How to Make Kiping?

The celebtion of the feast San Isidro or pahiyas in Lucban is incomplete without the kiping as decoration. Its presence
signifies the beauty and importance of rice in the life of farmers.
According to Aling Vicenta, the making of kiping begins
with the selection of fresh leaves as molds. The kinds of leaves
include kabal, talisay, kakaw (cocoa), antipolo and banana (saba).
These leaves should be: 1) mature so that they can be used
three times; 2) be of the same sizes; 3) not render any unusual
taste. To make the fresh leaves of uniform size,a pair of scissors
comes handy to cut off the excess width of a leaf. Once the
leaves of the same variety have been selected,these are wiped
clean to avoid the production of dirty-looking kiping.
The selection of rice and the preparation of rice paste are
important steps. Rice should be laon (should have been stocked
for a year) to prevent unnecessary cracking of the rice wafer.
Experience dictates that C-64 variety can be used for as long as
the palay has been stocked for a year.

The preparation of the rice paste includes:
1) soaking of the rice for two hours before taking
it to the grinding station;
2) grinding of the rice with water just
a little over the volume of rice;
3) mixing the ground rice with three packets
of food color and 1 /2 teaspoon of rock salt (for
every ganta of rice). People believe that in mixing the paste,
silence should be observed, nobody should ask questions:
otherwise. the batch of kiping will have cracks. Then the paste
will be spread on individual leaves. Depending on the size of
the improvised steamer (usually it is made of bamboo slats that
sit on a big frying pan with boiling water, decaying banana
suckers serving to contain the steam and matching lid) which
sometimes can hold as many as three to four leaves,steaming of
the leaves covered with paste lasts 30 minutes.

After steaming, the following steps are executed:
* Dry the steamed kiping under the shade until ready for
peeling off.
* Peel off thc kiping individually.
* Place kiping one on top of the other.
* Place weight on top to compress for 1/2 day.
* Separate the kiping one by one.
* Dry the kiping one on top of the other.
* Place weight on top to compress for 1/2 day.
* Store the kiping (hang them or place in a clean box).