The ingredients used in jelly are particular. The best jelly generally uses the local specialty iron peas, commonly known as medicinal peas. This kind of pea is difficult to grow and has low yield, so it is extremely valuable. Its bean shape is as big as a mung bean, dark in color, hard in texture, and its inner content is as hard as iron and as hard as stone. When stored, mice will not bite and insects will not bite.

Pictures of Queshan Liangpi (5 photos)

When making jelly, you must first wash the peas cleanly, and there should be no impurities in them. Then soak it in clean water for two days, during which time the water must be changed. After the peas are soaked, use a stone mill to grind them into soy milk. Skim off the foam on the soy milk and throw it away, leaving the good milk for fermentation. After 24 hours, place an iron pot on the stove, pour an appropriate amount of water into it, and burn wheat straw below. After the water in the pot boils, slowly pour the fermented soy milk into the pot and stir clockwise with a wooden spoon. When the slurry in the pot boils, the fire in the stove immediately becomes smaller. Only a little wheat straw is burned, so that there is a slight fire in the stove, so that the slurry in the pot is always in a slightly rolling state of heat preservation. It is estimated that after 1 hour, the flour slurry will be fully cooked and the wheat straw fire will be extinguished. Use a wooden spoon to scoop out the slurry and pour it into the previously cleaned earthenware basin. After filling a pot, cover it with a white cloth and set it aside to cool down. After 12 hours, open the white cloth and the jelly in the basin is ready. Turn the basin upside down on the chopping board or pot lid, and the crystal-clear jelly will appear in front of you. Use a sharp knife, dip it in a little water, cut off a piece, and shake it gently in your hand. It will feel like mutton fat and field jade trembling in the palm of your hand.

Making jelly is also called making jelly. It seems simple, but in fact it is not. As for making a fire, you can only use wheat straw, and absolutely no other wood. Otherwise, the jelly will not be cooked yet and the bottom of the pot will be burnt. If you use other firewood, even if the jelly is not burnt, you will not be able to taste the unique fragrance of wheat mixed with peas. When making ordinary jelly, you only need to boil the soy milk in the pot and it can be cooked, but this is not the case with Queshan pea jelly. It must be simmered slowly over low heat for an hour to get its unique taste.