Chapter 331: Sausage and Bread
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In the Chu Village.
Shen Ruyue knocked on the door. “Qingzhi, the ingredients for the mooncakes have been prepared according to your instructions.”
Chu Qingzhi put down the pen in her hand and walked to open the door. “Let’s go make mooncakes.”
The mooncakes were made in the courtyard of the old house. There was a shed there, and under the shed were five tables. After a while, everyone gathered around the tables to make mooncakes.
At this moment, the villagers who were helping to make the mooncakes were already in position. They were all women.
Chu Qingzhi walked over and smiled. “Thank you for coming to help.”
An auntie smiled and said, “Qingzhi, we should be the ones thanking you for letting us work.”
Chu Qingzhi chatted with everyone for a while before getting to the business…
She originally planned to make five different fillings, but two of the fillings were given to Tan Mengyang. Now, she only needed to make the other three. They were bean paste egg yolk filling, red bean filling, and lotus seed paste filling.
There were six people who prepared the fillings. Under Chu Qingzhi’s guidance, they quickly prepared three large basins of fillings.
In the filling, Chu Qingzhi did not add much sugar. She did not want to make the mooncake too sweet. If it was too sweet, it would cover up the taste of the other ingredients and it wouldn’t taste good.
There were ten people preparing the dough.
This step was very important. Otherwise, the mooncakes would crack and collapse after coming out of the baking stove, affecting the appearance. Making mooncakes sounded easy, but in reality, it was much more difficult. Otherwise, wouldn’t everyone be able to make mooncakes and sell them?
After the dough was made, it was time to wrap the filling.
Before wrapping the filling, they had to ensure that the weight of each piece of dough was the same. There were ten people in charge of weighing the filling and the dough. After that, they could begin making it.
The next step was to put the wrapped dough into the mold and press it to create patterns. It was very important to smooth out the surface of the dough because no one wanted to buy something that looked ugly.
The wrapped dough was placed on a baking sheet. After applying a layer of clear water on the surface of the dough, it could be sent to the baking oven to be baked.
There was an hourglass timer here. After the mooncakes were baked for fifteen minutes, they would take them out and brush egg liquid on them. Then, they would put them back in to bake for another fifteen minutes.
The baked mooncakes were taken out and cooled. They were wrapped in oil paper one by one. At this point, it was considered a complete process.
There were special people in charge of every step, just like an assembly line.
The aunties were very agile. It only took an hour to make a batch of mooncakes.
Chu Qingzhi made a demonstration first, and then there was no need for her to do anything. The women in the village were all skilled in cooking, so they learned it very quickly.
Chu Qingzhi watched until they successfully made three batches before saying,
“Ruyue, I’ll leave the things here to you.”
“Alright, leave it to me.”
Chu Qingzhi came to the kitchen. There was no one in the kitchen now, so it was a good time for her to show off her culinary skills. She was going to make three things next: sausages, bread, and biscuits. With the baking oven, it was very easy to make biscuits.
She made bread first. The yeast was bought from the winery.
There was also the problem of butter.
On her way back to the village from the capital last time, Chu Qingzhi saw a farm that raised cows. The cows here were all raised by the government and could not be slaughtered. They could only be sold to farmers to farm.
It was a huge farmstead with more than a thousand cows, big and small.
The people of this era did not have the habit of drinking milk. Milk was commonly used by noblewomen to bathe in. However, they did not use much. Most of the time, milk was wasted.
Chu Qingzhi spent one tael of silver to buy ten barrels of milk. They even sent it back to her.
The milk barrels were covered. No one knew what was inside.
No one would touch Chu Qingzhi’s things. The barrels were still placed neatly in the corner of the kitchen.
Chu Qingzhi kneaded the dough and fermented it. Then, she boiled the milk to make butter before adding the butter to the dough and letting it continue to ferment.
During this period of time, Chu Qingzhi prepared to make sausages.
The sausage casing was bought from a pork store and was repeatedly cleaned. The pork was chopped into meat paste. A bunch of seasonings were added, and the meat paste was poured into the sausage casing. It was dried and boiled. After that, it was time to roast the sausage.
It was simple to make, but there were many steps. Chu Qingzhi worked for two hours before she finished making the raw sausages. Next, she had to dry the water on the surface of the sausages. This required some time.
Taking advantage of this time, Chu Qingzhi applied egg liquid on the fermented dough and placed some butter on the baking tray before bringing it to the old house.
The baking tray was a custom-made iron plate from the blacksmith. There were a total of 25 custom-made plates.
When Wu Yaqing, who was helping to wrap the mooncakes, saw Chu Qingzhi coming over with an unknown dough, she couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Qingzhi, what’s in your hand?”
Chu Qingzhi blinked at her mysteriously. “You’ll know in a while.” She walked towards the empty baking oven and pushed the baking tray in.
The baking oven that Chu Qingzhi had modified was very similar to a modern oven. There was a fireplace at the bottom and a baking space at the top.
Wu Yaqing was even more curious. “I know even if you don’t tell me. It must be delicious.”
“You guessed right,” Chu Qingzhi said cooperatively. At the same time, she turned the hourglass upside down to count the time. “Yaqing, when the sand runs out, take the baking tray out. I’ll go do something else.”
Wu Yaqing licked her lips like a hungry cat. “Don’t worry. Leave it to me.”
Then, she guarded the oven like she was protecting a treasure and looked at the hourglass attentively.
Chu Qingzhi returned to the kitchen to make biscuits.
She planned to make onion biscuits. This was the most classic.
Making onion biscuits was very similar to making cookies. First, she melted the butter, added sugar and salt, and stirred it evenly. Then, she added onion, flour, and stirred it. She kneaded it into a smooth dough and used a mold to make it look like a biscuit. Finally, she baked it for ten minutes.
During this time, the bread was ready. Wu Yaqing took it out. Immediately, the fragrance and appearance of the bread attracted everyone’s attention.
“It smells so good. It smells delicious.”
“Qingzhi is too amazing. She made another new thing. Does this have a name?”
“I really want to try it!”
Wu Yaqing held the baking tray and ran all the way to the new house. Her stomach was already growling at the smell of it.
When some children saw this, they quickly followed to see what it was. Of course, what they wanted to do the most was to try it.
“Qingzhi, it’s done,” Wu Yaqing shouted excitedly.
Chu Qingzhi was busy in the kitchen. “I’m here.”
Wu Yaqing rushed to the kitchen. “Qingzhi, what’s this called? It looks delicious.”
“This is called bread.” Chu Qingzhi used a kitchen knife to cut the bread into even cubes. Then, she picked up a piece and handed it to Wu Yaqing. “Try it.”
The bread smelled like rich roasted wheat. It looked golden on the outside and fluffy on the inside. When she took a bite, it was soft and tasty..
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