New-York tribune., 1909-05-02
HOW THE CHINESE MAKE vERM1oELL1
A Product of Green Beans Prepared in a
Primitive Fashion

Writing from Chefoo A. W. Gilbert. Of the oon-
suiate force in report 10 the Bureau Of Manu-
faCtures tells of the making Of Chinese vermcelL
Vcrmiceu he says. is made from the small green
bean (lu tou) in the NinghaI and Fushan districts
I'm the vicinity of Chefoo. the south and west
there being factory I'm Chefoo in connection
with the Hwa Tai silk f1lature. Large quantities
are made by individual farmers IN these districts.
but is made in the little family factories scat
tered all this territory. The farmers in Fu-
shan buy their beans in Chefoo, the soil in this
district Will not raise good crop of the green bean;
while those living IN Ninghai raise their own.
These two districts are divided by low range of
hills; Niughat being on the and having a sandy
loan and Fushan having a loose soil.
The beans grow upon the ordinary bean bush
and are harvested about September /. yielding
from 250 TO 40 pounds OF beans G3S1s square
YARDS, or between and piCuls "a picUl equals
1sS pounds ot vermicelli. They separated from
the pods on primitive thrashing floor by the use
OF fails. and wlnnowed by being thrown up in
the air by wooden shoyels for the breeze 10 carry
off the chafr. The process is divided into two dis
tinct stages. viz, the bean meal moulds and the
finished product. the two stages requiring about
an equal division of time
After thrashing. by process Of boiling and
peated washing the skins separated from the
white meat Of the beans, which are then ground
in the primitive millstones Then. by further
process OF straining. cooking in cloth bags. drain
ing and cooling. the first stage OF the process
suits in the appearance. upon q long bench out
white bean meal moUlds, having diameters at top
and bottom of and Il inches. respectively. This
is the invariable sign land the only one to
strangely OF the exact location OF a yermiceili
factory-the long, white lines OF the drying prod
uct mentioned below serve general guide at a
distance
After drying, the moulds are brought In and
crumbled TO a dry powder. A little is thoroughly
mixed In cold water and about half pint OF the
mixture Is poured into about twice as much boil
ing water and whipped into gelatinous mass, in
order bring out the starch and then dumped into
a large pot OF water which is kept up to the boiling
point. After eight of these masses have
been made the number depending on the amount
of vermiceli desired, they separately dipped
out in a small amount of the boiling water and
again whipped until the water has been absorbed.
These starchy masses then in turn dumped
into a large k'ang (earthen jar containing pulver-
kneaded the consistency of dough, the starch and
meal being gradually added during the kneading
process until all the starch has been used. A
workman then takes n sitting position at the edge
and above the large pot of boiling water holding
the handle OF a brass bottomed 10inch colander.
the other side of which is suspended by a wire
eighteen inches above the boiling water
ball of dough is tossed into the colander and
forced through by striking il with the palm of the
hand. The little slender strings OF dough trail
into the boiling water and are guided on over
the edge OF the vessel into two lower vessels con-
secutively arranged and holding cold water, from
the of which they collected into bundles OF
strings and strung upon short sticks In four-foot