Red and green silk, also called green silk and rose silk, is a commonly used food filling for glutinous rice balls, moon cakes, pastries and other food fillings. Its processing raw materials are orange peels, radish peels, etc.

Production process

1. Prepare materials. Select large pieces of fresh orange peel, wash away the dirt and debris on them with water, put them into a 5% bleaching powder solution, and soak them for preservation.

2. Cut the skin. Use a knife to gently scrape off the white skin and white fibers on the inside of the soaked and preserved orange peel, and place it in a cool and ventilated place to dry until it is semi-dry. Then, use a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy knife to cut into long and thin pieces about 2 mm wide. The longer and thinner the better, the better. Put it into a cloth bag and use a pressing plate or oil press to squeeze out the remaining water in the orange peel.

3. Dipping. Put the squeezed orange peel shreds into a large pottery jar and soak them in sugar water. For every 100 kilograms of orange peel shreds, approximately 150 kilograms of white sugar is mixed with 180 kilograms of warm water to make a sugar solution for soaking. Soaking time is 48-50 hours. After taking it out, put it into a bamboo plaque or bamboo sieve and drain the sugar liquid. You can add some sugar to the remaining sugar liquid and soak some orange peel shreds, but the time should not be too long. In this way, sugar can be saved and costs can be reduced.

4. Coloring. Put the drained orange peel shreds into a stainless steel pot containing 20-40% sugar water, add an appropriate amount of food coloring in red, green or yellow, purple and other colors, stir evenly, then add and cook , and stir while cooking. When the orange peel shreds do not fade when placed in cold water, they can be taken out and drained. During the cooking process, the fire should not be too strong or too large.

5. Let dry. Put the colored orange peel silk in a ventilated place away from sunlight to dry, and then add red, green or yellow and purple to create the finished red and green silk. When drying, prevent dust and sand from blowing in and causing product contamination.