Chapter 17 Soy Milk and Tofu Lin Fengzhi returned to her residence, ...

Lin Fengzhi returned to her residence, leaned against the railing, and gazed into the distance.

The breath of spring clung to the branches of the big trees, and tender green leaves swayed in the wind. Lin Fengzhi reached out and caught a leaf that blew in front of her, then glanced at the fields.

The children were relaxed, running around happily by the roadside. The women worked at their looms, their movements practiced and efficient.

To avoid disturbing the women's weaving, the assembly line work for the oblique looms was moved to a more distant location. People lined up, taking over the parts assembled by the previous person and quickly starting their own work. In the fields, some were tending the land, harvesting hemp, catching insects in the rice paddies, and others were planting something on the dry land.

Behind the shady hilltop lived people suffering from schistosomiasis. Although the taboo had been lifted, they still followed Lin Fengzhi's instructions to pay close attention to their clothing, food, shelter, and even the disposal of their excrement.

Hidden among layers of greenery, the unseen gold-panning river must be where the hardworking Keluo people pan for gold.

Lin Fengzhi blew the leaf off her hand, stretched, went back inside, and began refining coarse salt, joining the ranks of the hardworking Keluo people.

It has to be said that she had endured the bitter taste of salt for a long time.

It's fortunate that I have money and connections now, so I can use the coarse salt for purification without feeling bad.

Although the Qin Dynasty did not implement a state monopoly on salt and iron like Emperor Wu of Han, it indirectly controlled the circulation of salt through high salt taxes and resource monopolies. The Qin Dynasty allowed private salt production, but salt merchants generally had to pay salt taxes that were twenty times their production costs.

Salt becomes even more expensive when it reaches ordinary people.

Therefore, the average daily salt intake of ordinary people in the Qin Dynasty was less than 10 grams, and the salt they bought contained certain impurities, far lower than the 45 grams in the Tang Dynasty.

Many impoverished people couldn't even afford coarse salt, and could only buy salt cloth. Salt cloth, as the name suggests, was made by soaking or boiling coarse cloth in brine to create a salt-containing fabric, which was then dried to form a solid salt carrier. A small piece of cloth was cut off and added to food for seasoning when needed.

Because of its portability, even ancient armies frequently used salt cloth.

While it may sound convenient, salt cloths are less efficient at releasing salt, cannot precisely control the saltiness, and taste worse than coarse salt. Repeatedly used salt cloths can also breed bacteria if stored poorly.

Despite its many drawbacks, salt cloth remains the preferred choice for people in remote areas and places where salt resources are scarce.

Because there were salt mines in the eastern part of Yunmengze, the salt was already being supplied to the Chu region during the Warring States period through brine boiling. Therefore, the Keluo people did not use salt cloth much; they used salt that was a grade lower than coarse salt and contained many impurities.

Lin Fengzhi glanced at the yellowish-gray salt in the earthenware jar and thought to herself, "Today I'll give it a makeover!"

She counted the odds and ends on the table again.

Coarse salt, water, coarse linen, wood ash, earthenware pot, charcoal...

Ready.

She poured water into the earthenware jar, which dissolved the salt and also dissolved the impurities contained in the salt. Lin Fengzhi stirred it with a wooden stick until the impurities such as mud and sand that were insoluble in water settled to the bottom.

She then used fine linen cloth to further filter the material, removing larger particles of impurities.

Wood ash is added to the filtered brine. The wood ash reacts with the calcium and magnesium ions in the brine to form precipitates such as calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate.

At this stage, the bitterness in the salt has been greatly reduced. For an even better taste, you can use charcoal and sand for adsorption and filtration, or repeat the above steps multiple times.

While the salt produced in this way still cannot compare to the snow-white salt produced by modern processes, it is pure enough.

Halfway through, Lin Fengzhi began to regret not asking for help. She was struggling to keep an eye on the heat while filtering and simmering the food, and she was quite flustered.

After everything was completed, Lin Fengzhi stroked her chin, looked at the pure, fine salt in the ceramic bowl, and wiped away her sweat. All her hard work had truly paid off.

She felt like she had forgotten something; should she add soy milk?

Lin Fengzhi clapped her hands. She remembered—it was the process of boiling seawater to make salt that required adding soy milk to extract soluble impurities. Salt mined from inland salt mines shouldn't need that, right?

Soy milk.

Soy milk didn't come from anywhere in the Qin Dynasty; they had to make it themselves. Stone mills weren't widely used in the Qin Dynasty, so they had to use a millstone to make soy milk.

After you've finished making salt, you can also make soy milk, tofu, soy pulp cakes, dried bean curd sticks, bean knots, bean curd skin, and dried bean curd – it's great to have nine ways to eat one bean!

Before the Qin Dynasty, the method of making tofu had not yet been developed. The so-called bean rice and huo geng that the common people often ate was actually a simple meal made by boiling beans and their tender leaves.

Eating too much bean rice can easily cause bloating.

Lin Fengzhi thought about it and felt it was quite feasible. It could also improve their diet. She immediately stuck her head out of the window and shouted loudly to the person she thought might be relatively free at the moment: "Qi! Qi!"

The people of Keluo lived relatively close to each other, so when Lin Fengzhi shouted Qi's name at the top of her lungs, it was easily heard by those working in the fields. It was just like when she was a child playing in the village, her mother would shout at the village entrance at mealtimes.

They temporarily put down their work and called out Qi's name loudly to Lin Fengzhi: "Qi! Wu is looking for you."

Qi was at home, flipping through bamboo slips, imitating the person who taught him to read and write in his memory, learning how to be a good teacher.

He was earnest and nervous, afraid of failing to teach well and letting down the witch's good intentions.

He felt obligated to fulfill the shaman's expectations.

He faintly heard Lin Fengzhi calling his name, but he thought it was his imagination. It wasn't until the calls grew louder and more numerous that he closed the bamboo scroll, went outside, and answered, "What's wrong? Why are they all calling me?"

The uncle in the field waved the straw hat in his hand and pointed in Lin Fengzhi's direction: "It's the shaman calling you."

Qi immediately ran to Lin Fengzhi as fast as he could.

Seeing that he was covered in sweat from running, Lin Fengzhi felt a little guilty and poured him a bowl of water.

"Witch, what do you want?" Qi asked, taking a sip of water.

Lin Fengzhi skillfully began to compose: "Xiangjun taught me to make a new dish, and I was thinking of you making it with me."

Qi's eyes lit up, and he said with delight, "That's great, Wu, what should we do?"

However, after the image of Xiangjun weaving cloth, a picture of Xiangjun cooking appeared in his mind in a blasphemous way.

Oh dear, how come the ethereal and otherworldly Xiangjun has such down-to-earth tastes? No, no, it's about helping the world and loving the people, addressing their urgent needs, and showing deep care for the shamans.

Lin Fengzhi instructed him to fetch two bags of beans to soak, and then she brought over some lime herself.

She didn't put the salt away; it remained on the table.

Therefore, when Lin Fengzhi heard Qi ask what was in the bowl, she remembered that it was salt with a very high purity. She chuckled twice, her playful mood aroused, and instead of revealing the truth, she urged, "Try it yourself."

Qi was puzzled. He looked at the snow-white liquid in the earthenware bowl, wiped his hands clean, and picked up a little to put on his tongue. The saltiness was so direct and clear, like thick ink spreading on rice paper. He immediately noticed the difference: "It's only salty, not bitter, and the color is as dense as snow. This... this is salt?"

Lin Fengzhi straightened her expression, adopting a mysterious and inscrutable demeanor, and said in a pretentious manner, "Yes, that's right."

Lin Fengzhi was also pleased with Qi's reaction. His eyebrows jumped dramatically, and he opened his mouth wide and let out a loud "Ah!" He was at a loss and his breathing became rapid.

"Witch, did you make this too?"

Lin Fengzhi nodded.

"It's truly amazing, just like the lightning strike before." Qi exclaimed from the bottom of his heart. Yesterday, he was setting up the Xiangjun dragon procession outside the Xiangjun Temple, but he didn't get inside to witness Lin Fengzhi's divine power. Even just a fleeting glimpse from the outside was enough for him to imagine the wonders, not to mention that the usually arrogant Qu family was bowing down before Lin Fengzhi.

"Do you think we can sell this salt?" Lin Fengzhi picked up the stone pestle that Qi had dropped and picked out the soaked soybeans into the millstone. The soybeans, fully soaked with water, were round and plump, and thick juice would flow out when they were gently squeezed.

Qi completely and absolutely obeyed Lin Fengzhi: "This salt has no bitter taste and its color is as pure as snow, so it's definitely feasible to sell it to wealthy households. However, selling smuggled salt requires official credentials, and since we are cooperating with the county magistrate now, it might not be appropriate to sell salt privately. If Wu really wants to sell this snowflake salt, why not offer the county magistrate a large sum of money to obtain the credentials before selling it?"

He snatched the pestle and took over the task of grinding the beans himself.

Lin Fengzhi also fell into thought because of his words. The textile business had just been set up and was about to become extremely busy. Did she really want to add smuggled salt to the mix?

Lin Fengzhi decided to put the matter of selling smuggled salt on hold for now. If she really wanted to increase the convenience of salt use for the people, she should find a way to increase production rather than purity.

For those who can't afford salt, even coarse salt is a luxury.

"Witch, is this enough? If not, I'll pound it again." Qi scooped the soybean paste, which had been repeatedly crushed and ground into a paste on the millstone, into the earthenware jar, added a handful of soybeans, and continued grinding.

"Yes, yes."

Lin Fengzhi added water to the bean paste, stirred it well, and then filtered it with a fine linen cloth. She then instructed Qi Shao to control the heat and boil it to remove the beany smell from the bean milk.

With Qi in charge of controlling the heat, she finally stopped being flustered.

Amidst the aroma of soybeans and the flickering firelight, Lin Fengzhi recalled her childhood when her mother would make soy milk and ask her to watch the fire. Her mother would put the soy milk on the stove before leaving to run errands, only managing to remind her to turn off the heat once the soy milk boiled. Unsurprisingly, engrossed in television, she forgot, earning a good scolding and a fragrant soy pulp pancake.

Recalling her mother's actions from memory, she kept the bean dregs from the burlap sack.

We can also make soybean pulp pancakes later.

She poured a bowl of soy milk for Qi, who was watching the fire and grinding soybeans, and remarked, "It would taste even better with sugar added."

Sugar was a luxury item. At that time, sugar was mostly made from fermented barley and millet. Sugar production required a large amount of grain, and the output was limited. As for the large-scale production of cane sugar, that didn't happen until after the Han Dynasty.

Lin Fengzhi sighed at the scarcity of supplies.

The cooked soy milk exudes a rich and natural soy aroma. One sip is fragrant, smooth, and sweet, with a lingering aftertaste.

If it weren't for his involvement, Qi wouldn't have believed that hard soybeans could be used to make rich and smooth soy milk.

Lin Fengzhi smiled and said, "There are even better ones."

She calcined quicklime and added the clear liquid from the top to the soy milk. She stirred it quickly until flocculent matter appeared in the soy milk.

Qi: !

Qi muttered to himself, "Xiangjun has such a big appetite..."

Lin Fengzhi tapped his head: "Now we know how to eat."

A note from the author:

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