Chapter 199 Kimchi and Tofu

In the evening, Jiang Xuan brought out a cleaned ceramic jar from the house, put all the clean snow on the reed mat into the jar, and then moved it back into the house.

Because of the fire pit, the temperature in the house is much higher than outside, and the snowflakes will slowly melt into snow water.

According to Jiang Xuan's memories from his previous life, snow water is a type of water that is very beneficial to the human body. It is different from ordinary water.

Ordinary water contains a component that is harmful to animals, that is, heavy water. Heavy water has an inhibitory effect on the metabolism of organisms, and too high a content can even cause the death of organisms.

The heavy water content in snow water is 25% less than that of ordinary water. It can stimulate the metabolism of animals and stimulate biological growth.

Because of this, drinking boiled snow water or eating food made with snow water is beneficial to the human body.

Of course, due to the serious air pollution in the past, except for a few remote areas, the snow that fell in most places was no longer clean.

But it is different now. Jiang Xuan is in the primitive world, and the snow falling from the sky is naturally very pure.

After Jiang Xuan moved the snow back into the house, he took out some vegetables from the small cellar dug in the yard and washed them.

The vegetables he took out included raw Chinese cabbage, root plants similar to radishes, bell peppers, etc.

These vegetables were all planted by Jiang Xuan in the yard.

When the weather turned cold, he picked all the vegetables, dried some of them, and stored some in a small cellar to eat slowly.

Vegetables are less likely to spoil in winter, and fresh vegetables can be stored in the cellar and eaten for a long time.

After Jiang Xuan washed the vegetables, he placed them in a rattan winnowing basket to dry.

He cleaned a ceramic tripod, placed it in the fire pit, and added a lot of snow that had already shown signs of melting into the tripod.

As the flames burned, the pottery tripod became hotter and hotter, and the snow inside quickly melted into snow water.

As snow melts, its volume will decrease, so even though the tripod was filled with snow just now, it became very small after melting.

So, Jiang Xuan kept adding snow into it until half of the pot of snow water had melted.

Jiang Xuan removed the fire from under the pottery tripod, then added an appropriate amount of salt to the boiling snow water and allowed the snow water to cool naturally.

Then he moved out two more jars and cleaned them.

These two jars were kimchi jars that Jiang Xuan had made himself in the past. They have inner and outer lids, as well as jar rims that can hold water, and are quite airtight.

After the snow water cooled down and the vegetables dried, Jiang Xuan began to prepare the delicious food he remembered.

That is snow water kimchi! Snow water kimchi is crisper and more delicious than ordinary kimchi, and has a very good taste.

More importantly, kimchi made with snow water is not easy to deteriorate, even if the method is a bit rough.

Thinking of the delicious taste of kimchi, Jiang Xuan couldn't help but start swallowing his saliva.

He first arranged the vegetables in the winnowing basket one by one and put them into two jars respectively. Then, he added some spices such as wild ginger and wild pepper into the two jars.

Finally, he poured the cooled snow water that had been salted in the pottery tripod into the two jars until it covered the arranged vegetables.

He then closed the inner and outer lids of the jars and placed the two jars in a cooler corner of the room.

Finally, he used a ladle to scoop snow water from the pottery tripod and poured it into the eaves of the altar. In this way, the altar was truly sealed.

"Next, we just need to wait patiently."

Jiang Xuan looked at the two jars, his eyes full of anticipation.

In his previous life, every winter, Jiang Xuan's mother would always make two jars of snow water kimchi, and he would also help out.

In this life, there is no mother to help him make it.

I don’t know how his mother is doing after he left. Is she looking forward to his return to eat snow water kimchi?

"Mom, I'm sorry..."

When Jiang Xuan thought of his mother, his emotions suddenly broke down. Two crystal tears slid down his cheeks, fell to the ground, and shattered into countless petals.

Traveling through time is certainly something to be thankful for, but as humans we are not plants or trees, how can we not miss home?

Unfortunately, we can never go back.

After a long time, Jiang Xuan sat by the fire again.

He is a very strong person. It is normal for him to be reminded of someone when he saw the thing just now. After releasing his emotions, he slowly regained his composure.

Since you can't go back, just live well, or even live better than in your previous life.

The fire pit made a crackling sound, and the flames kept jumping. Jiang Xuan just sat there looking at the flames for a long time...

…

Stone workshop on the east bank of the Teng tribe.

“Ding ding ding…”

The old man Black Stone held a stone hammer and a stone chisel in his hands, hammering on a round stone slowly and steadily.

This round stone is about 60 cm in diameter and 20 cm thick, and is very heavy.

Next to this stone, there is another stone of almost the same size, which has been polished. It has holes, deep teeth, and a wooden handle. It is very beautiful.

These two large round stones put together form the millstone that Jiang Xuan needs.

Old Man Heishi has spent more than a month polishing this millstone.

When he finished hammering out the last grinding line, the old man Black Stone blew away the stone chips, revealing the neatly arranged grinding teeth.

Although he is quite old, Old Man Heishi is still very strong.

He lifted one side of the millstone, looked at it carefully for a moment, and then nodded with satisfaction.

"There's only one final step left."

Old Man Black Stone put down the millstone, walked to the side of the stone workshop, and took out a golden bronze shaft from a hide bag.

Jiang Xuan specifically ordered the people in the smelting workshop to cast this bronze shaft using the lost wax method according to the hole chiseled in the middle of the millstone.

The old man Heishi hesitated for a moment while holding the heavy bronze axle, but soon his eyes became firm again.

"The leader is right. The material is not important. What matters is that we can make good tools!"

The old man placed the bronze shaft in the center of the millstone base, and then knocked it down gently with a stone hammer.

Because the bronze shaft was cast according to the hole chiseled on the millstone and the size fit perfectly, Old Man Black Stone knocked the bronze shaft down without much effort.

Then he picked up another millstone, aimed it at the bronze shaft, and gently put it down.

“Boom!”

Old Man Heishi's skill in polishing stone tools is truly unique. After the two grinding wheels were put together, they fit perfectly without any unevenness.

Then, old man Heishi grasped the wooden handle on the millstone and pushed it hard.

The grinding wheel began to turn slowly, but because the teeth had not yet been run-in, it turned with a little effort.

Old Man Heishi asked two strong apprentices to take down the millstone, and each of them fanned it, and carried it outside to clean it. Then they put it back together and turned it slowly to make them work better.

After the teeth on both sides of the millstone were almost worn together, old man Heishi asked the two apprentices to deliver it to Jiang Xuan.

At this time, the edge of the Flying Fish River has begun to freeze, but there is still relatively little ice and it is still possible to cross the river.

The two apprentices carried the millstone, crossed the river on a large bamboo raft, and then delivered the millstone to Jiang Xuan's yard.

When Jiang Xuan received the stone mill, he was very surprised, because the stone mill made by Old Man Heishi was almost the same as the one he remembered.

The upper part of the stone mill has a wooden handle that can be turned, and the lower part of the stone mill has an outer trough. After the food is ground, it flows along the stone mill into the outer trough, and then flows into a wooden barrel or other container through the mouth of the outer trough.

“So beautiful!”

Jiang Xuan looked at the millstone and pushed it a few times with his own hands. He felt very good.

"Chief, the stuff has been delivered. We'll go back first."

The two apprentices felt uncomfortable in front of Jiang Xuan and turned around and tried to slip away.

"etc."

Jiang Xuan called them over and took out several large pieces of bacon he had made himself, saying, "Please take this bacon back with me. I made it myself. Consider it a thank you gift."

"yes."

The two apprentices took the bacon, then turned around and tried to slip away again.

"Wait a moment..."

Jiang Xuan took out two pieces of dried meat and gave one to each of the two apprentices. He said, "This is for you. You took the trouble to bring the millstone to me in such a cold weather. Be careful and stay safe when you go back."

"this……"

The two apprentices were a little overwhelmed. They didn't expect that just by delivering some things, they would receive dried meat from the leader. They were excited and touched.

Jiang Xuan smiled and said, "Take it back and eat it."

"Thank you, Chief."

The two apprentices bowed to Jiang Xuan sincerely and thanked him before turning around and leaving.

Jiang Xuan's small gesture made them feel very warm, and they no longer felt cold even though it was freezing and snowy outside.

After watching the two apprentices leave, Jiang Xuan looked around the room and finally set his sights on the table made of a huge wooden block.

"Let's put it here for now."

Jiang Xuan picked up the heavy millstone with his bare hands, placed it gently on the table, smoothed it out, and cleaned the millstone twice.

“Try to see if you can grind the beans.”

Jiang Xuan poured out half a bag of black beans, then used a smaller, dry ladle to scoop out half a ladle of black beans and tentatively poured some into the stone mill.

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“Crunch, crunch…”

Jiang Xuan did not add a wooden pole to the handle of the millstone, but relied on his great strength to create a miracle, grabbing the wooden handle and turning the millstone with his bare hands.

Those black beans were ground along the teeth in the heavy stone mill, and then fell into the outer trough together with the skin.

"not bad."

Jiang Xuan exclaimed in praise, then continued to add black beans into the grinding hole and continued to turn the millstone.

He placed a ceramic jar at the outlet of the outer groove of the stone mill, and swept the ground black beans down from time to time.

After grinding half a bag of black beans, Jiang Xuan cleaned the stone mill and then poured the black beans in the ceramic jar into a winnowing basket woven with fine rattan.

“Clatter…”

He kept shaking the winnowing basket, shaking it up and down from time to time.

After a while, the lighter black bean skins slowly floated to the top, while the heavier beans were at the bottom.

Jiang Xuan sifted out all the bean skins, leaving only the peeled black beans.

Then he washed the black beans, skimmed off the floating impurities, placed them in a ceramic jar, soaked them in clean water, and covered them with a lid.

Because the weather was cold, he deliberately placed the ceramic jar next to the fire pit so that the water temperature could be a little higher.

No words were spoken that night.

The next morning, Jiang Xuan opened the lid of the pottery jar, scooped out some black beans from it, and crushed them into pieces with his fingers.

"Almost."

Jiang Xuan nodded. After soaking overnight, the black beans had become softer.

Jiang Xuan carried the pottery jar to the stone mill and began to grind the beans for the second time.

The first time you grind the beans is to peel and crush them, and the second time you grind the beans is to grind them into pulp.

Jiang Xuan placed another ceramic jar at the outlet of the outer trough of the stone mill, and then scooped up the beans with water one spoonful at a time with a long-handled spoon and poured them into the grinding hole.

“Crunch, crunch…”

The stone mill began to turn slowly again, and the soaked beans were ground into powder, mixed with water, and flowed into the outer trough of the stone mill.

Jiang Xuan ground the beans slowly and steadily until all the beans were ground.

After grinding, Jiang Xuan moved the ceramic jar containing soy milk away and cleaned the stone mill.

The next step, however, troubled Jiang Xuan, which was filtering, also known as pulping.

The process of squeezing out the essence of the beans is to squeeze them out, leaving the dregs. This way, the tofu will coagulate into blocks and have a fresh and tender taste.

However, to squeeze the pulp, you need a tofu bag, or at least a piece of good cloth. Where can Jiang Xuan find cloth? Jiang Xuan pondered for a long time, but couldn't think of anything to use instead of tofu cloth to filter out the bean dregs.

Could it be that after grinding so many black beans, we can only boil them all into soy milk?

Jiang Xuan was somewhat unwilling.

He sat on the stool, thinking hard, his hands unconsciously grasping the corners of his clothes.

Suddenly, he touched a material that felt very good, and his eyes suddenly widened.

"Spider silk clothes!"

He lowered his head and unbuttoned his fur coat, revealing the soft white spider silk clothes underneath.

"Yes, how could I have forgotten about the spider silk clothes? Isn't this better than tofu cloth?"

A look of joy appeared on Jiang Xuan's face. He finally found the cloth that could be used to filter out the bean dregs.

Jiang Xuan immediately went to the inner room and took out a new spider silk dress.

He obtained this spider silk coat by trading insect wax with the Black Tooth Tribe, and the spider silk coat he was wearing was given to him by the old witch after the trade with the Black Tooth Tribe.

"I don't know where the old witch is now."

The old witch has been away for more than half a year, and this time he didn't even come back during the winter. Jiang Xuan still missed him a little.

However, Jiang Xuan was not too worried. The old witch was very powerful himself, and with that terrifying giant eagle, as long as he was careful, nothing should happen.

Jiang Xuan scrubbed the new spider silk clothes carefully several times, and then tied the sleeves on both sides.

He placed a dustpan on the cleaned pottery jar and spread the spider silk clothes on it.

Finally, he used a ladle to slowly scoop the ground soy milk into the winnowing basket.

“Drip, drip…”

After the soy milk enters the sieve, a small amount of the milk filtered by the spider silk begins to flow into the ceramic jar.

Jiang Xuan slowly scooped all the soy milk into the winnowing basket, then pulled up the spider silk, grabbed the opening together, and slowly squeezed it to allow the soy milk inside to flow out faster.

After some operations, a large amount of bean dregs were left in the spider silk clothes, while the filtered soy milk flowed into the ceramic jar.

"alright!"

Jiang Xuan poured the bean dregs into a ceramic jar. Although they were bean dregs, they were actually rich in nutrients and could still be eaten.

In this primitive era, even if there is no shortage of food, it must not be wasted.

"The next step is to boil the pulp."

Jiang Xuan poured the soy milk into the cleaned ceramic pot, then put it on the fire and started to boil.

During the cooking step, you need to stir the slurry from time to time, otherwise it will easily get stuck at the bottom and the tofu will have a burnt smell.

After the soy milk was cooked, Jiang Xuan poured it back into the ceramic jar and started to add the braising sauce while it was still hot.

In the past, the methods of braising food were different in different places.

Many places use gypsum to make brine, but Jiang Xuan doesn’t have gypsum now.

But it doesn’t matter, he can also use another kind of brine, which is the sour water in the sauerkraut jar, also called salt brine.

Jiang Xuan made sauerkraut last year. He had several jars, one of which contained brine.

He opened the jar, scooped out some brine with a long-handled spoon, and then tentatively poured it into the boiling soy milk one spoonful at a time, stirring it gently.

With the addition of brine, a miraculous scene appeared!

I saw the soy milk slowly condense into clumps, like white clouds in the sky, very beautiful.

The last step is to squeeze out the excess water.

Jiang Xuan also used spider silk clothes to pad the winnowing basket, then scooped the condensed tofu pudding into it, covered it with a ceramic jar lid, and then filled a ceramic pot with water and placed it on top of the lid to press it down.

After waiting patiently for twenty minutes, Jiang Xuan opened the pottery jar and its lid, then lifted the spider silk cloth, revealing a large ball of white tofu.

“Success!”

Jiang Xuan smiled happily. This was the first time he made tofu by himself, and he was successful. It was really something worth celebrating.

…

It’s the last day of the month. Book friends who have monthly tickets please vote for this book, otherwise it will expire tomorrow.

The charged word count for this chapter is 4,200 words, but the actual number of words is more than 4,600.

(End of this chapter)