Wax gourd products are dried in sugar water.
Production method: 1. Slice: 3.3 cm long and 7 mm thick.
2. Pickling: Soak the melon slices in lime water slurry (5 decimeters, 1 decimeter lime) for about 20 minutes. Its main functions are: (1) keep the original state, so that the melon meat will not be soft and rotten; (2) The texture is tight, which makes the melon crisp; (3) anticorrosion. However, lime water should not be too strong. If the ash content exceeds 35%, it will harden and turn yellow, which will affect the taste. However, the concentration is not enough to achieve the purpose of crispness, and it is generally appropriate to use thick milk.
3. Rinse and bleach: after picking up the melon slices in lime water, rinse and bleach them in a container where clear water can flow for a day and night to completely bleach the lime. In rural areas, it is usually washed in fast-flowing rivers.
4. Pre-cooking: You can put the melon slices in a water research pot to cook, which can drive away the lime smell and easily absorb sugar when cooking sugar.
5. Soak: put it in a clean water tank for a little soak.
6. Sugar boiling: put the melon slices in a clear water pot (the water volume is almost submerged), add white sugar (the ratio of white sugar to wax gourd meat is 1: 1), and cook for 150 ~ 180 minutes. Under the action of high osmotic pressure of sugar, the water in the melon meat is removed, and a large amount of sugar permeates, and the melon slices are translucent.
7. Finished product: After boiling, take out the drained sugar juice and use it without drying. If it needs to be preserved, it should be dried in the sun and preserved for 2 months. The remaining sugar water in the pot is mostly used for other purposes, such as syrup for frying bean paste.