After seeing off her aunt's family, Meng Zhao spent the next few days cooking all sorts of dishes, and even made some improvements to dishes that were missing seasonings.

The Shen family ate Meng Zhao's cooking every day, and the children grew quickly. In just a few days, the two children's complexions looked much rosier, and Gu Shi no longer looked so sickly.

Not only the Shen family, but Meng Zhao would also bring the cooked food to his parents when he went to town.

The two were so surprised by Meng Zhao's cooking that they couldn't close their mouths. Xu Yunrong kept asking her where she learned it, which made Meng Zhao stammer and sweat profusely.

Fortunately, Meng Dashan came to her rescue, saying, "My daughter is so talented in cooking, and I must have played a part in it. After all, when I was learning to slaughter pigs, I was very skilled as soon as I started, and I didn't need to teach her much. My daughter is just like me, so smart."

Seeing Meng Dashan's chin practically pointing to the sky, Xu Yunrong rolled her eyes and began to expose Meng Dashan's secrets.

"Then what happened to that scar on your hand? Why didn't you tell your daughter?"

Meng Dashan immediately denied it, saying that the scar was from a dog bite when he was a child, and definitely not from slaughtering pigs. The two then started arguing about this topic, forgetting all about how Meng Zhao learned to cook.

Meng Zhao gradually mastered how to communicate with her parents. As long as she wasn't overly polite and spoke frankly, they wouldn't suspect her.

Another very important thing is to produce some starch.

Although there are potatoes here, Meng Zhao has been unable to buy starch. He doesn't know if it's because Qingshi County is too small to sell them, or if starch hasn't been developed yet.

For the boxed lunches that Meng Zhao is preparing to sell, starch is essential. It can increase the viscosity of the soup, making it look more appetizing, and it can also increase the feeling of fullness.

Especially when frying certain foods, starch is almost indispensable.

When making starch, potatoes need to be ground into a paste, which cannot be done manually; only a stone mill can be used.

Hearing from Gu that Aunt Feng'e had a stone mill, Meng Zhao collected a small basket of eggs and went to Aunt Feng'e's house with Gu.

As soon as the two explained their purpose, Aunt Feng'e said warmly, "Is it really worth it for you to bring something for such a small matter? The stone mill is right there in the yard. You can just come and use it if you want."

When Meng Zhao and the others left, they asked Fei and the others to take the eggs back with them. The Shen family was having a harder time than hers. Even though it was just a few eggs, they could sell for almost ten coins in the county.

"Auntie, if you don't accept them, we'll feel embarrassed to use them. Please accept them." Meng Zhao quickly put the eggs in the yard, grabbed Gu Shi, and ran away. She really didn't know how to handle these push-and-pull situations. As they ran back, they could still hear Aunt Feng'e calling for them to stop.

Aunt Feng'e looked at the eggs in the yard and had no choice but to bring them into the house. She felt more and more that Meng Zhao was a good girl, and it seemed that she had misjudged her before.

Thinking of her two sons who worked long hours outside, Aunt Feng'e took two eggs out of the basket, intending to fry them for dinner. She would save the rest to send to the matchmaker later, hoping to find a wife for her eldest son.

The potatoes were bought, weighing almost 200 pounds. Several people peeled and cut the potatoes into small pieces, washed them clean, and then placed them little by little on the millstone. They pushed the lever to make the millstone rotate, using the weight of the millstone to crush the potatoes.

During this time, some water is poured onto the millstone to flush the mashed potatoes into the bucket before taking them home.

Filter the potato pulp through cheesecloth, adding water continuously to flush out as much starch and water as possible.

It wasn't over until all the containers we could use at home were filled, and then we just had to let it settle naturally.

Meng Zhao took out some of the filtered potato pulp, added eggs, flour, and seasonings, and fried it into potato pulp pancakes with lard. He had Shen Qingze and Shen Qingyu deliver the first plate of pancakes to Aunt Feng'e.

The two children carried the potato pancakes out, their four eyes fixed on the pancakes on the plate, their noses filled with the aroma of potatoes, yet they dared not steal a bite. They could only hurry on their way to deliver the pancakes before returning home.

When the two returned, a new plate of potato pancakes had been fried, and Meng Zhao gave one to each of them first.

The starch in potatoes juiced using traditional methods cannot be completely extracted, and the remaining potato pulp also contains some starch. When combined with eggs and flour, and then fried in lard, the outside becomes crispy while the inside remains soft.

The two of them fanned themselves with their hands to cool down while eagerly wanting to take a second bite, which made Meng Zhao and Gu Shi laugh so hard they bent over.

Meng Zhao used the remaining potato scraps to make as many potato pancakes as possible; the rest he couldn't finish, he kept to feed the chickens.

Because potatoes are not expensive to begin with, giving them as gifts would only make people want to bring eggs and lard to go with them, which would be annoying. Fortunately, after deciding to sell boxed lunches, Gu got a few chickens and fed them potato scraps. That way, they would grow bigger and lay more eggs, so it wouldn't be a loss.

At this moment, at Aunt Feng'e's house, her two sons were eating pancakes with gusto, their mouths almost full. They finally managed to squeeze out a moment of free time and asked curiously, "Mom, what's wrong with you lately? The day before yesterday you were frying eggs, and today you're making pancakes with lard. What's wrong? Is my eldest brother not getting married?"

Aunt Feng'e got angry when she saw her two sons eating. She shouted, "What kind of wives do you two need? You're both useless. Why don't you learn from Old Man Shen? Look at the wives he married. Not only are they good cooks, but they're also filial."

Hearing their mother say this, the two of them had no choice but to accept it. After all, was it their decision to marry a wife?

But thinking about it, Old Man Shen was really unlucky. He married such a good wife, but she passed away. With this skill, what's a little beating? It's not like he'd lose a piece of flesh. Even if she was fierce, he would still be willing to marry her. Thinking about this, he ate the pancake even faster.

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