Su Qingluan's expression was full of regret: "Because it's a little late in the season, I can't make 'Four Seasons'."
Aunt Zhang frowned, looking very unhappy: "What do you mean by that?"
In her opinion, Su Qingluan either had no real talent and just managed to make a piece of jam by luck, which just happened to please the old lady; or she was greedy and thought the silver note of one hundred taels was too little and wanted more, so she deliberately refused to bargain here.
I have to say that in a sense, Zhang Ma's second guess was correct. Su Qingluan was indeed "greedy" and wanted more, but it was not quite the same as she imagined.
Su Qingluan didn't know what Zhang Ma was thinking. But she probably thought she was just a country girl, and that no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't read her expression. There was no need to pretend, so she didn't try to hide her expression.
In short, expressions of disgust and disdain are like lice on a bald head - obvious.
Xie Zian, who had been watching from the sidelines, naturally understood Su Qingluan's personality and had witnessed her acting skills. Seeing her acting so abnormally today, he knew that she must be secretly planning something.
However, for Xie Zian, he didn't care about Zhang Ma. He was afraid of Zhang Ma, essentially because Zhang Ma served by his grandmother and was a useful old man, not because he was in awe of Zhang Ma herself.
So now he only knew that the jam he used to please his grandmother was useful, and maybe he would be able to go back to celebrate the New Year in December this year.
Therefore, even if Aunt Zhang looks down on Su Qingluan now, Xie Zian will not do anything to Su Qingluan - after all, no matter how useful Aunt Zhang is, she is still a servant and cannot surpass her master Xie Zian.
Xie Zian is now thinking about how to make Su Qingluan his exclusive cook - there are not many people who can cook and make desserts at the same time!
Su Qingluan was not in a hurry - in a sense, being looked down upon by the other party might not be a bad thing for her now.
As if unaware of the other person's negative emotions, Su Qingluan continued to maintain that "uninformed country girl" air: "Hey, Aunt Zhang, you know, wild fruits are different from fruits in the garden. When it comes to blooming and fruiting, the time is almost the same. If it were a wild fruit, it would still be raw here, but ripe there."
Aunt Zhang is not a lazy person who doesn't know how to work. After all, she has climbed up step by step from being a maid.
She knew Su Qingluan was right. The difference in light and temperature in the mountains was significant, even as great as a season. Even within the same area, the same wild fruit tree would bear fruit at different times on the sunny and shady sides.
Aunt Zhang asked calmly, "Even if that's the case, so what?"
"It's nothing," Su Qingluan waved her hand. "Even though they are all wild fruits, the fragrance and taste of each fruit at different stages of maturity are slightly different. Especially for the nobles in the capital, their tastes must be more sensitive than each other due to the delicacies from the mountains and the sea!"
Su Qingluan looked up at Aunt Zhang and said, "For example, a noble lady like you can definitely taste it more clearly than us country folk."
No one dislikes compliments, and Aunt Zhang is no exception. Although she sternly said, "How can an old woman be treated like the master?", her previous expression of disgust and disdain for Su Qingluan had visibly faded.
Su Qingluan noticed the change in the other person's expression and continued, "We don't understand what taste is, but our eyesight is pretty good. So each jam is made from a specific type of wild fruit at a specific maturity, so the taste of the jam is naturally different - and to ensure the taste, we will also give it to those with keen palates to taste."
Of course, the people who "tasted" the new products were mainly family members. But since we want to "expand the industry chain," it's not impossible to hire specific people to do the "tasting"—but they have to be people with a really keen sense of taste.
"Because of this, each jam is unique. It needs to be made quickly, taking advantage of the short ripening period of the fruit. If you miss this period, it will naturally be gone. The main ingredient for the jam used in Four Seasons is already overripe during this period."
Overripe fruits are of course edible, but because they are too sweet, some have even fallen off the branches naturally. Therefore, unless you are a person who particularly likes sweet things, it is impossible to add too much sugar to them for flavoring or as a preservative. Naturally, their audience is not as good as that of sweet and sour fruits.
But what is ripening now is another kind of wild fruit.
"If Aunt Zhang wants me to make a new jam, that's fine. But if you want to make the 'Four Seasons' series, I'm afraid we'll have to wait until late summer next year."
Therefore, if you want to taste the same "Four Seasons" dish, you may have to wait for a year - this is what Su Qingluan meant in her words.
Su Qingluan is so reluctant, is it really impossible for her to create the "Four Seasons"?
How is that possible! Just now, I said that the ripening period of wild fruits spans a wide range. Su Qingluan believed that as long as she looked carefully, she would naturally find fruits that were as ripe as the wild fruits she had found nearly a month ago. After all, it was only a dozen or twenty days apart, and the same kind of fruits could definitely be found in the shade.
However, she didn't intend to look for it.
The reason is simple: as the saying goes, "scarcity makes things valuable." What delicacies haven't the wealthy in the capital seen and tasted? So, the rarer the ingredients, even if they aren't particularly delicious, the more they'll boast about them to show off their wealth.
For example, in her previous life, Su Qingluan's master often flew her to various parts of the world to taste authentic delicacies so that she could taste authentic delicacies from all over the world - not only common ingredients, but also unpopular ingredients.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
