Drinking hard drinking new sake and old sake
Deeply devoted to the school of remembrance of Buddha Amida.
Yoshida Kaneyoshi "Tsurezuregusa" - "Notes at Leisure", XIV century. Translated by A. Meshcheryakov.
The history of the emergence of alcohol is not known, and if it contains any information, then they are very vague. Well, the history of alcohol distillation is even less known. The only thing known is that some kind of distilled alcoholic drink is found in the writings of the Chinese alchemist Ge Hong in the 4th century. n. e., and in addition, its discovery is attributed to the Western alchemist Raymond Lull. The Norman knights claimed the place of the discoverers of strong alcohol; before the invasion of Normandy in 1066, they allegedly distilled wine into alcohol and thus got the first cognac. It is important to emphasize something else here, namely that people have learned to make spirits from a wide variety of agricultural products. For example, rum was made from sugar cane, cognac and chacha - from grapes, plum brandy - from plums, calvados - from apple juice, and mulberry - from mulberries. But people got used to using such a variety of products rather late.
Initially, the fermentation of drinks was achieved in an exclusively natural way. And already in 1334, Arnaud de Villger, an alchemist from Provence (Montpellier, France), proposed using wine alcohol obtained from grape wine as a healing agent. By the way, it is believed that the traditional Russian drink, vodka, was invented in 1448-1474. Vodka was a diluted grain alcohol, therefore, in addition to its traditional name, it had another name: “bread wine” or bread vodka. Her fortress was slightly less. Even here it was not without the traditional rye field, from which, as the historian Klyuchevsky said, we all came out. But what kind of drink could the Japanese make from their rice fields?
And they made sake - a traditional alcoholic drink of the Japanese and, by the way, the favorite drink of the Japanese samurai. The earliest mention of him occurs in the myth, where the god of the wind and storm Susanno defeats the dragon. It is interesting here that the Japanese samurai wins victory not in a duel with a dragon, but in a very cunning way: he gave all eight heads of the dragon sake to drink and chopped it to pieces, intoxicated and asleep.
It is completely wrong to call sake rice vodka, because in the production of this product, distillation is not used in principle. It is mistaken for the usual pasteurization of the traditional method of making sake. It is also wrong to call sake rice wine; The technology for the production of this drink includes fermentation by molds (which should not be confused with fermentation) and the creation of a mash from rice malt, steamed rice and water. This is a bit like beer with 12 - 20 ABV. Shinto shrines in ancient times were the most important producers of this drink in Japan. The monks jealously guarded the secrets of their technology and prided themselves on the uniqueness of the taste of their variety. Initially, sake was prepared according to the Chinese recipe - from wheat and kept for 3 - 5 years, which makes it stronger. A little later, rice was replaced by wheat, but even then the method of preparation of the product was very different from the modern one: it was chewed in the mouth and spat into special containers, where then fermentation took place. By the way, the famous Polynesian drink kava was made using approximately the same technology. Even later, the method of achieving the fermentation process was modernized, now instead of saliva they began to use a special type of mold fungus - koji.
A special method of making sake based on rice malt was first mentioned in the early VIII manuscript "Harima - no kuni fudoki" ("Description of the customs and lands of the province of Harima"). 200 years later, the technology of making sake at the court of the emperor was set forth in the legislative code "Egistiki" ("Code of Engi Years"). In the 12th century, the method of making sake finally went beyond the courtyard: in the diary of an unknown monk who lived in the middle of the 16th century, a transparent alcoholic drink is mentioned, it is very similar to the one that the Japanese drink today.
The popularity of the traditional Japanese drink falls right at the time of the formation of the samurai era, so it is not surprising that what the monks and peasants drank also fell in love with the Japanese soldiers. In the 17th century, the Kinki area (the territory of the modern prefectures of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Hyogo) became the main center for the production of sake in large volumes. From birth to death, sake was accompanied by the life of the samurai, it was drunk on holidays, in the bathhouse, it was sacrificed to gods and temples, so over time it became the main national drink of all Japanese. They even came up with a special name for it - nihonshu ("Japanese wine"), while drinks of foreign origin are called yoshu ("wine of Europeans").
A unique drink like sake therefore requires unique ingredients. The basis of these products, of course, is rice. Only a third of the 200 varieties of rice are suitable for making sake. Such rice is grown in the most "extreme" conditions, in the mountainous plains and hills. It is hot during the day and very cold at night.
However, sake manufacturers place the bulk of the requirements for the selection of water. Water rich in potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and calcium is very good for molds. Hard water from the Nada region favors the rapid reproduction of the fungus, because Sake there is strong, "masculine". And in Fushimiya, sake is produced for women: the soft water there gives a low degree. From generation to generation, recipes for special water "cocktails" from different types of water are passed down, which are used in the preparation of a Japanese alcoholic drink.
More than 600 components that make up sake, as the Japanese themselves note, determine the delicate taste of the drink. There are about 400 components in whiskey and brandy, and there are about 500 in beer and wine.
However, we are faced with a very important question, how did the Japanese figure out how to use three types of natural organisms in the preparation of sake: mold, yeast and bacteria? It is much easier to ferment rice with ordinary yeast, and heat and distill the resulting wort. Beer, whiskey, rum, tequila, brandy, vodka or gin, like any other alcoholic beverage, are made on the basis of one type of microorganism - yeast. And here the "masters" of sake for some reason begin to use koji spores to obtain mold and various lactic acid bacteria. How they came up with this, alas, is unknown.
Well, what is the secret of making sake? First, the rice is carefully grinded. Even for the preparation of the most ordinary sake, it was required to remove up to 30% of its surface from each rice, but to prepare an expensive variety, it was required to remove up to 60% of the surface of each grain. Imagine doing this by hand before. Throughout the next day, the rice was steamed and then cooled. Some part of it was placed in a room with high temperature and humidity. Then it was covered with koji spores from above and covered with a cloth, maintaining the temperature necessary for the growth of this fungus. The mold formed on the rice was transferred to the wooden troughs of the koji buta. The wort is cooked in a cooler room. Then the rice with koji mold, lactic acid and water (to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria), the kobo yeast and the rest of the steamed rice are mixed and left for 16 days. During this time, the yeast continues to multiply, and all this mass ferments. Glucose from the fermentation of koji molds is converted into alcohol by yeast. They also cleanse and insist sake, and only after that they drink.
The peasants, of course, used lower quality sake. They didn't have time to infuse the product and enjoy the subtle flavors. Samurai did not spare their time and insisted on this alcoholic drink for a long time. In addition, they bought it in batches in different provinces and compared the quality and taste.
The Japanese samurai developed their own culture of sake enjoyment. The samurai drinking culture is again distinguished by a variety of drinking utensils. Someone preferred to taste the drink from porcelain miniature cups, someone from square small tubs, adding the resinous aroma of pine resin to the sake aroma. The choice of certain dishes had to correspond, first of all, to the type of drink, and not to the drinker's appetite. But mostly sake was consumed from large cups, so you could drink a guest and then laugh at him. It was customary to drink a traditional Japanese drink chilled, but in the novels of national classics, everyone, without exception, drinks sake in a heated form. In the cool season, sake was really heated to 36 degrees or more. But in the heat they drank cold! Although there is an assumption that during the heating process fusel oils evaporate from it, from which the head usually pops in the morning. The drink was poured into cups or from peculiar teapots or small bottles, convenient for heating. Warming up sake isn't easy either. It is necessary to comply with those requirements for heating the product that were originally defined, they cannot be changed, because there are different terms for each degree of heating. For example, if a drink corresponds to the temperature of a human body, then it is called itohadakan (ie, "human skin"). The "sunny" degree of heat - hinatakan is slightly colder: 30 ° C. There are also nurukan ("slightly warm"), jyokan ("warm") and atsukan ("hot"). Tobirikan is the hottest version of sake ("extra") and is heated to 55 ° C.
Resting a samurai in a Japanese bath or in hot springs cannot do without a cup of sake. Sake is an indispensable attribute of any samurai holiday. Lying in a pool of hot mineral water, they freshened their throats with a sip of chilled drink. Sake could be used not only as a necessary drink for a good rest, but also as a gift during religious festivals. It was even sprinkled on each other or on the ground. Such a ritual is a good continuation of the celebration of any significant event, the offer of prayers. The Japanese believed that spraying sake cleansed the body and could pacify the anger of the gods. Another good Japanese custom that has survived to this day is called san-san-kudo (three sips - three cups). It involves the exchange of bowls between the bride and groom.
Without a traditional sake cup, it was impossible for a samurai to appreciate all the delights of a blooming cherry orchard, it was impossible to communicate with guests and truly enjoy the national holidays of Japan. Therefore, it is impossible to overestimate the role of the drink in Japanese society, in its past and present. Well, the relatively small strength of the traditional alcoholic drink is explained by the fact that the body of the Japanese, belonging to the Mongoloid race, is not susceptible to the splitting of alcoholic substances: they have a lack of an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the human stomach into carbon dioxide and water. That is why alcohol “shakes” the American Indians, Filipinos and Japanese so much, and why they did not need a stronger drink before they got acquainted with European civilization.
Surprisingly, there was a belief among Japanese women that it was good for men to get drunk on sake from time to time. Then they became kind and accommodating. Such a feminine, naive opinion is quite obvious and justified, because among the constant taboos, a sense of duty and honor, they had to be always on their guard; samurai, of course, experienced severe stress, which almost always reflected on them, women. And so … a tipsy samurai gave his wife the opportunity to feel a sense of her own superiority over her husband, because she understood that this would never happen to her.
