The dough had only been in Fu Yuchi's hands for about half an incense stick's time when it was already able to be stretched into a thin white film.
"That's enough, Master."
Sun Miao'er's arms ached slightly when she saw the kneaded dough, but her master's face showed no sign of strain.
After kneading the dough, cover it with a cloth and place it in a slightly warm place to let it ferment for a while. While the dough was fermenting, Sun Miao'er began to prepare the filling.
Take one pound of beef and half a pound of pork, mince them into a paste, add four eggs, drizzle with seasonings, and then pound the meat mixture by hand until it becomes firm.
Once the dough has fermented, divide each dough ball into equal-sized rounds, flatten them slightly, brush them evenly with egg wash, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. The white dough is covered with a golden hue, making it look very tempting.
Since there was no oven, she could only use a stove instead. However, the temperature of the stove was difficult to control, so Sun Miao'er had to heat up the stove first to achieve the same preheating process as when making the guokui (a type of flatbread).
After the dough is prepared, it is placed in a sealed oven for baking.
The bread is in the oven, and it's time to put the meat filling in the pan.
A thin layer of oil was spread in a large, dark pot. After the minced meat was pounded and kneaded until it became elastic, it was easy to knead it into a small meatball. Then, the small meatball was flattened with the palm of the hand, and a meat patty was made.
Once the oil in the pan is hot, place the meat patties on it. The pan immediately sizzles and the aroma of meat fills the entire kitchen. After one side of the meat patties turns golden brown, flip them over and continue frying.
Xiaoman really couldn't figure out what her sister was up to this time. She just thought the meat pie smelled delicious and couldn't wait to take a bite.
"Wait, it's not ready to eat yet. We can eat it after the dough is baked."
After another half an incense stick's time, Sun Miao'er extinguished the fire under the stove, opened the stove, and the dough inside had been baked to an enticing golden brown. Because the heat was well controlled, although it was her first time trying it, it was not burnt. Instead, it had a rich, sweet milky aroma.
Still craving meat pies? The freshly baked dough balls over there dazzled Xiaoman, and even Xiaoning, who was usually reserved when it came to food, couldn't help but glance at them and whisper, "Sister, what's this?"
"This?" Sun Miao'er picked up a piece of dough with tongs. "It's called bread. We'll eat it with the meat pie later."
Sun Miao'er cut the bread horizontally in half, making it into two pieces, then took out the meat patty from the pot and sandwiched it between the two pieces of bread.
Lacking any sauce, she had a brilliant idea: she thickened the juices from frying the meat to a consistency similar to sauce, and finally added some crisp vegetable leaves inside.
"Here, one for Xiaoning, one for Xiaoman. Remember, this is called a bun with meat in it, it's called a hamburger."
Fu Yuchi watched quietly from the side, and after a long while, he finally couldn't help but say, "I kneaded the dough for you for so long with great effort. Even if I didn't get credit, I still deserve some credit. Why didn't I get credit?"
"Master, look at you, what's the rush?" Sun Miao'er picked out two meat patties from the pot and placed them between the bread rolls. "They are children, and you are an adult, so naturally you should eat more. Look, these two pieces of meat were specially saved for you, weren't they?"
Fu Yuchi reached out to take the hamburger, "Then I'll reluctantly give it a try."
He then took a bite.
Although he didn't say it was delicious, his expression betrayed him.
He simply said, "Hmm, not bad."
Xiao Ning and Xiao Man devoured a hamburger in no time, both looking like they wanted more. "Sister, the hamburger was so delicious! Even the pastry shops in the city can't make anything this good!"
Sun Miao'er made the remaining meat patties into hamburgers, wrapped them in brown paper, and instructed her servants to deliver them to the Wang family and the county magistrate's residence.
The next day, instead of serving meals, she replaced the fast food with hamburgers, which received unanimous praise. Everyone who tried the hamburgers raved about them.
Hamburgers are convenient to eat and can be carried around, unlike regular meals which spill soup everywhere.
After working hard for so many days, things have finally started to look promising. There's a shop next to Xianwei Restaurant in the city that's up for sale. Sun Miao'er went to take a look during the day, and the location is excellent, almost exactly what she wanted.
However, a disagreement arose when negotiating the price with the original shopkeeper.
"Manager Ding, can't you lower the price a bit more?" Manager Ding was the original owner of this shop, which used to be a jade business. He was from Pizhou, but now he was selling it because he didn't want to continue the business in Yingzhou.
The jade business is a big business, often involving hundreds or thousands of taels of silver. Therefore, Manager Ding asked for an exorbitant rent of five hundred taels of silver per month.
The rent alone would amount to six thousand taels a year. You have to understand that Sun Miao'er got the shop in Pingting Cloth Shop without spending a single penny. Now she has to spend real money to rent a shop, which is a bit painful.
Although 50,000 taels is a lot, the money is currently only in her hands and she will have to pay it back in the future, so she has to be careful with every penny she spends.
"Of course, Manager Sun. I've heard that you're a heroine in Pingnan City, a woman with good judgment. You can see that my shop has good feng shui, unlike others. If you don't want to take it over, there's a long line of people waiting to take it over!" Manager Ding was an old fox. He wore a pair of glasses and had difficulty reading, but he was very good at calculating.
Sun Miao'er wanted to haggle with Manager Ding again, but she couldn't resist his persistent pleading. Manager Ding didn't waver at all. There was no way to catch a wolf without risking your cub. If he couldn't even afford this little bit of money, how could he expect to make a lot of money?
“Alright, tomorrow at 9:00 AM, we’ll exchange money and the contract.” Sun Miao’er gritted her teeth and agreed.
Sun Miao'er returned to the shop, intending to avoid touching the 50,000 taels of silver notes for the time being. When she arrived at the accounting office, Lu Huan was sitting inside doing the accounts. She greeted him, "Second Uncle, how much silver can our shop currently have?"
Lu Huan stopped using his abacus and asked, "Miao'er, what's wrong?" "I want to check the shop again and examine the silver in the store."
Since Lu Huan took over the store's accounts, Sun Miao'er rarely did the accounting herself anymore. Only occasionally, when the amount was large, would she check the ledger herself. Fortunately, they all matched up. Later, she handed over all the accounts to Lu Huan.
Lu Huan flipped through the ledger, and after a thorough accounting, said, "The shop can currently produce 1,500 taels."
"Fiveteen hundred taels?"
Sun Miao'er was secretly startled. She realized that she had unknowingly earned more than a thousand taels of silver. However, compared with fifty thousand taels, this amount was just a drop in the ocean. There were too many people ahead of her. She couldn't even catch up with Ji Changru, let alone Hu Tingzhi!
"Take everything out."
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