Chapter 150 Noodle Factory
With the experience of the first factory, Jiangyou built subsequent factories and workshops very quickly.
The second factory is a noodle factory, located in the Witch Forest.
The selection of a site here was something that had been discussed with Lorisa before. Lorisa was asked to help prepare the factory site and manpower. Naturally, it was impossible for her to cross the river and demolish the bridge just because Andre joined.
Besides, the Witch Forest is rich in various wheat flours. Building a noodle factory here can save a lot of money on the transportation cost of raw materials. The products can be cooked and sold at the branch, saving another amount of shipping costs.
The original plan was as perfect as a textbook, so naturally there was no need for too many changes. The only thing that was optimized was the execution - Andre continued to send the troll engineering team and built a square dragon crystal cover outside the noodle drying yard, which was light-transmitting, temperature-controlled, wind-proof, rain-proof, and anti-theft.
The abundant and nearly free supply of dragon crystals was the young couple's lifeline for building a factory and making money. This thing was incredibly useful, powerful, with ample defense, and the ability to transform at will. It was a treasure to everyone except the dragons themselves, who disliked it.
The noodle factory is still built in a similar way to the fish sauce factory. The soul-purifying magic circle is engraved and buried when the factory building is built. However, the noodle factory does not need a soul-nourishing magic circle to cultivate bacteria. It can be directly built into a sterile factory.
The noodle factory is semi-automated. Jiangyou customized a mixer to mix flour, water, salt and eggs into snowflake-shaped dough. Then it needs to be manually kneaded into a uniform, semi-smooth dough. It is placed in a sterile dough proofing chamber with constant temperature and humidity for half an hour to allow the gluten to fully form and relax. After that, it can be sent to a noodle press to repeatedly widen and thin it into a smooth rectangular dough sheet, and finally sent to a noodle cutter to be cut into the appropriate width.
The cut noodles are sprinkled with a little flour to prevent sticking, hung on a clean and sterile metal rod, first shaped with a drying magic, and then sent to the drying yard to become dry noodles under the sun.
The sunlight here in the drying yard is very good. With the help of dragon crystal to adjust the humidity and drying magic, the noodles can be dried in one day.
Once the noodles are dried, the workers will remove the drying poles, remove the noodles from the poles, package them, and sterilize them. One third of the noodles will be sent to branches, and two thirds will be sent on horse-drawn carriages to Eston West City for sale.
While dwarven craftsmen can create all sorts of bizarre machines powered by magic, honestly, that's still at the level of the First Industrial Revolution. Sophisticated software-controlled variable-speed dough kneading is currently an impossible task.
Alternatively, there might be a solution in the Rusman Federation, the land of scholars, but when he thought about the selling price of an alchemical doll there at nine million gold coins, Jiang You felt that emerging technology was not that important, and using manpower to solve certain processes was also a good choice.
——It is affordable, simple, easy to adapt, and can solve a large number of employment problems. How cost-effective!
After drying, the noodles have very little moisture. Wrapped tightly in oil-paper with a magic circle engraved with drying and sterilization techniques, they can easily be stored for three months. Three months is enough time for these noodles to be shipped around the country by traveling merchants.
The noodle craze spread from the Brewing Workshop's main branch and the Witch's Forest branch, gradually reaching the capital, and then rapidly spreading across the country with the footsteps of traveling merchants. Cooks recruited by the traveling merchants and trained by Jiangyou would buy a few shanks, stew them in a pot of broth, set up a small stall, and start selling noodles at each destination.
A pot of broth and a pot of boiling water. When the water is boiling, the chef puts the noodles into a special colander with a curved handle, then immerses the colander in the soup pot and hangs the curved handle on the edge of the soup pot.
He reached the long chopsticks into the colander, quickly stirring the noodles that had softened after absorbing water, then stuffed in a handful of washed vegetables, and turned to get the big bowl.
Two tablespoons of beef broth fill more than half a bowl. Once the noodles are cooked, the chef takes a curved-handled colander, shakes it twice to drain the broth, then flips it over and pours the noodles, along with the vegetables, into the bowl of beef broth. He then tops the noodles with a thick layer of beef shank, pours a little of the braised meat broth over them, and, according to the diners' preferences, sprinkles them with cilantro, scallions, and chili oil before serving.
A bowl of beef noodles, which includes one or two ounces of noodles, one or two ounces of beef, a handful of vegetables, and a bowl of soup, costs five copper coins. If you add three more nickels, you can also get a perfectly braised, soft-boiled egg, which is extremely affordable.
The beef broth is clear and rich, and the thickly sliced beef shank, first boiled and then braised, is fragrant and can satisfy any carnivore's appetite. The best part is the long, chewy noodles, soaked up the broth and coated in chili oil, which you slurp down in your mouth.
As I chewed, the rich aroma of noodles and broth spread throughout my mouth. These noodles weren't choking like black bread, nor were they mushy like oatmeal. Despite being soupy, each strand was chewy and wouldn't become mushy if I finished it within a reasonable time.
The noodle eaters burped heartily, their mouths smothered in the flavor of beef broth, and as they wiped their mouths, a whirlwind of thoughts raced through their minds: dried noodles were being sold at a nearby stall. Each oil-paper package contained half a pound of noodles, enough for five bowls, for only two copper coins. The oil-paper packages weren't large, so a typical hunter could easily carry two or three when hunting in the mountains.
The method of cooking noodles also looks very simple. The chef does not hide anything and just shows it to everyone openly. If someone asks for specific tips, he will even answer proactively. It looks like he really wants to teach all diners how to cook noodles.
Smart people soon figured out the trick: these traveling merchants would not stay in the city for long, and they did not open food shops. These noodles that suddenly became popular were their new products. Once people learned how to cook and eat noodles, their noodles would naturally find a market.
Besides, these noodles are indeed convenient and delicious. The people of Huntington are not good at cooking, but they can always boil water.
Even if they don't know how to make soup, they just need to follow the chef's instructions, count the minutes until the noodles are cooked, scoop them out and place them in a bowl. Then, they can pour the noodle sauce they bought at the noodle stall, mix it all together, and they can happily eat! If they can, they can also cut some bacon or ham, and it will be a delicious meal!
The sauce for the noodles is also specially crafted by Jiangyou. She offers several flavors, including scallion oil, Old Beijing fried sauce, and a Shaxian-style blend of peanut butter and sweet soy sauce. Each is packaged in a wide-mouthed glass bottle, also labeled with a self-sterilizing magic label. Even if diners are less particular, this sterilization magic ensures that the sauce will not spoil for months.
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