How could a prince be as important as a pig? To get a bite to eat, he had to...

After careful consideration, Shen Zhiwei decided to investigate carefully to find out which part of the cooking process went wrong!

She will never give up so easily!

So Shen Zhiwei called all the chefs in the kitchen together and asked them why the dishes tasted bitter.

The chefs looked at each other in confusion, as if they had all turned into artificial retards at this moment. No matter what keywords Shen Zhiwei asked, they had no way to give her an answer.

Before serving the dishes to the king's table, the chefs must taste them first. After all, they are new things. If the taste is particularly bad, they will not serve it to the table. The king is of noble status, how can he eat food that tastes extremely bad?

So in the eyes of the chefs, the stir-fried dishes served to Shen Zhiwei definitely tasted good. Didn’t you see that Taipu Yang, who also ate the stir-fried dishes, remained calm and showed no signs of anything unusual?

At most, I just don’t like to eat it.

So now Shen Zhiwei's question sounded very strange to the chefs, as they didn't feel that the taste of the dishes was wrong at all.

A cook stepped forward and boldly asked Shen Zhiwei, "Your Majesty, please tell me what went wrong with the dish?"

Shen Zhiwei was stunned by the question for a moment. She was just eating, not a food critic. How could she use specific words to describe what was wrong with the food she ate?

At most, she can only say sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty. Asking her to present the detailed list of ingredients like a machine is too embarrassing, isn't it?

"It's bitter. Not only stir-fried vegetables, but other dishes are bitter too."

Shen Zhiwei held it in for a long time, and finally managed to utter a word.

As a result, the chefs continued to look at each other, unable to give her an answer.

Seeing this, Shen Zhiwei had a guess in his mind. Could it be that in the eyes of these chefs, the bitterness of the food is just a matter of course, it has always tasted like this, so there is no way to remove that bitterness.

All the dishes have the same taste, after all, they are all seasoned with the same ingredients, and it is obvious what those ingredients are.

There aren’t many different kinds of seasonings these days, and every dish must contain only one thing – salt.

"Take out the salt."

Shen Zhiwei's ominous premonition became more and more obvious. Salt is something that people must eat. If there is something wrong with it, how much toxins will accumulate in the human body over time?

She was afraid that the poison in the salt would be pickled into her.

Then Shen Zhiwei harvested a pile of salt that looked like stone, completely different from the snow-white salt of later generations. She took it and licked it, and was shocked.

The taste is slightly sweet and salty, which is really a wonderful taste.

Anyway, it has nothing to do with suffering.

Real bitter salt and loose salt are only used by common people. The Zhou emperor was of noble status, so he must use the best salt in the world. Therefore, she used malt salt, which, as the name suggests, is a kind of salt with a slightly sweet taste.

Shen Zhiwei was shocked. She had never heard of it before, but when she thought about it carefully, it was normal. The living conditions of the ancients were indeed poor, but she was the Son of Heaven. The Emperor was worshipped by the world, so what good things did he not have?

Then why do stir-fried dishes taste bitter?

Shen Zhiwei racked her brains but couldn't figure out the reason. Just as she was about to continue asking, she saw Hu Youan kick a chef, causing him to fall heavily to the ground.

"Your eyes are flickering, you're restless, and you look guilty. Tell me! What did you do in private?"

As Hu Youan spoke, he unsheathed the sword at his waist. The cold blade pressed against the side of the neck of the fat, big-eared middle-aged man, scaring him so much that he broke out in a sweat and knelt down to beg for mercy.

"Mercy, Doctor Hu, please spare me! I didn't mean to withhold the malt salt from His Majesty. It's just that malt salt came with the war effort and is extremely scarce. Very little has been sent to Jingchang from the Northern Kingdom in recent years. This is the last bit of malt salt, and I just can't bear to give it away..."

The case is solved, and that bitterness is salt.

"How audacious! Shameless villain!"

Hu Youan would not listen to his excuses for his own wrongdoing. In Hu Youan's view, anyone who intentionally deceived the king and passed off inferior goods as good ones was completely malicious and a sinner.

Hu Youan immediately wanted to strike the other person in the chest with a sword, but Shen Zhiwei stopped her.

"Let him go. He only used a little less salt. Why take his life for it? Send him home. He won't have to work in the palace anymore."

Hu Youan had acted too quickly several times before. This time, Hu Youan wanted to ask the other party something, so he moved a little slower, giving Shen Zhiwei a chance to plead.

Hu Youan was not a bloodthirsty person, but the royal family was in a bad situation, and she had just taken office, was young, and lacked prestige, so she was ruthless every time she took action, so as to prevent others from looking down on her and the king.

Now that Shen Zhiwei had spoken personally, there was no reason for Hu Youan not to listen. Hu Youan let go of the man, saluted Shen Zhiwei, responded, put away his sword and stood behind Shen Zhiwei.

The man escaped death and burst into tears, feeling extremely grateful to Shen Zhiwei.

Shen Zhiwei felt a little sad. Just because of a little salt, this man who had worked diligently in the palace for half his life almost died.

He was not greedy, he was just stingy. There was too little malt salt, and he was afraid that the king would not have enough malt salt to hold a banquet, so he saved it again and again.

The others didn't even realize that the dish was bitter, not even Taibuyang.

The guards stepped forward and dragged the man away. There was a moment of silence on the scene. The others were like frightened cats whose fur had stood on end. They hunched over and dared not say a word.

"Bring up the salt you're using."

Shen Zhiwei didn't say anything else to comfort him. There was really no need to. Sparing that man's life was already considered too merciful by outsiders.

The servant brought her a small jar. When she opened it, there were some green salt grains inside. Shen Zhiwei pinched a little to taste it, and the familiar slightly bitter taste spread in her mouth.

This is loose salt, not bitter salt in the true sense. It is already very good salt, but because the extraction method is not advanced enough, it retains a little bit of bitterness.

Salt had a very high status in the Zhou Dynasty. Not only in the Zhou Dynasty, but in all dynasties, salt and iron were of paramount importance. Salt in the Zhou Dynasty was divided into four categories. Malt salt had the best quality and was a tribute specially provided to the Zhou emperor.

The next is loose salt, followed by bitter salt, and some other forms of salt, mostly used to entertain guests.

Salt was considered a luxury item among the aristocracy. Common people had never eaten proper salt in their entire lives, so salt could actually represent status.

"The Northern Kingdom dared to withhold the malted salt sent by the Rong Kingdom. Their ambition is not small. Your Majesty must be on guard."

Hu Youan saw Shen Zhiwei staring at the small jar of loose salt in a trance and stepped forward to remind her. She was afraid that Shen Zhiwei didn't know the meaning of this.

Malt salt was something that only the Zhou emperor enjoyed. Whoever took it away was equivalent to taking away the Zhou emperor's power.

The hidden meaning of this thing is actually the same as that of the jade seal. The taste of the salt is similar, but the difference is huge.

Shen Zhiwei was not surprised by the ambition of the Northern Kingdom, nor would she be surprised by anything the Northern Kingdom did. If there were no external enemies, how could she become the king of a fallen country?

"I understand. Besides salt, there is also oil. What kind of oil are you using?"

Shen Zhiwei's mind is now full of cooking, and she only wants to improve the taste of cooking. If she really asks her to eat malt salt, she may not be able to get used to it. What kind of taste does a dish taste like when it is both salty and sweet?

Shen Zhiwei couldn't imagine it anyway, so pure salt was more appropriate.

She was farming outside the city to earn food for herself, and she also made her own iron pot. It would not be difficult to improve the extraction of salt.

Shen Zhiwei is now almost a chef for himself. It is really difficult to eat something delicious.

The oil used for cooking was mutton fat, which did not surprise Shen Zhiwei at all. After experiencing that the salt of Emperor Zhou was specially supplied, Shen Zhiwei knew that the kitchen would not give her lard.

Because the pig farming environment was very poor in those days, pigs were low-grade meat, and only pig heads were useful during sacrifices. The rest of the time, the nobles mostly ate mutton and beef, and occasionally tried some meat from other prey. After Shen Zhiwei came through, every time he ate the meat on the table, he felt like he was going to jail.

The fishy smell naturally comes from the mutton. In that era, there was a serious shortage of seasonings, and there was no experience in cooking. There was no intention of adding wine to remove the fishy smell, and there was no spices or other seasoning. It was normal that the stir-fried dishes tasted extremely strange.

But in fact, pork is the most delicious compared to other meats.

Shen Zhiwei thought that since she was already farming, it wouldn't be a big problem to raise pigs.

So Shen Zhiwei turned around and left. The people in the kitchen would definitely not let her raise pigs, and she had to keep an eye on them the whole time. If they were to let the people here raise them, they would probably have to raise them next to the place where the grains were recycled.

When Shen Zhiwei thought of this, her face twisted. To be honest, she wouldn't dare eat the pork in this world even if it was served to her.

Shen Zhiwei naturally left to look for her right-hand man, Taibu Yang. She asked him for help in farming and raising pigs.

Find him more things to do so that he won't be thinking about murdering this person, framing that person, and stabbing all the other monarchs to death. Shen Zhiwei didn't know where Taibu Yang got such great hostility towards the princes. If you didn't know, you would think that the princes wanted to replace him.

As the main person, she doesn't have much opinion on the princes. Compared with the princes, Shen Zhiwei cares more about pork.

As soon as Shen Zhiwei left, the people who had been holding their hearts in anxiety could finally relax. The people in the kitchen looked at each other, but did not dare to say anything more in the palace. They bent down and carefully retreated to the kitchen.

After that, they didn’t dare to give the king loose salt anymore, but there was really too little malt salt. It could be used today and tomorrow, but what should they do next?

The deputy steward frowned with worry, but did not dare to ask at this moment, for fear that he would be dragged away and thrown out of the palace like the previous person.

Taibuyang had just walked out of the palace when he was called back in. Fortunately, he didn't walk far and didn't have to go through too much trouble.

Shen Zhiwei opened his mouth and asked, "Can Taibu raise pigs?"