Chapter 34: Everything is in order

Letilen's men pulled the empty cart slowly away along the path in the manor. Olivia also turned her head and took the package from the butler. She carried the bottles and jars out of the hall and went to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, the cook was kneading dough. When she turned around and saw the lady coming, she wanted to give up her space on the chopping board to her.

Olivia waved her hand quickly. "You keep going. I'll put some ingredients in. This dessert won't keep for long like cookies. We need to make it the day before we leave."

The cook looked at the package in her hand and asked what dessert she was going to make and why so many sauces were needed to go with it.

"There are so many styles like that. You can learn from them." Olivia carried the package to the cupboard and neatly placed the pottery jars filled with jam, sugar and wine in it. She also locked the cupboard to prevent herself from being greedy.

The cook shook her head when she heard this. She was old and cooked according to her own habits. She couldn't remember those fragmented recipes and methods at all. The only reason she was able to take the position of cook was because she didn't want to bother the old knight when he was here.

"Madam, why don't you ask two young ladies to teach you this skill? Even if I can't do it, I can stay in the kitchen and keep an eye on them for you."

Olivia nodded after hearing what the cook said:

"Then I'll hire some helpers for you in the spring."

The cook has a very clear understanding of herself. She won't take the blame for something she does wrong, but when it comes to loyalty, her whole family has been around for many years and has never done anything wrong.

It would be most appropriate to let her supervise the new cook in the future.

Olivia put this matter in her heart. When she went out to the backyard, she saw Ethan who was very busy.

He was in the backyard, rolling up the old rug from her bedroom and laying it out in the snow. He shoveled a few piles of clean, fluffy snow on top and started brushing it, intending to clean it up before giving it to Lucy.

Olivia thought to herself that this child still had such a lively eye and was efficient in his work.

Some time ago, he made a hand-cranked hammer for Adam and repaired the carriage of the manor.

He took charge of the job and designed it, and the village carpenters came to do the work. They not only re-lightened the wheels, but also installed walls and a roof for the convertible seat. Although it was made of the simplest wooden boards, Ethan also designed windows that could be opened and closed on the walls, and doors that could be locked from the inside.

George also boasted that his modified carriage was more convenient for horses to pull.

It can be seen that he does have ideas in his head, strong hands-on ability, and his considerations are very humane.

After he finished cleaning the carpet, Olivia called him into the kitchen to give it a try.

Ethan rolled up the carpet and put it aside, then asked her if she had any instructions.

"Actually, I think the kitchen is still missing a tool that needs to be made."

Ethan immediately realized that his wife wanted to give this job to him.

"Ma'am, just tell me what kind of tools you want, and I'll find a way to make them for you."

The success of the previous attempts has given Ethan a lot of confidence, all thanks to his wife's trust.

Olivia expressed her needs. She wanted a mixing device like a skim bucket, but smaller than a skim bucket. She wanted the function of the mixing bucket to be changed to foaming. The denser the foam, the better. It would be best if it could be shaken with one hand, not as bulky as a skim bucket.

I don't expect it to be exactly like a machine, as long as it can produce a little bubble so that I can use it to make fluffier cakes.

Anyway, the nobles of this era could not eat any good food. Apart from dry almond cookies, there were cheese with jam and nut paste pudding, which was a state of pursuing refinement and complexity without pursuing understanding.

In terms of taste, these can easily be beaten. It is enough for her to replicate those delicacies from her previous life at a level that is 30% similar.

Ethan immediately understood what she was talking about: "I understand, ma'am, leave it to me."

Olivia nodded in satisfaction and added, "By the way, ask the carpenter to make me twelve new wooden boxes over the next two days. They should be able to hold about a pound of food. They must be carefully polished and uniform in size, and they don't need to be oiled. When they're done, have him ask the butler to collect his reward."

Ethan took the order and Olivia went to the livestock area to watch the healing show of Lucy milking cows.

A large amount of dairy products are needed to make all kinds of desserts.

The two adult cows and two sheep on the farm are now in the initial milk dryness period after successful breeding.

But under Lucy's careful care, the daily milk production is still enough for Olivia to drink milk as water, estimated to be about six or seven liters in total.

Moreover, this figure has been reduced due to the influence of weather.

Normally, Lucy would collect goat milk and cow milk separately in large jars. In such cold weather, they would not go bad even if stored for two or three days, and the top layer of fat would be as thick as tofu.

When the tank is full, she divides the settled fresh milk into two parts. One part is the oil-rich milk on the upper layer of the tank, which is poured into the skimmer and stirred. After half an hour, the milk fat in the skimmer becomes uniform, and can be scooped out to make light cream, which is used in the kitchen to make thick soup.

If you continue stirring until the fat is completely separated, you will have butter.

After the milk with lower fat content has settled in the bottom layer of the large vat, it will be added to another jar to continue fermenting into curd, which is similar to yogurt.

Once the yogurt is made, you can continue to heat it or use tools to drain out the drinkable whey inside, and finally pour it into a wicker mold to shape it. The longer it is pressed in the wicker, the drier the cheese will be.

Then add salt and put it into the cellar to mature.

Most of the time, the manor follows tradition and makes the cheese very dry, which needs to be aged for a long time before it can be eaten. The cheese sold in the town is also this brick-like cheese.

However, even with such a good thing as cheese, people here still only use it to sandwich bread, make soup, make sauce, or eat it directly by grilling.

In her previous life, Olivia's favorite food as a reward for overtime work was semi-cooked cheese. This advanced method of making cheese has not yet been developed.

Lucy finished milking and Olivia helped carry a full jar. She leaned in to smell it and smelled a rich milky fragrance.

This is many times stronger than the water-brewed liquor she drank in her previous life, and the food made with it must be even stronger.

Seeing that Lucy had finished milking, Olivia sent her to the village to find some women who were good at gossiping, and to the surrounding estates to inquire with people to find out whether other ladies would attend the banquet and what gifts they had prepared.

Afterwards, she went to the cellar and took out various wild nuts sent from the Renault Manor. She planned to sort them out in two days, fry them, bake out the oil, and then grind them into powder for later use to enhance the flavor.

Seeing her busy preparing various raw materials for making desserts in the manor, Caesar was very worried that this would make Olivia tired.

After dinner, Caesar sat in front of the fireplace in his bedroom, holding the cloth in one hand and the needle and thread in the other, mending his clothes bit by bit.

Olivia sat aside combing the cat's hair while listening to Lucy come to report the news. Caesar pricked up his ears and listened.

"Madam, I've sent someone to inquire. Mrs. Baskin and Mrs. Toxon are all planning to attend the banquet at the Baron's house."

"Who did you ask? Who did you ask? Did you ask them what gift they wanted to give the Baroness?"

Olivia was very curious to know the details.

Lucy answered these questions slowly, "The carpenter's wife knew the wife of the housekeeper at Baskin Manor. She went there and came back to tell me that Mrs. Baskin had spent a fortune making a silver laurel leaf tiara inlaid with gold for the Baroness."

This was not surprising to Olivia. After that incident, Baskin was planning to deal with the old fox Toxon. Winning the favor of the Baroness was the most important thing, and it usually played a key role.

"What about Toxon Manor and Stewart Manor?"

Lucy then said that she asked Alice to talk to the shepherdess at Toxon Manor and ask what Mrs. Toxon's gift was.

Her family also spent a lot of money to prepare precious frankincense and myrrh. The Baroness was very pious, so giving her these two things was a way to please her.

As for Stewart Manor, it was relatively normal and they had frequent dealings with each other. Lucy directly sent someone to ask the cook of their manor.

The cook at Stewart Manor said that their lady had prepared food for the Baroness, including smoked partridge jerky, which was her favorite.

Olivia immediately made a judgment. She nodded with shining eyes, smelling a hint of interest in this information.

"Very good, go ahead. I know everything."

Lucy nodded, and before leaving, she glanced suspiciously at the knight who was not seriously repairing the lady's pajamas.

Caesar listened for a long time before he felt relieved.

It can be seen that the lady does not feel tired or nervous at all despite worrying about all these things. She seems to be very passionate about these things, just like playing chess, absorbing the subtle pleasure of this back and forth interaction.

But when he was with the Earl, he often saw the Countess busy mediating with a weak look because of excessive fatigue and fatigue.

He thought that someone as capable and energetic as his wife was born to be a leader.

Olivia, not knowing what Caesar was thinking, held up the cat and took a deep breath. She said, "It seems we have a lot to watch on the Baroness's birthday."

And the gift she prepared didn't match anyone else's.

Both the ladies of Torkson and Baskin were spending lavishly, and Olivia wondered which of their preparations the Baroness would prefer.

However, just as she was asking Caesar about his guess, Lucy turned back.

She knocked on the door and came in from behind it, holding a wooden box in her hand. She said, "Madam, this is from Renault Manor."

It turned out that old Renault heard that the Baroness specifically wanted Olivia to attend the banquet, and was worried that she had just started a family and had no experience in worrying about such things, and might not be able to grasp the right measure, so he planned to prepare a gift for her as a backup.

My aunt agreed with this opinion. She took out a beautiful forged and carved wooden reliquary from her luggage.

Lucy added: "The person who came to deliver the gift also asked me to tell my wife why they prepared this gift."

What my aunt meant was that the gift was not expensive or outstanding, and no one would say that she didn't prepare it well.

Olivia could understand what her aunt meant. In this era, it would be easier to act and give people less room for criticism if she presented herself as a devout believer.

She smiled and said, "It seems that my aunt living with my father is a great relief for me."

Caesar also nodded: "Aunt is a smart person."

However, if such a smart person were to be placed next to her, it would be a bit unpleasant. It would be better to keep a distance between them that is neither too far nor too close.

However, Olivia still asked Lucy to go to Renault Manor to convey her plan to make desserts by herself.

Two days before the banquet, Ethan finally took out the small hand-cranked foaming bucket that he had worked day and night to make.

From the outside, it looks like a small barrel about the size of a wine jug. The lid inside can be opened, there is a hand-cranked handle on the top of the lid, and there is a hollow wooden piece under the lid that can be shaken.

Ethan asked Lucy for two eggs to test it, and then installed a gear on the hand-cranked bucket to save effort. He knew that the greater the difference in radius between the wheel and the shaft, the less effort it would save. He also trimmed the foaming wood into the shape of a fine-toothed comb.

Olivia stroked her chin and admired the thing in front of the stove.

She didn't tell Ethan the style and shape of this thing, and left it entirely up to him to create it freely. Unexpectedly, he was able to make it very similar to a food processor, and it could fully meet the functions she wanted.

Olivia poured a little heavy cream into it and beat it for about two minutes. When she took off the lid, she saw that the foam had indeed formed neat peaks.

"Ethan, you did a great job, this is what I wanted."

She was generous with her praise and said that when the dessert was ready, she would give it to him first to try.

Ethan smiled shyly: "Then Adam will envy me."

After he finished speaking, he stepped back and took out a small box he had brought from the carpenter.

"Ma'am, this is the box the carpenter made. It's the style I wanted. It will probably be finished by tomorrow."

This box is simple to make. Ethan designed a pull-out wooden lid that is not easy to fall apart.

Olivia was quite satisfied.

At the same time, Adam also took the iron pot from the blacksmith, which he had re-forged according to his request.

The originally heavy cast iron pot has now been hammered into a wide and shallow pot, and two handles have been added to make it easier to hold.

Although the smelting technology in the north is not good now and the iron pot cannot be forged to be very thin, it is already much better than the original thick cast iron pot.

Olivia plans to redecorate the kitchen after winter.

The first thing to do is to build an earthen stove suitable for placing the open wok, and then to build a more spacious bread oven.

Olivia had watched many literary and artistic films in her previous life, and the spacious kitchens in the aristocratic manors in those films, where everything was in perfect order, looked very comfortable.

There are multiple stoves, a wide worktop, and a servants' dining area.

She looked at the iron pan, thought a lot, and then began to roast the hazelnuts.

In order for the dessert to be in its best condition on the day of the banquet, all the ingredients must be prepared today.

By tomorrow night, we will have arranged everything step by step and pre-processed the necessary materials, such as kneading the dough, making the sauce, stirring the cream, and seasoning the cheese.

Finally, get up early in the morning on the day of the banquet to assemble the dough and then bake it in the bread oven.

As soon as you take it out, put it in a box and load it into the car. This is the safest way.

After the hazelnuts and acorns are roasted and the shells and skins are removed and pounded into fine pieces, the astringency is reduced a lot and they become browned. The almonds are ground into fine powder for making macarons.

She added some honey that had solidified into sand to the crushed hazelnuts and stirred it until it became a scrub-like state before using it.

Next comes the vanilla pods in the exquisite little bottle.

This spice was the main reason why seafaring merchants of this era risked their lives to go to sea. It could be sold for dozens of gold coins per pound, so these two vanilla pods cost two silver coins. The nobles often added it to almond cookies, and they were always obsessed with using expensive ingredients to decorate their own cookies.

Olivia placed a plate on the table, flattened the vanilla pods, cut them open with a knife, and scraped out the black seeds bit by bit, collecting them together.

Suddenly, a rich and charming vanilla scent spread in front of me. This scent gave people an extremely romantic feeling, as if as long as they closed their eyes, they would be in a warm place.

Olivia also ground some sugar in a mortar and pestle before adding the vanilla seeds and stirring them until they became evenly distributed vanilla sugar powder, which can be added to any cake.

As for the outer pods, they naturally cannot be wasted. She chooses to soak the whole one in fine wine to add flavor to the wine, which can then be added to the dough of scones to enhance the flavor.

As for jam, Olivia prefers to make it into a filling, so she added cheese and dried it out a bit.

The day before departure, Olivia took a basket and went into the chicken coop early in the morning to pick up a basket of fresh eggs and sifted a basin of flour with her own hands.

In the evening, I started to melt the butter, boil the milk, separate the egg yolks and egg whites, knead the sugar ears for frying, and do various tasks such as kneading the dough, adding seasoning, shaping, and distributing the dosage.

Early in the morning of the day before departure, Lucy woke her wife up and they went to the kitchen, where she helped foam bucket after bucket of cream and egg whites.

These materials can be added with sugar water or powder.

In short, the lady was too immersed in what she was doing, playing with the pastry dough as she pleased with her hands, all operations that Lucy couldn't understand.

She was dazzled for a while, and Olivia quickly stuffed the vanilla and red wine flavored scone base, the macaron dough made of almond powder and icing sugar, the vanilla honey cake and the puffs into the bakery oven. Fortunately, the oven was big enough to fit two cast iron pots.

The cook did not interfere in anything, but only helped to light the fire, control the temperature, and keep an eye on the time for them.

After a while, the fried milk and butter cakes floating in the butter pan, as well as the sugar ears, were ready.

Olivia tried a vanilla red wine scone with berry cheese filling. The outer crust was crispy and soft, with a very layered aroma. The filling inside had been frozen overnight and was icy cold. The silky milk flavor and jam blended perfectly.

Take another bite of the sugar ears covered with hazelnut crumbs, and the vanilla-flavored fried milk that is browned on the outside and half-soft on the inside.

With each bite, her mouth seemed to be redeemed. Olivia raised her head and took a long time to relax. She almost fell in love with herself.

With just a little effort, this dessert is more fragrant and sweeter than all the desserts on the market now, with a rich and soft taste. It really deserves her name.

The cook washed and dried all the boxes, laid them out, and sorted through the snacks made by the lady, picking out all those that were of poor quality.

The items are in complete condition, and each box is small, with only a few pieces. When you put them together, they look neat and satisfying.

Soon, all the desserts were covered and wrapped. The whole process took no more than two hours. Just then, the carriage was harnessed outside and the sky was getting light.

Under her command, everything went on in an orderly manner.

...