ，麤細如箭簳。	It also reads, “pull the cake by hand, so they’re as fine as [thin?] arrow shafts.
日曝小燥，刀斜截，大如棗核。	Dry them in the sun until a little dry, and using a knife cut them obliquely [possibly “irregularly”], so they’re the size of date pits.
煮，丸，如上法。丸大如桃核。半奠，不滿之。」	Fry them, and make them into balls like the previous method.  The balls should be as large as peach pits.  Sometimes, when serving, don’t fill them.

黃繭糖：Yellow Silk-Floss Candy:

白秫米，精舂，不簸淅，以梔子漬米取色。	Take white glutinous millet, precisely pound it, do not winnow or wash.  Take Gardenia jasminoides seeds/fruit and soak the grain with them to take their color.
炊、舂為𥻓；𥻓加蜜。	Cook it, and pound it into a cake; to the cake add honey.
餘一如白𥻓 。	For the rest, do as for the white cakes.
作繭，煮，及奠，如前。	Make cocoons, fry, and serve as before.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.