Chapter 73: The Initial Brewing of Soy Sauce (Part 2)
With Auntie Wolf joining the team, the atmosphere at work suddenly became much more relaxed. The quill scrawled labels on the paper while Auntie Wolf passionately recounted the gossip she had heard that day, while Jiangyou lit the stove and began to steam the next pot of beans.
Tomorrow is the Midsummer Carnival, and many honorary members have come from all over today to set up stalls in the witches' villages and squares, which makes Jiangyou recall the scenes of temple fairs in the countryside during festivals.
Because many people were staying up late to set up the venue, the witches hung oil lamps in every corner of the village. The lights were bright everywhere, which made it easier for Jiangyou to work.
While casually listening to Aunt Wolf's gossip, she took care of the stove and the drip-filtered soy sauce, patrolling and working in and out of the warehouse... When the second pot of soy sauce was successfully brewed, the first pot of raw soy sauce was also filtered and could be sterilized and seasoned.
The craftsman lit the stove and poured a jar of filtered soy sauce into a clean soup pot, then added licorice, star anise, blanched straw mushrooms and a series of other herbs... This step can give the soy sauce more aroma and flavor, and it is a secret recipe that every soy sauce workshop will never pass on. These herbs can not only serve as seasoning, but also can prevent corruption and spoilage. They are all the crystallization of wisdom passed down from ancient times.
Jiang You couldn't imagine how her ancient ancestors invented soy sauce. She guessed it had a lot to do with their simple and frugal lifestyle... But how many people's courage, health, and even their lives must have been expended to find one or two safe and delicious foods among thousands of inedible moldy items...
Soy sauce, broad bean paste, fermented tofu, stinky mandarin fish, and wine... How many delicacies were born from this kind of trial and error over thousands of years? The difficulty is probably no less than Shennong's tasting of hundreds of herbs...
She looked at the soy sauce bubbling in the pot, slowly lost in thought. The escaping fragrance turned into a faint soul fire through the spiritual wood and drifted into her nostrils. It was the familiar aroma of soy sauce, which she had smelled all her life, but at this moment she missed it so much.
His appetite was gradually aroused and the feeling of hunger gradually emerged. This was not just an illusion, but also a manifestation of the lich's energy exhaustion after using magic for a long time and many times. Jiangyou was holding the soy sauce soul fire and was worrying about having nothing to eat with it, when he suddenly saw Andre walking around the corner with an apprentice knight.
"Hey! Andre!" She waved her bone claws and greeted him.
Andrei also smelled the aroma of soy sauce that spread ten miles away. He walked over with his men and examined the pot of black liquid that was still bubbling in front of the skeleton. "Is this the soy sauce you mentioned?"
"Yes," Jiangyou said, smiling and opening his bone claws towards Andrei. "I'm hungry, break some."
Andre was speechless for a second: "As you wish."
A ball of white soul fire flew out from Jiangyou's waving fingers and landed in the lich's palm. The skeleton held the white soul fire in one hand and the brown soul fire in the other, as if holding a large white steamed bun in one hand and a saucer in the other. With deft movements, she took the white soul fire, dipped it in the brown soul fire, and placed it in her mouth. She shuddered with excitement and jumped a few times with joy.
"Ah! That's the taste!" Jiang You exclaimed.
She remembers how her family spent a fortune and borrowed heavily to treat her heart disease as a child, forcing her to live frugally for a long time. Her older siblings, parents, and children often ate large white steamed buns dipped in soy sauce, but as a heart patient, she couldn't handle carbohydrates and the salty sauce. Her daily diet consisted of egg custard and bland steamed fish, which made her eyes green with envy.
She once secretly traded food with her brother, asking him to give her some steamed buns to try. To her brother, the buns were bland, far inferior to eggs and steamed fish, but to her, they were a novel delicacy... Although they were both scolded by their parents later, the taste was deeply engraved in her heart.
Fragrant and soft, white steamed buns without anything added but with the sweetness of wheat in the mouth, dipped in the sweet, salty and mellow soy sauce... She will never get tired of the taste, if she is allowed to eat as much as she wants, she will definitely eat several!
Seeing her excitement, Andrei couldn't help but lick his lips: "How do I eat this soy sauce? I'm hungry too."
"It's not completely ready yet." Jiang You smiled, "You go on patrol first, I'll clean up and then go find some ingredients and make you something delicious later."
Andrei had been running around with her all day, spending money, time, and effort, and had only eaten half a piece of hard bread at noon. These craftsmen all remembered that cooking a meal for someone was a natural reward.
Andre nodded and continued patrolling with the apprentice knight.
After the soy sauce in the pot is thoroughly boiled and flavored, it is poured out and allowed to cool. After the final sedimentation and cooling, and after skimming off the scum, it can be sterilized and bottled.
After eating the soul fire, Jiangyou was full of energy again. She cut the labels one by one, carefully drew magic circles on the back of the labels, pasted the edges of the labels with a sticky paste made of flour and water, and stuck them on glass bottles.
Auntie Wolf quickly took over the labeling task. Once the bottles were ready, Jiangyou started the filling machine. She poured the cooled soy sauce into the cleaned tank at the top of the machine, sterilized it, poured it into glass bottles, and sealed them... Bottles of sterile soy sauce, comparable to industrial production, were freshly produced and neatly stacked in a corner, ready for tomorrow's sale.
These steps were repeated several times, and by late at night, Jiangyou had brewed nine pots of soy sauce, and the sealed soy sauce had reached four or five hundred bottles. She stretched, exhausted but full of accomplishment, and surveyed the overflowing bottles of soy sauce that lined a corner, a sense of joy welling up in her heart.
"Okay, Auntie, let's clean up and get some midnight snack."
A wolf and a skeleton skillfully used cleaning magic to wash away the mess in the room: a filling machine full of soy sauce residue, a crucible and a number of pots that were almost soaked with soy sauce, and white gauze dyed brown... Jiang You put those soy sauce residues into a large ceramic jar. These soy sauce residues are rich in protein and amino acids, are nutritious, and have many uses.
It was already past three in the morning, but the streets were still brightly lit, and many vendors were busy setting up stalls and delivering goods. After all, many tourists would come during the day, and everyone wanted to seize the opportunity to make a fortune.
One can always make up for lost sleep, but once the opportunity to make money is missed, it is lost. Furthermore, many dwarves had come early with the intention of becoming merchants, so the place was bustling with activity and noise.
After returning the snack stand to its former state, Jiangyou packed it up and put it in the warehouse. After she and Auntie Wolf packed up their belongings and locked the door, they went out to find food. The two of them walked arm in arm among the stalls, looking around curiously. There were many other vendors, just finished their work and hungry, like them, most of whom were gathered at a hot dog stand, enjoying a bite to eat.
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