Chapter 75 Honey Fried Cherries

When Wen Zhenyi saw him bring in a full jar of honey and a jar of sugar, he said, "That's enough."

She found the two largest clay pots in the house and asked the servant to help clean them. She carried the small stove to the yard and asked the servant to help light a fire.

Pour in the pitted cherries. Two pounds of cherries require four ounces of sugar, and so on. She added the appropriate amount of sugar and began to stir slowly.

Use medium heat to melt the sugar, then turn to low heat and cook for two cups of tea. Stir it from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the pan.

When the time is up, scoop up the cherries with a strainer and press them gently with a spoon to squeeze out excess juice.

Everyone in the yard gathered around to watch her fish out the cherries. "Is it ready?"

"It's still early, how can it be so fast?" Wen Zhenyi poured the cherry juice in the pot into a clean basin.

She poured the cherries into the pot again and added the same amount of sugar, but this time added more honey. Again, two pounds of cherries were added with two ounces of honey, and so on.

“Grandpa Shen, please help me turn the pot over, don’t let it stick to the pot.”

Shen Xiucai came over immediately: "Okay, okay, I'll do it. How long will it take?"

"A cup of tea will do."

Wen Zhenyi brought the cherry juice into the kitchen, scooped some out with a spoon, added boiled water, and asked the servant to put it in a basket and hang it in the well.

When she came out, the timing was just right. She used a colander to drain the excess syrup and put the cherries back into the pot. This time, she only added honey and stir-fried it for a cup of tea to thicken the syrup.

She used a colander to scoop out the cherries and filter out the excess sugar juice. Seeing that the sun was very strong today, she simply put them on a colander and dried them in the sun.

The people in the yard, smelling the aroma of sugar, honey, and cherry in the yard, now swallowed unconsciously when they saw the amber cherries on the colander.

Song Huanhuan looked at the cherries on the colander and said, "They look delicious."

Wen Zhenyi pretended not to hear what she said and asked the servant to continue repeating what they had just done. He turned to look at the others and asked, "Have you finished removing the cherry pits?"

A few people realized that most of their cherries had not been pitted yet, so they could only sit back on the stools and stare at the cherries in the basket.

The maid next to them wanted to help, but was stopped by them: "Go help Miss Wen, don't come here and get in my way."

The maid walked over to Wen Zhenyi with a helpless look on her face: "Miss Wen, what can we do?"

"Pull out the basket hanging in the well and serve a bowl to everyone in the yard. Drink one bowl for yourselves too." The maids looked at each other and asked, "Do we have some too?"

"There's so much, we can't finish it. Aren't we still doing it later?"

The maid nodded quickly and pulled the basket out of the well, went to the kitchen to get a bowl, and filled a bowl of cherry juice for each person.

Lei Jiayang wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve: "This weather is too hot."

"Master." The maid brought him a bowl of cherry juice.

Lei Jiayang looked at the contents of the bowl, a little puzzled: "Isn't this the sugar water that was just drained out?"

"Well, Miss Wen asked me to bring it to you."

Lei Jiayang felt sick just thinking about all that candy, but since it was someone else's kindness, he felt embarrassed to refuse, so he could only pick it up and take a sip.

Just one sip dissipated half of the heat in his body. It was slightly sour, a little sweet, and a little cool. The taste was really good. He tilted his head back and drank the whole bowl of cherry juice.

The others did the same and couldn't help licking their lips.

Lei Yingying looked at the empty bowl and turned to ask the maid, "Are there any more?"

"Yes, I'll go get Miss another bowl."

Wen Zhenyi looked at them and said, "Drink less, or you won't be able to eat soon."

When Old Lady Wen and the others came back, they were dumbfounded. Why were there so many people in this house?

Mr. Cheng hurriedly stood up and said, "Madam Wen, I'm sorry to bother you today."

Mrs. Wen finally came to her senses and said, "Mr. Cheng, you're too polite. How come you have time to come to my house today?"

"I happened to be passing by while checking on the property, and I saw my son and his friends helping out here, so I came over to help."

Meng Caidie, Lei Yingying, and Song Huanhuan stepped forward and saluted generously: "Grandma Wen, we are friends of Miss Wen, and we are here to play with her today."

Wen Zhen raised his eyebrows and looked at them. "This is the first time I meet you today. When did I become your friend? You guys are so good at taking advantage of others."

Lei Jiayang and the others also stepped forward and saluted: "We are here to accompany my sister."

"Okay, okay, you're all good kids. It's rare for Yi Yi to have a few friends. If you don't mind, you can stay at home for dinner today."

"I don't mind, I don't mind. Thank you, Grandma Wen."

Wen Yongnan came in carrying something and walked to Wen Zhenyi's side: "What's going on?"

"It's a long story, brother, can you buy everything I want?"

"I bought it, but it seems I can only entertain them today."

"There's nothing we can do about it. Let's go out and buy it tomorrow."

"By the way, today Hu Zi's family, Mantou's family, Gou Sheng's family, and Ben Ben's family all knew that we rented a shop, and they went to help clean the shop. Grandma invited them to come to our house for dinner."

Wen Zhenyi blinked his eyes and said, "It seems that there are many people eating today. We don't have enough tables and chairs at home. We need to borrow some."

"I'll go borrow it from their house later."

Wen Zhenyi went to the kitchen and took out a lot of cherry juice: "Brother, give this to them later and let them mix it with boiled water."

Wen Yongnan looked at these things and asked, "What is this?"

"Cherry juice."

Wen Yongnan nodded: "I'll go now. There may not be enough dishes and chopsticks at home. I'll borrow some more."

Wen Zhen nodded.

Zhu Tao was a little nervous. Seeing so many people, she didn't know what to do.

Wen Zhenyi looked at her and waved, "Little Peach."

When Zhu Tao heard her calling him, he ran over as if relieved of a heavy burden: "Miss."

Wen Zhenyi frowned slightly: "What did you call me?"

"Miss, is there something wrong?"

"Who told you to call me that?"

"Isn't this what being a maid is called?" Zhu Tao grabbed her patched clothes uneasily.

Wen Zhenyi looked at her with her head down, not daring to look at him: "Xiao Taozi, I just helped you pay for selling your body. Now you have to work hard to make money to pay me back, and then you will still be your own master."

Zhu Tao looked up at her, her face full of surprise: "You, you want to buy me as a servant?"

"What kind of family would we hire someone? I just wanted to hire a helper, and I happened to meet you."

"But ten taels of silver is not a small amount."

"You also know that it's not a small amount, right?"

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Here is some basic knowledge for you: honey-fried cherries are recorded in "Shilin Guangji" - Southern Song Dynasty by Chen Yuanliang.

In ancient times, cherries were available earlier than other fruits, and they were also considered to be a taste of freshness. Since ancient times, they have been regarded as an essential offering in sacrifices to the royal ancestral temple.

By the Tang Dynasty, cherry banquets became popular among the upper class.

One type of cherry banquet was organized and hosted by the royal family, inviting ministers to the imperial cherry orchard to drink and have fun, enjoying freshly ripe cherries.

The other type is the "Jinshi Cherry Banquet", which is a grand event exclusively for new Jinshi, because the day when the imperial edict is announced coincides with the time when cherries are ripe.

The Cherry Banquet was not well received by the Jinshi scholars in the Song Dynasty. Although the Cherry Banquet was something people longed for, no one held it on a large scale.

The above content comes from "Song Banquet". Friends who are interested can go and have a look.