China is the hometown of soybeans, and the Chinese are the inventors of tofu. A pot of soy milk becomes tofu after being treated with gypsum. In Baiyang Town, Lichuan City, people here make tofu without gypsum or other coagulants. They can make tofu that is as smooth as jade and paste. After squeezing and baking, it becomes fragrant dried tofu. Therefore, the dried tofu made in Baiyang Town is called "the unique specialty of Wuling Tujia" and "solid soy milk". It is not an exaggeration to call Baiyang Town "Dried Tofu Town". The most famous dried tofu in Baiyang Town is the Shen family. The Shen family got up at three o'clock in the morning and worked hard at five o'clock in the morning in this ancient town. They used their unique ancestral craftsmanship and spice formula, supplemented by the clear selenium-rich mountain spring water of Longdong Bay, to make this dried tofu with excellent color, fragrance and taste. For hundreds of years, the dried tofu workshop and neighbors have only used the selenium-rich mountain spring water of Longdong Bay to make dried tofu. The water is clear all year round and does not rise or fall all year round. Baiyang dried tofu uses local high mountain selenium-containing soybeans, sieves out impurities, selects about 15 kilograms of soybeans the night before, washes them with spring water, and then soaks them for about 6 hours. The beans are ground with a stone mill in the early morning of the next day. One ladle of beans (about 20 grains) and one ladle of water, not more or less, are ground into soy milk. Then, the foam on the soy milk should be scooped off with a wooden ladle to maintain the quality of the dried tofu. The slurry is boiled with firewood until it boils. During the boiling process, it is necessary to stir with bamboo strips to prevent the pot from sticking, otherwise the processed dried tofu will have a strange smell. After boiling, take out three pieces of soybean oil skin with bamboo strips. This soybean oil skin is the essence of dried tofu, rich in soybean lecithin and isoflavones. A thin layer can be added to soup, and it can also be wrapped in dried tofu to taste together. After the soy milk is boiled, it is filtered. Use a "shake" made of white cloth to filter out the bean dregs in the soy milk, repeat twice to ensure that the filtered soy milk is pure. The filtered soy milk is covered with a wooden lid and stirred every five minutes for a total of three times. The last time, Shen's ancestral spices are added to blend with the soy milk. Half an hour later, the lid is opened to smell the fragrance and check the naturally solidified tofu. The most unique and magical part of Baiyang dried tofu is the swimming slurry. Unlike other places where tofu is made by adding gypsum, only natural plant spices picked from the mountains by the Shen family are used. Therefore, the tofu made in this way is tender, smooth, and fresh, like jade and fat, and does not have the faint raw taste of tofu made with gypsum. The next step is to wrap it. Use a cloth to wrap it according to the specifications of "fat" dried tofu or dry dried tofu. Each piece of "fat" dried tofu is about 0.8 cm thick and about 8 decimeters long and wide; each piece of dry dried tofu is about 0.6 cm thick and about 8 decimeters long and wide. Stack the wrapped dried tofu one by one, "fat" dried tofu is 6 pieces per stack, and dry dried tofu is 40 pieces per stack. The people of the Shen family began to stand beside the wooden press and follow the adults to learn to wrap dried tofu when they were three or five years old. After wrapping the dried bean curd, use a wooden press to press the stacked dried bean curd for about half an hour to squeeze out excess water. The strength of the dried bean curd needs to be adjusted three times to keep a certain amount of water and prevent it from being squeezed too dry. The dried bean curd can be as thin as a cicada's wing, and you can still see the person opposite through the light. It can be said to be the thinnest dried bean curd in the world. Peel the squeezed dried bean curd piece by piece and spread it on a wooden board. After peeling a piece, roll it in Shenji's ancestral spices once, so that it has fragrance from the outside to the inside, and it also plays a role in preserving freshness. Baiyang dried bean curd has always been baked with charcoal fire. The tools are charcoal fire and bamboo sieve. Put the dried bean curd piece by piece on the bamboo sieve and turn it over and bake until the color is golden, the soybean oil is slightly oozing out, and the fragrance overflows. The last step is to wrap it. Tear the palm leaves into thin threads. "Fat" dried bean curd is stacked in 6 pieces, and dry dried bean curd is stacked in 20 pieces. Put it in a dustpan, and Baiyang dried bean curd can be taken to the street to sell. Baiyang dried bean curd is a kind of food with strong regional characteristics and is passed down from generation to generation based on traditional handicrafts. It is difficult to replicate in other places, especially because five raw materials in the spices are unique to the mountains of Lichuan. The real Baiyang dried bean curd is golden in color, delicious and long-lasting, mellow and delicate in texture. Whether it is eaten raw or stir-fried, spiced or spicy, it has a refreshing and endless aftertaste. It is said that Shenji's ancestral spices have been passed down for hundreds of years, using a variety of Chinese medicinal materials and natural plants as raw materials. In a small wooden box in the Shen family, the list of recipes has been passed down for more than a dozen generations. Only Shen Jinzhong has the key to this spice formula room, and outsiders cannot enter. Shenji Baiyang dried bean curd has been inspected by technical supervision, health and epidemic prevention departments, and the product meets national standards. It contains rich protein, multiple vitamins and trace elements such as calcium, zinc, sodium, and selenium. It is known as "solid soy milk" and has a shelf life of up to 8 months. Over the years, Shenji's family has adhered to traditional handcrafts, and their products have won the titles of China Food Safety Credit Brand of the Ministry of Commerce, Green Food Mark, Enshi Prefecture's Top Ten Famous Foods, Enshi Prefecture's Well-known Trademark, Advanced Taxpaying Enterprise, and Consumer Satisfaction Enterprise. CCTV has reported on Shenji Baiyang Dried Bean Curd for three consecutive years. In the third batch of intangible cultural heritage lists announced in June 2011, the traditional handcrafting skills of Baiyang Dried Bean Curd in Lichuan City were listed.