Chapter 197 Chapter 197 Update.
Because the food inspector will come to test the food tomorrow, Xiao Hulu and Tong'er were so excited that they didn't sleep all night and went to the pastry and bait room to work early in the morning.
There were two keys to this secondary room, one with Ji Xu and the other given to Xiao Hulu. Xiao Hulu felt like he had obtained a treasure. He tied a red string around his neck and never took it off even when he slept. When he got here, he first fetched water and lit the fire in the stove.
Not long after, Ji Xu also arrived. She first took the seal to the guide's office and got flour, cured ham, shallots, sesame and other things.
Zhou Ping was picking osmanthus flowers, chestnuts and the like. When he saw her, he turned his face away. After all, she was a lower rank than Ji Xu, and although she was angry, she did not dare to criticize her to her face.
At the time of Chen, two food inspectors brought documents to the Tang official's office, to supervise the cakes and dumplings that Ji Xu and Zhou Ping had prepared respectively.
During this supervision process, the clerk must start recording from the first step, including what ingredients were used, how much was used, what the final appearance was, and how it tasted.
Therefore, Ji Xu could not make yeast for bread last night. He had to wait until others came before starting. He would not hide anything from the food inspector.
After Ji Xu washed her hands, she started by getting water to urinate. She placed the copper basin on the stove, which was kept at a certain temperature, and said:
"It's snowing outside and the weather is cold. I'll put the yeast here to keep it warm. It probably won't be ready until evening. Mr. Food Supervisor, please watch me prepare the ham and shallots first."
However, processing other ingredients does not require working from morning to evening, so everyone in the room is waiting for the yeast to form.
The food inspector went to eat lunch and handle other official business during the trip, leaving a clerk here to guard the place.
Looking next door, Zhou Ping's osmanthus chestnut cake was ready before noon and he handed it to the food inspector. The food inspector tasted it, found it soft and sweet, and nodded.
When Zhou Ping was seeing someone off, he passed by the next door and saw the clerk still holding the bamboo book by the stove, saying:
"What a rare thing! The clerk is so tired that he can't even eat lunch. Humph, horsetail skewers with tofu, a commodity that can't be lifted, it's just a waste of work."
Little Gourd said angrily with his hands on his hips:
"You have such a mean tongue! Don't underestimate me! It's not certain whose cakes and dumplings will be written on the bamboo plaques!"
"You silly girl, you dare to argue with me? Don't think I won't hit you just because we're in a new place."
"Ji Shanren, you're back!"
Little Gourd called out to her from behind, and when she turned around, he closed the door and said,
"I am no longer your aunt's wife. If you dare to offend me again, I will tell Ji Shanren. She is a higher official than you and will punish you for me."
Zhou Ping rolled up his sleeves and tried to catch her, but was called back by Hua Shanren, who said something to her:
"You are an official now, why are you still angry with a little girl? Aren't you afraid of losing your status?"
Inside the door, Little Gourd was surrounding the clerk and saying nice things:
"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you. However, this is only the first time the young lady has gotten into the sedan chair, so I want you to record it. We won't have to trouble you in the future. We, Ji Shan, will remember your kindness."
Because these are new dishes, they need to be recorded. If there are no problems, the food inspectors will not have to monitor them all the time in the future. They will just have to prepare the food for tasting and conduct random inspections occasionally.
As he was speaking, Ji Xu came back with a lunch box containing lunch he had taken from the government office.
Although they were cooks, they used only the finest flour and grains, and rare fruits and vegetables from outside, which were supplied to the imperial family. There were limits on what they could take and use, and they could not eat them secretly except for enjoying them.
The three meals a day for these food officials were prepared by the kitchen of the Shaofu. Officials from all over the government office got their meals there. The standards varied according to their official ranks.
Kitchen maids are of the lowest rank. Recently, they only had one wheat crumb cake for lunch. Tong'er also brought back the one that belonged to Xiaohulu.
Ji Xu helped to get the clerk's lunch back, returned his seal to him, and took out two identical meals from the lunch box: a bowl of wheat rice, a meat soup, and a stewed radish.
The meat soup was quite substantial, with pieces of meat as big as fingers. When she was a cook, she only had meat once every five days, so Tian made some meat sauce for her to mix with the rice.
This time when she returned home, Tian prepared several more meat dishes and packed them in her bag. She got up in the middle of the night on her day off to make them last longer.
She also brought the can of fried meatballs and gave some to the clerk.
"Try it, Mr. Clerk. My mother made it."
"Thank you very much."
He then divided it among Little Gourd and Tong'er, and gave them some of the wheat rice in his bowl. Their bread was made of coarse wheat crumbs, so naturally it couldn't taste as good as the wheat rice.
"I can't eat all this, you guys should eat some too."
Originally there was only one wheat crumb cake, which could only fill them half full, but now there were meatballs and wheat rice, and the two of them were particularly satisfied with the meal.
A few days ago, I ate the stewed lamb made by Ji Shanren’s mother. The one with soup was so delicious that I ate it first.
After lunch and conversation, they became closer.
At dusk, the food inspector returned. When he opened the copper basin, a sour smell shot straight into his nostrils. The inspector had seen a lot, so he didn't say the sour smell meant it was spoiled. Instead, he said, "I've smelled sour smells in flour and koji when I was inspecting, but this is the first time I've seen it in flour. It has this sour smell, so it's no wonder it's called cake yeast. You picked a good name."
There was no boredom of waiting, but rather a sense of anticipation, saying:
"How do you use this leaven?"
Ji Xu took some of the noodles and let them sit. The dough expanded twice in size in the basin and became full of air holes.
She kneaded the dough until it was smooth, then used a rolling pin to roll it out and flatten it, then sprinkled diced ham and shallot segments on it.
Brush it with the meat sauce made during the day, pinch it from the edge, roll it into a long roll, and then cut it into narrow slices with a knife.
Put the two pieces together, pinch them at the waist with chopsticks, and then pinch out the tentacles along the rolled edge. This will make a butterfly, and it will also be in the shape of a butterfly when steamed.
"No wonder it's called butterfly roll." said the food inspector upon seeing this.
"This one is salty. I used sesame paste to make a sweet one. It looks like a black and white butterfly."
Ji Xu said that sesame paste is made from sesame, which is black sesame from the Western Regions. It is ground into powder and mixed with sugar water, and then used to make flour. This way, the dough becomes black.
After rolling it out, spread it flat on the white flour. The method is the same, but the color and taste are different.
"Well, one is salty and fragrant, the other is sweet, and both are incredibly soft. This is all thanks to the yeast."
After tasting the food, the food inspector said that nowadays, cakes and pastries, whether steamed, baked or fried, have always been either crispy or soft, but this is the first time that they have tasted a soft texture.
Later, Ji Xu made a thousand-layer oil cake. It was already dark by then, and the remaining ones he had not tried would be left for tomorrow.
The cooking methods are all recorded in a book and tasted by the food inspectors. The next step is to see whether the food inspectors will arrange their dishes on the menu for a certain day and wait for the bamboo signs to be delivered.
Zhou Ping was also waiting. Every time she got a bamboo card, she would check to see if her sweet-scented osmanthus chestnut cake was written on it. However, it was not written on any of them. So she asked the food inspector in person:
"I agreed to eat my cake that day, but why didn't you write it down on the bamboo plaque?"
The Food Inspection Bureau said:
"Your sweet-scented osmanthus and chestnut cake is delicious, but there are already sweet-scented yam cakes, sweet-scented osmanthus and jujube paste cakes, and even chestnut cakes. It's a bit of a duplication."
"Master Food Supervisor, do you have the bamboo sign for our bakery room?"
Little Gourd also ran to ask with perseverance, thinking that she would return disappointed this time, but she saw that the Food Inspection Bureau actually handed her a bamboo plate with two things written on it!
She only recognized the words "juan" and "gao" on it, which she and Ji Xu had just learned. The food supervisor said:
"I ate some of the biscuits made by Ji Shan earlier. They were so fresh that I wanted to write it on the bamboo plaque the next day. But I also had to see if we felt any discomfort after tasting them, so I waited a few days."
They had tried someone's newly concocted mushroom soup before and ended up feeling dizzy and vomiting. This kind of thing could never be written on a bamboo sign, but they had no problems eating Ji Shanren's food.
For their Daoguan Office, in addition to preparing raw materials and supervising the food production process, they are also responsible for presenting the dishes to various palaces and even the Forbidden City. Naturally, they hope that the Taiguan Office and the Tangguan Office can make good dishes, so that their Daoguan Office can receive some praise and rewards when sending them.
"Yes, yes, thank you, Mr. Food Supervisor. We are not tofu on a horsetail skewer."
This was a challenge to Zhou Ping. Xiao Hulu took the bamboo card and, ignoring Zhou Ping who was chasing after him and scolding him, slipped back to the next room and showed it to them.
"Great, we have bamboo cards now too!"
Tong'er happily took it and looked at it, but couldn't understand it, so he gave it to Ji Xu to identify it. He saw that it was a butterfly roll and a thousand-layer oil cake.
Later, it was hung by the door. This was what they were going to make for breakfast the next day.
Finally sold this step.
"You little bitch, you've become even more arrogant. You're so happy to be given a bamboo sign that you've lost your mind. We have bamboo signs every day in our bakery. Your mediocre skills are not even good enough to show off."
Zhou Ping's sweet-scented osmanthus chestnut cake was not on the bamboo plaque, which did not show her new position of power. However, she was very angry and kept cursing. Even when she was called into the house by the flower chef, she was still saying:
"Auntie, you really shouldn't have let her take care of those two kitchen maids. They even dared to talk back to me, especially that little gourd."
"You are too impatient. It's just two maids, so what's wrong with giving them to her? After all, her cakes and bread in the second room can't compare to ours. Take the Laba Festival reward, for example. Each room has a portion of food, but hers doesn't. It shows her status."
Every year during the Laba Festival, the imperial court would reward the homes of high-ranking officials and loyal ministers with wine, meat, and famous dishes. These rewarded dishes were naturally prepared by the Taiguan and Tangguan.
Take the fourth room of Tangguan for example. The fruit and vegetable room is stocked with fresh fruits rarely seen in December, including grapes, cherries, and even five-liter pears grown in the Royal Garden.
The wine room is filled with thousands of bottles of fine wine; the soup room is filled with swan soup, a symbol of the emperor's grace, a famous dish bestowed by the emperor since the Shang Dynasty.
Their bakery is famous for its gold coin cakes, which look like gold coins, have a good meaning, and taste extremely delicious.
The ministers also regarded it as an honor to be able to eat with the Taiguan and Tangguan on Laba Festival.
"None of these rewarded dishes were made by the Bakery Room."
Zhou Ping felt relieved after hearing this.
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