Chapter 200 Building a Stove
Their family did not have the habit of eating lunch. Zhao Hu had to get up early every day. Zhang Pingchun would usually get up first to make breakfast for him, and then make the second breakfast after her mother-in-law and Baoer got up.
After that, at most she would make some sugar-boiled eggs or something like that for Zhao Baoer to fill her stomach in the afternoon, and then wait for Zhao Hu to come home in the evening to have a proper meal, so it was common for him not to come home at noon.
Knowing that he would not run out of the canyon and would only play in the village, Zhang Pingchun usually ignored him and told him not to go to the water or play with fire, and then let him go in the wild.
Want to stay for dinner? Sang Yu readily agreed: "Okay, Baoer, if you want to eat anything, I'll make it for you."
"I still want to eat the sweet steamed buns from yesterday!" Zhao Baoer didn't pretend to be polite to her at all.
Although the dishes from yesterday were delicious, his favorite was the sweet steamed buns with sugar syrup inside, which tasted sweet.
"Sugar triangles? I'll go see if there are any left in the kitchen. If not, I'll steam another basket for you this afternoon."
Sang Yu thought he would talk about some time-consuming and troublesome dish, but she didn't expect it was just a sugar triangle.
This thing doesn't require any technical skills. As long as you know how to make dough and have good control when shaping it, you can make a lot of it very easily.
But it’s filled with sugar, so it’s normal for children to like it.
She went into the kitchen and looked around, and there were indeed four sugar triangles left. Fortunately, Sang Yongjing had kneaded more dough yesterday and made more steamed buns and pancakes, so there were some left.
After boiling water and steaming the sugar triangles again, Sang Yu took a bowl and put two in it, ready to share them equally between the two of them.
As soon as she went out with the bowl, the two people who had been waiting at the kitchen door with eager eyes came over.
Sang Yu suddenly had the illusion that she was feeding chickens. She shook her head to get rid of those messy thoughts.
He first placed the bowls on the eight-immortals table, then led the two to wash their hands, and then let them get ready and wait for the meal to start.
There were quite a few vegetables left from the ones bought yesterday, so Xie Qiujin simply stir-fried two dishes, and the family sat down at the table and started eating.
The two children didn’t have big appetites, and after eating two candy triangles, their bellies were already bulging.
Seeing that the two of them had lost their appetite and couldn't sit still, Sang Yu could only shake her head helplessly: "Go play after you're full, and be careful."
The two people who had been eagerly looking forward to going out to play suddenly felt as if they had been pardoned and ran away.
I don’t know where they get so much energy, they can play with any stone or clod of earth with great interest and never get tired of it.
In the afternoon, Mrs. Shi was exhausted and went back to her room to sleep. Xie Qiujin sat in the pavilion sewing clothes, while Sang Yu began to prepare to build a small stove on the right side of the kitchen.
She had wanted to build this stove for a long time, but something had been delaying it until today.
The two pots in the kitchen were totally insufficient. When she asked Carpenter Wang and others to help build the stove, she forgot to ask them to reserve a place for a soup pot in the middle of the stove.
The so-called soup pot is the place in the middle of the stove specifically used for boiling water. It uses the residual heat from cooking on both sides of the stove to heat the water, so that there is always hot water in the soup pot, saving you from having to boil hot water every time you want to drink it.
But it’s no big deal if there is no soup. There are so many people in the family. Even if there is a soup pot left, it is not enough for the whole family to drink. We still have to boil water.
Of course, the most fundamental reason for setting up an earthen stove outside is that two pots are not enough. If you want to make a dish that requires a long stew, you have to occupy a pot.
The courtyard where the Sang family lived had no walls except for the bamboo fence around the gate, and the courtyard was surrounded by mountain walls on three sides.
As long as the stove is not facing the bamboo fence, there is no need to worry about wind protection.
Sang Yu thought about it and finally decided to face one end of the stove towards the mountain wall and the stove mouth towards the pavilion.
First clean and level the ground, then dig about five to ten centimeters to increase the stability of the stove.
The next thing to do is to place the pot and determine the position of the pot and the air duct according to the edge of the pot.
Sang Yu didn't have any extra pots on hand, but there were ready-made pots in the kitchen.
She borrowed a piece of string from Xie Qiujin, ran into the kitchen to measure the diameter and depth of the pot, and used a stone to roughly draw a sketch on the ground that only she could understand.
After the specific location is determined, all that needs to be done is to start building the stove body.
The first thing to do is to build a "U" or "口" shaped structure with stones under the pot, which will serve as the firewood adding opening and ash pit.
The height is about 20 to 25 centimeters and the width is slightly wider than common firewood.
Generally speaking, an iron grate is placed under the center of the pot to supply air to the bottom of the pot and collect the leaking coal ash.
You can also think of it as an iron round dustpan with evenly spaced holes, with one placed under each pot in the kitchen.
However, for the stove outside, Sang Yu did not plan to buy a grate. He just wanted to modify the stove pit and continue digging deeper to the bottom, making a slope that was lower in the front and higher in the back.
When burning firewood, place it diagonally on the slope to ensure ventilation.
Around the pot, reserve space for the stove, and start piling up stones from both sides and the back to form a semi-enclosed structure.
The next thing to do is to fill the gaps between the stones with moist yellow mud and use your hands to shape the mud on the inner wall of the stove.
Sang Yu rolled up his sleeves high, his hands covered with yellow mud, sliding them back and forth inside the stove to ensure the smoothness of the inner wall.
Finally, leave a gap at the top back of the stove as a smoke exhaust outlet. There is no need to make a tall chimney, and the smoke can diffuse out naturally.
After the internal structure is completed, the stove body is built and all the gaps are filled with mud to prevent wind and improve the utilization rate of heat energy.
After wiping the stove surface around the pot, Sang Yu's face and body were covered with mud.
After working for so long, the stove is now completed. I just need to buy an iron pot and put it on top, then fill the gaps with yellow mud to reinforce it. After it dries, it can be used.
She looked at the neatly-made stove in front of her and couldn't help but sigh, "I haven't lost my cooking skills."
A good cook must be able to do more than just cook. A good cook must be able to cook and build a stove, as well as hunt and fish.
Xie Qiujin was concentrating on sewing clothes. She heard her whisper something and thought she was calling her. But when she looked up and saw her face, she felt a black screen in front of her eyes.
"Yu'er! What happened to you? Why is there mud even in your hair?"
Even Sang Xinghao, who was hanging out with a bunch of kids outside every day, didn't get himself into such a mess.
"It's okay, Mom. I was busy building the stove and didn't pay attention. I might have accidentally rubbed it. I can just go to the stream and wash it off later. It's all yellow mud, so it's easy to wash off."
Sang Yu chuckled and rubbed his itchy face on his arm, and his arm was immediately covered with yellow mud.
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