Tofu is said to be a rare delicacy for immortals when the ancient Taoists refined the elixir of life. Although it didn't make those who dreamed of becoming immortals live forever, it gave China people an enduring delicacy. Pianguan tofu is tender, white, soft, firm, delicious and pure, and contains many rare elements needed by human body, so it has more nutritional value, which is obviously different from tofu in other places. It is more authentic and delicious. According to folk legend, Pianguan tofu is delicious because it came from He Xiangu who gave a banquet for the Queen Mother to make tofu. At present, there is still a folk song of He Xiangu asking the Queen Mother, which is linked by land names, circulating in the western part of Pianguan: "The black beans with black beans, the sacred water in Wollongong, carry the ditch;" The coal in the back of the hard firewood kiln of Chaijia _, the wall of Damojiacun in the millstone stall; When the fire burns, the wind blows on the beam, and the tofu in the tofu trough is made; Small garlic in the small garlic ditch, salt in Yanjiagou, and sweet fruit in the pear garden; The fairy in Hejiabao invited the Queen Mother to hold a banquet on Tianfengping. " All the village names and place names underlined above are now existing. It is said that these village names and place names were left by tofu made by He Xiangu when he hosted a banquet for the Queen Mother. Although this is only a folk myth, Pianguan tofu does have its own unique advantages for three reasons: < P > First, the raw materials are excellent. Black beans and soybeans are dicotyledonous plants and legumes. Root rhizobia can fix nitrogen in the air, make it into nitrogen fertilizer, transport it to branches and leaves, and turn nitrogen into protein. Therefore, black beans and soybeans contain a lot of plant protein, which is called beef in plants. The main ingredient in tofu is protein from soybeans and black beans. Protein in soybeans and black beans is rich and of high quality, so tofu is naturally good. The soil in Pianguan belongs to the "grey cinnamon soil" of Quaternary land sediments, accounting for 97.45% of the county's area. It has thick soil layer, uniform texture, loose porosity and good air permeability, and contains a lot of mineral elements such as phosphorus, potassium, selenium and calcium, which is the best soil for the growth of bean crops. In addition, the mild climate and abundant sunshine in Pianguan determine the high quality and high yield of Pianguan soybeans and black beans, and create the best tofu-Pianguan tofu.

second, the water quality is good. Everyone knows that "alum water" can't make tofu. The alum water here refers to the water flowing out of coal mines, iron mines, pyrite and other mines. A large number of complex salts such as calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate, iron sulfite and aluminum sulfate are dissolved in it. The principle of making tofu is to ionize the soybean milk that has passed through the pot by heating, and the ionized positive and negative ions attract each other to form an emulsion, and then add the acid or salt solution into the pot for ion reaction to form a new substance, change the original ionization, and condense the protein in the soybean milk into tofu. If alum water is used to make tofu, when soybean milk passes into the pot, it will react with a large number of salts dissolved in the water in the pot, and it is difficult to form tofu blocks. Even if it is barely made into tofu, it tastes bad because it contains harmful mineral salts. Why people eat tofu from brine is not as delicious as tofu from slurry, because the brine that has survived the salt contains very complex mineral salts. However, Pianguan is high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the middle. The mining area is concentrated on the edge of the Yellow River, which is less than 5 square kilometers in the west. The drinking water flowing through Pianguan is high-quality water from the east to the west, which is not polluted by mines. The hardness of the water is only 4.3 mg/L, so Pianguan is the county with the best water quality in Xinzhou and even the surrounding counties. In addition, Pianguan county is full of tofu with slurry, and the tofu made is naturally delicious and pollution-free.

third, the processing is excellent. To make tofu, you should grind it well, live well and order it well. First of all, peel the beans, that is, soak them in water and grind them into bean paste with water. The finer the beans are ground, the better. Only by grinding them finely can all the protein particles in the beans enter the water, and tofu can be made. Because the protein particles are finer and react better with the slurry in the pot, the tofu made is whiter, softer and firmer. The so-called good life is to use a thin reed. After going through it, scoop water from the pot and dilute it again, so as to live a clean life. Some people make a lot of tofu, and if they use a thick reed, they will put some tofu dregs into the pot. The tofu made is coarse and sandy, and the taste is bound to be poor. At the same time, when eating tofu, you should increase the fire and let the pot boil away, so that the bean juice will not precipitate at the bottom of the pot and be burned. Some people think that tofu has been cooked for a long time, and the water in the pot is allowed to boil idle when the fire is added. People who have cooked tofu are also very hot when the temperature is too high. In order to save charcoal and make people comfortable, the bottom fire is lowered when tofu is cooked. As a result, the bean juice that goes down is precipitated at the bottom of the pot and burned, which not only affects the rate of tofu coming out of the pot, but more importantly, the tofu made always has a burnt smell and is not delicious. And eating this kind of mushy tofu often is harmful to people's health. Well-ordered tofu is another key to making tofu well. The partial point of tofu is to use slurry, that is, after taking out tofu, scoop the slurry in the pot into a small urn and put it in a hot place for fermentation. Because a large amount of organic matter is still dissolved in the slurry of tofu, a large amount of lactic acid will be produced after fermentation. The positively charged hydrogen ions in lactic acid react with the soybean milk in the pot to make the soybean milk condense into tofu blocks. This method of making tofu is different from the method of adding brine and gypsum. It is economical, convenient and pollution-free. It avoids the addition of complex substances in brine and gypsum, changes the taste and composition of tofu, and is more beneficial to human health. This is the biggest advantage of tofu. Don't order the bean curd too quickly. Mix the bean curd with water and adjust it to a certain acidity. As the soybean milk in the pot turns over on the fire, slowly add it into the pot. Every time you add it, try to make the soybean milk in the pot react as much as possible. If you add it too quickly, it will "grab the bean curd", and the bean curd made will be sandy, dry, hard and inelastic, and the rate of leaving the tank will be greatly reduced. When a kind of floc similar to egg white appears in the pot slowly, add some sour pulp and cook it with slow fire, and the floc will turn itself in the pot, and the floc in the whole pot will form a whole while rolling, then divide it into four pieces, cook it for a while, and then fish it in the tofu tank and pressurize it, and control the floating water to get out of the tank. Remove the soup cloth and let it dry for a while, and a layer of oily skin will pop out on the surface of tofu in the whole trough. When a knife is cut down, a stream of slurry will flow down the knife. There is a saying in Pianguan people that "there is no god, no ghost, and a catty of tofu is four or two waters." Only tofu that can wrap water is good tofu. When opened, the white, tender, soft, thin and firm tofu has an attractive aroma. When fried, fried, choked, fried, stewed, slipped and mixed, it is delicious, and can be used as both cooking and staple food. Some people can't live without tofu every day, and they often give the delicious food of this fairy party as a hometown specialty to their relatives who are far away from home. They will be as rare as babies and miss their hometown more after eating it. Giving it to friends in other places often causes people in other places to praise Pianguan tofu, which is really a beautiful landscape on Pianguan dining table.

source of information: pianguan county people's government office.