Geng was washing dishes nearby. When she saw Miao Wan take out the sachet, she lost her composure. "You're going to boil the spices down? How can you eat something that smells so good?"
This sachet was bought from a Western merchant on the way to exile because Miao Wan had severe morning sickness. It was not a big sachet, but it cost her fifteen taels of silver.
Among the money spent on the road, sachets were the most expensive.
I don’t know if my daughter-in-law will vomit again later. If I waste it now, Geng really can’t afford to buy her another one.
Miao Wan knew that Geng was worried about the money, "Mom, have you forgotten what my grandparents did? The Ruan family's ancestral recipe for braised meat uses spices from the Western Regions."
The original body's mother, Jingyang Earl's first wife, Ruan, who died early, was from a merchant family. At that time, Jingyang Earl's mansion only had a title, and it was unable to make ends meet and maintain its dignity, so the old uncle decided to marry Ruan.
Not only did Ruan bring enough dowry into the family, but the Ruan family's money also flowed into the Jingyang Earl's Mansion like water.
With the help of the Ruan family, the Jingyang Marquis' Mansion gradually improved.
As a result, when the old man of the Ruan family passed away, it turned out that the original scumbag father had an affair with his cousin. When Ruan was about to give birth, he suddenly wanted to take his second wife away, which made Ruan so angry that she had a difficult delivery and died.
Miao Wan, who was only four years old, was left behind and was bullied by her cousin who was brought in in a sedan chair to be a concubine, leaving her almost without a place to stand.
If Miao Wan's maternal grandparents in Jiangnan had not sent people to Beijing to visit her every year, and the Jingyang Marquis's Mansion did not want to be known as ungrateful, Miao Wan might not have lived to adulthood.
The Ruan family could barely protect Miao Wan's life, but they could not control her marriage.
The second wife kept Miao Wan under control until she was eighteen and still hadn't married her off. It seemed that she was going to marry her off to someone else as a concubine in order to improve the future of her son.
The Ruan family had no choice but to write a letter to Mrs. Qiao Geng for help.
Geng's family had received help from the Ruan family in their early years. She discussed it with Qiao Shengwen. It happened that the Regent wanted to use his concubine's daughter to plot Qiao Ruichen's marriage. Miao Wan was as pitiful as Qi Wangshu, who was raised by the couple, so the couple decided to marry Miao Wan.
Although Jingyang Bo's family no longer has to worry about money, no one in the family is an official, so they can only be considered idle members of the royal family. No matter how much Jingyang Bo likes his cousin, he will not refuse a powerful relative like the Minister of War.
Now, after hearing Miao Wan say this, Geng remembered that the ancestors of the Ruan family started out by running a restaurant. Although there was no successor, it was very prosperous in the past, otherwise it would not have been of interest to the Jingyang Earl's Mansion.
She hesitated for most of the time, "Is this the recipe your grandparents left you? How about trying it with half the spices first?"
"Mom, please trust me this time. If you vomit again, I will stay in the room and not come out." Miao Wan said a little helplessly.
She had already poured out the contents of the sachet, which contained star anise, peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, and the common dried tangerine peel and hawthorn, totaling less than two taels. If she hadn't had large bones to make bone soup, it might not be enough for one use.
Although the common people of the Yue Dynasty had already mastered the rudiments of steaming, stir-frying and frying, the ingredients used were only salt, vinegar and soy sauce. The use of spices to enhance flavor in the homes of the powerful and wealthy had not yet established a system.
Anyway, Miao Wan has been here for so long, but she has never seen anyone make braised meat.
Geng was not a mean mother-in-law, and she felt sorry for her daughter-in-law who had been suffering with the Qiao family since she married into the family. She had not had a good life for many days, so she sighed and let her go.
If the food doesn't taste good, the worst that can happen is that she can do more embroidery and ask Madam Zhang to help her buy some new spices from the northern Mongolian merchants.
Miao Wan didn't know what her mother-in-law was thinking, but she also knew that although Geng looked powerful, she was actually very open-minded, otherwise she wouldn't have caused trouble so openly in front of her mother-in-law.
There are relatively few spices. Miao Wan once spent several thousand in tips, but she couldn't even come up with the lazy braising recipe she learned from a live broadcast app host.
Therefore, it cannot be boiled directly with water. Miao Wan first asked Geng to help crack the bones with the back of a kitchen knife, cooked a pot of bone soup, and then put the soaked spices into the stew package made with a vegetarian towel.
Before the pot boiled, Miao Wan skillfully placed the pig offal in batches into the hyssop water in a ceramic pot, added garlic and ginger slices and cooked them together to remove the odor. After about ten minutes, she took them out and drained them.
After the iron pot for cooking the brine boiled, she added a few spoonfuls of salt, poured in soy sauce, and then put the drained offal in and brought it to a boil.
By the time she finished her work, it was already late at night.
Qiao Rui had fallen asleep long ago, and Geng was worried about Miao Wan being alone in the kitchen, so she kept helping her light the fire.
When the marinade was first boiled, the aroma of spices filled the kitchen with the steam. Geng Shi thought it smelled a bit like a pregnancy-maintaining medicine. It was a little bitter at first, but the fragrance after mixing with the broth made her want to swallow inexplicably.
After the cleaned pig tongue, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys and pig intestines were put into the pot, some firewood was added and boiled over high heat, the rich aroma made Geng's mouth water.
The fire burned more and more vigorously. Once the pot boiled, Miao Wan told Geng not to add any more firewood. After skimming off the foam, she just needed to simmer it on low heat for half an hour.
Then let these things cool down in the marinade overnight and absorb the flavor. Whether you eat them hot or cold the next day, the rich and delicious meaty aroma will make you swallow your tongue.
If you add some wine, the taste will be so delicious that even gods wouldn’t want to change it.
Miao Wan thought of the sorghum wine she had bought for her office. It was so spicy, and then she drank some frozen braised pork intestines or braised pig tongue. The taste was...
"Slurp..." Miao Wan subconsciously wiped the corner of her lips. She hadn't been able to eat meat properly for several months, and she was pregnant with a baby, so she was even more greedy than her mother-in-law.
"Mom, sister-in-law, what are you doing?" Qiao Rui, wrapped in a thick cotton-padded jacket, rubbed her eyes and was dazed by the aroma. "It smells so good..."
Miao Wan smiled and said, "Let's make the braised offal. Go back and have a good sleep. We can eat it tomorrow."
Qiao Rui pouted. Although she was small, she was very smart. When she saw a big pot of delicious meat, she would not fight with her sister-in-law and the baby in her belly for food.
She went over and hugged Miao Wan's arm and rocked her, "But I've been awakened by the fragrance. Sister-in-law, please give me some, just a little bit."
Geng was amused by her daughter's coquettish behavior, but then she felt a little sad. Qiao Rui used to be the youngest child in the mansion. She felt that all the pampering was not enough and she had to be coaxed by the servants before she would eat.
I can’t sleep now because I’m so greedy, and it’s because my child hasn’t had meat for a long time.
Miao Wan also felt sorry for Qiao Rui, but the freshly cooked offal had not yet absorbed the flavor and only smelled fragrant.
She fished out the cracked bones and placed them in two coarse porcelain bowls. "How about the three of us chew on some bones? It's hard to sleep if you eat too much at night. Let's satisfy our cravings first. They'll taste better tomorrow after they've absorbed the flavor."
Geng thought so too, but she waved her hand and said, "Then I'll eat something good tomorrow. There's not much meat on the bones, so you two can just gnaw on it."
Miao Wan didn't try to persuade her much, but she and Qiao Rui coaxed Geng to suck the bone marrow out of the bones, and then the two of them gnawed the remaining meat off the bones.
The bones after chewing are placed on the kitchen windowsill and wait for a few days to dry in the sun. The bone residue can be crushed and used as fertilizer for the soil. In the spring of the following year, they will plant some onions, garlic and vegetables in their own courtyard, so they can be self-sufficient.
After cleaning up the dishes, Geng extinguished the fire in the stove, took out some wood ash, and the three of them washed together.
Qiao Rui slept with Geng, and Miao Wan lived in the east room facing the sun. The three of them went to bed with the thought of getting up tomorrow to satisfy their cravings.
The three of them slept together, but the Zhang family next door suffered a great deal.
The aroma of braised meat spreads ten miles away, and it is not just a saying.
Miao Wan wanted to make a business out of this because the braised meat was not only delicious, but also had a strong aroma that was no less delicious than barbecued meat.
Their house was originally made of mud bricks, and the smell in the kitchen could not be hidden at all. It was okay the first time the pot was boiled, but when the meat was added and boiled for the second time, it was really unbearable.
Although this place is on the edge of the town, there are still a few scattered households around.
The other ones are farther away, and you can only smack your lips when you smell the food. You can even fall asleep if you resist the craving.
But the Zhang family is right next to the Qiao family, and the alley between the two courtyard walls is not even as wide as a water tank.
Late at night, when everyone was asleep, the Zhang family members suddenly heard a baby crying in the room of the third son of the Zhang family.
"Wow, wow, wow... I want to eat something delicious, it smells so good!" The baby's voice was unclear, and he was already yelling for food without even being able to speak clearly.
Zhang Sanzhuang and his wife looked at each other, but before they could say anything, the dog in the yard started barking.
When I pushed open the door, I saw Zhang Erzhuang and his wife with their two sons, one of whom was holding another in his arms, also coming out following the smell.
Zhang Dazhuang and his wife were followed by Goudan and his sisters, all of whom were awakened by their greed.
Butcher Zhang, the greediest and fattest one in the family, went even further. He touched his belly and stretched his neck to look at the Qiao family.
If Madam Zhang hadn't stopped him, he would have taken a ladder and climbed over the wall to take a look. If people knew about it, they would have been drowned by the spit.
"What on earth did the Qiao family do? Why are they cooking at this hour?" Zhang Dazhuang's wife asked with a bitter face.
Zhang Erzhuang's wife poked her eldest son's head and said, "Who knows? It's not easy to ask so late. Look at our donkey, it's almost gone."
"Forget it, forget it. Go back to sleep first and get up early tomorrow. Mom, take your sister-in-law and the children over to visit." Zhang Sanzhuang said.
He was the most rational one. He worked in a restaurant in the town and had eaten the roasted whole lamb of the northern Mongolians, so he had some resistance to it.
But Goudan and the others had no resistance and wished they could become the grandsons of the Qiao family in the next second.
The donkey from the second room, who had been stabbed, cried miserably, "But it smells so good, I can't sleep, wuwuwu... Grandpa, how about we cook some meat?"
Madam Zhang: "...It's the middle of the night, aren't you afraid of having diarrhea? Go back to sleep."
After saying that, she pulled Zhang the butcher, who really wanted to cook some meat, into the house.
Early the next morning, Geng had just gotten up and was tidying herself up when she heard a knock on the door.
She looked out and saw that it was still dark. The knock on the door sounded urgent, and she thought, could it be her husband or Ruichen coming back?
Thinking of this, Geng couldn't stay still and quickly ran to the door.
She was startled when the door opened, and she almost screamed with her hands covering her mouth.
Mrs. Zhang brought her three daughters-in-law, followed by five grandsons and four granddaughters, and stood in a row at the door of the Qiao family.
Because it was dark, they were holding lanterns. When Geng opened the door, the whole family looked at her gloomily, as if a ghost had come to her house.
"Mrs. Zhang, what are you doing?" Geng asked in a trembling voice.
Mrs. Zhang was urged by the old man to come knocking on the door so early, and was accompanied by a large family. She felt a little embarrassed and didn't dare to speak.
Her eldest grandson, Donkey Egg, couldn't wait any longer. "Grandma Qiao, what did your family cook last night? It smelled so good that our whole family was drooling over it for half the night. Can you sell us some?"
"Ah? Just the offal that Goudan and his Ada sent over. Whether you want to buy it or not, come in quickly and I'll serve you some." Geng was stunned for a moment, then quickly and enthusiastically invited people in.
Mrs. Zhang and her daughters-in-law were all stunned. What? Drain? Drain from their chickens and ducks?
The author has something to say:
Sister-in-law during the day: I won’t eat it even if you kill me~
Sister-in-law in the evening: It smells so good.
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