Chapter 130: Pork Porridge, Fried Spare Ribs and Fried Pork Tenderloin
At times like this, Jiangyou could even more deeply appreciate the importance of personal connections.
Money is certainly useful, but a sufficient and extensive network of contacts is also extremely important. Andrei relied on his connections to procure sufficient goods, even snatching a few chickens from the nobles... Well, it sounds a bit strange, but in this magical Middle Ages where productivity was somewhat backward and supplies were still quite scarce, the supply of raw materials was indeed the biggest obstacle to Jiangyou's expansion.
——From this point of view, Andre has connections and Jiangyou has money, so the collaboration between the two of them is indeed a perfect match made in heaven.
The cleaned pig offal was also brought into the store. Jiang You poked the cleaned pig lung with his finger bone and nodded with satisfaction: "Start making porridge!"
Pork offal porridge is a traditional snack in Guangdong. There are often rows of clay pots at the door of food stalls late at night. The rice flowers in the pot are swirling up and down, bubbling, while the pork offal is gradually cooked. The red internal organs turn pink and brown little by little under the clusters of blooming rice. Sprinkle some wolfberry leaves and coriander on it, and it is truly a delicacy in life.
The mobile floor stove that was urgently ordered was placed in an open space near the store entrance, where it would not affect the customers walking and queuing. Two half-person-high deep pots were set up, one was stewing pork bone soup and the other was cooking rice porridge.
The ratio of rice to water is 1:10. This amount can make porridge with just the right concentration. The porridge water is soaked with oil from the rice, and it is thick enough to make people feel at ease. It also has enough soup to drink, making it perfect either way.
Due to climate issues, the animal husbandry industry in the Principality of Huntington is more developed than the planting industry, and pig offal is a part that the locals do not eat (or do not know how to eat), so it is almost free - although washing it does require some labor costs, the labor costs of the poor in this era are also surprisingly low.
The cost of making such a large pot of rice porridge is entirely on the rice, which costs two silver coins. Add to that the pork bone soup and pork offal, and you can sell at least 700 bowls of it.
A sample bowl of pork porridge costs 10 copper coins, while a clay pot, holding a little over three bowls, sells for 30 copper coins. Selling this large pot of porridge nets about 7,000 copper coins, or 70 silver coins. After deducting the full cost of three silver coins, the net profit is 67 silver coins, a very high rate of return.
The preparation method is also quite simple. The rice porridge is boiled in a deep pot in advance, and the pork offal such as lean pork, liver, heart, kidney, lung, etc. are cut into equal-sized slices, mixed evenly with soy sauce, starch, cooking oil, and pepper powder, marinated in different categories, and placed in the refrigerator in pots for constant temperature.
When guests arrive, heat up the casserole, add a spoonful of pork bone soup, half a pot of rice porridge of just the right thickness, add shredded ginger, and when it boils, add the pork offal ordered by the guests, simmer for eight to ten minutes until the offal is cooked, then sprinkle with a small amount of wolfberry leaves and coriander, stir, and season with salt and white pepper.
When the ingredients were plentiful, diners could simply purchase a pot of porridge, and the amount of pork offal added to it could be customized. Each pot of porridge came with about 150g of pork offal, and diners could order whatever they wanted until they reached the set amount. If that wasn't enough, they could add another serving for three copper coins.
Jiangyou originally planned to sell porridge in clay pots, but considering that the new product had just been launched and the magicians might not be accustomed to clay pot porridge, he still retained the option of a trial bowl.
A clay pot is always kept on the stove at the counter, used to prepare the tasting congee. However, since it's a tasting, diners don't have much say in the type and quantity of pork offal. The proprietress uses whatever she likes, most likely prioritizing the ingredients with the most excess. Each bowl of congee comes with 50g of pork offal, no matter the taste.
In addition, the store also sells vegetables, which cost 1 copper coin per serving. They can be added directly to the porridge and cooked, or they can be made into blanched fresh vegetables separately, which can be used to add some healthy diet to these magicians.
While offal is high in cholesterol and eating too much can easily lead to obesity, most people in the Magical Middle Ages were still malnourished. How many people could afford to spend thirty copper coins on a pot of porridge every day? Even if they had the money, they wouldn't necessarily be able to get in line...
Compared to fried chicken, cooking porridge is relatively easy. The couple learned how to make it in just one breakfast. However, due to the lack of suitable takeout containers, the clay pot porridge is only available for dine-in, and customers can also bring their own bowls for takeout.
Next are two new fried dishes: fried pork ribs and fried pork tenderloin.
Due to the different texture of meat, more sweet potato starch needs to be added to the batter for fried spare ribs and fried pork tenderloin. This way, the fried product will have a thin layer of yellow translucent crispy crust, which tastes better.
Today's vegetable delivery also included a large batch of sweet potatoes. Jiangyou thought about it and decided to offer three sweet potato side dishes: fried potato chips, mashed sweet potatoes, and wolf-tooth sweet potatoes. After all, what fried food stall wouldn't offer such a delicacy as wolf-tooth potatoes? It had to be included!
The tasks of peeling potato chips, mashing potatoes, and cutting wavy wolf-tooth potatoes are naturally given to Uncle Dimitri. After washing off the excess starch, it is time to boil, fry, and mix them, and delicious dishes are ready.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the snack bar's menu was updated and the ingredients were ready. The first batch of dishes was already steaming hot and waiting to be sold. Xia Li and Dimitri were still busy preparing the dishes, while Ellie, who had no classes that day, was working the counter. Everything was ready. When Jiang You opened the shop door, he was immediately startled by the huge crowd in front of him. "No way, isn't this a bit exaggerated?"
The magicians who had been muttering to themselves, "I can't get up early," had already lined up outside the store today, staring eagerly at the store as it opened, and then couldn't wait to file in.
The magician, who had already confidently decided to order fried chicken, grilled sausages, and milk tea, suddenly saw a series of new dishes on the menu. The names of the dishes were very strange, such as fried pork tenderloin, wolf tooth sweet potatoes, and pork offal porridge - he recognized every word, but had no idea what kind of delicious dishes they would be.
"Whatever, give me one of each." Having already endured the pain of waiting in line for half a day yesterday and not getting any fried chicken, the man had gotten up early and been first in line today, just to have the freedom to order whatever he wanted. He didn't care about the taste, the ingredients, or whether he could finish them. He simply ordered from the entire menu, paid the bill, and happily took a table to wait for his food.
——Hey, in Lich Boss’s restaurant, there are no dishes that will disappoint you!
To ensure a quick turnaround, Jiangyou and his team had prepared a large number of dishes. Dishes were quickly plated out, filling the entire table: bubbling, boiling hot casserole pork congee, fragrant fried food, mashed potatoes smothered in brown broth, and wolf-tooth potatoes sprinkled with red and green chili peppers...
The diners slurred their saliva, picked up their bowls and spoons and began to devour the food.
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