Chapter 83: Grilled Skewers! Hear the Secret.
June came in a flash, and Qiu Xuan's barbecue business was ready to start.
She had gone to the blacksmith shop a few days ago and had two grilling racks made for her, exactly the size she specified.
In order to avoid any mistakes, she took the rack home, thinking of trying it out in her yard first.
Wait until you have mastered the cooking temperature before selling it in town.
Qiu Xuan washed the pork belly and cut it into thin slices with a knife.
Huaixue sat on a small stool and helped thread the meat with bamboo sticks, with three slices of pork belly on each skewer.
"Second sister-in-law, how do you plan to sell these skewers?" Yueyang's pregnancy is more stable, and he has started to go out these days.
"I'm thinking three cents a string. But we have to do the math again. At least we can't lose money."
You won’t lose money if you only eat pork, but grilling skewers also requires bamboo skewers, charcoal and sauce.
Each of these costs money, and Qiu Xuan has to include them in the cost.
"Pork is this price, so is mutton more expensive?" Yueyang asked.
"Well, mutton is definitely more expensive. We'll see when the time comes. I think it'll be at least seven or eight cents a skewer."
Mutton itself is not something that ordinary people would buy to eat, so there is no need to lower the price.
But I still need to think about the pork. After all, if I want to attract diners, the price has to be more reasonable.
There were only three of them in the courtyard.
Yueyang no longer felt nauseous when he smelled the meat, so he simply helped Qiuxuan to skewer the meat.
What she skewered was not pork belly, but pork cut into chunks, with a mixture of lean meat and fat.
"This piece of meat looks like it has more meat than pork belly."
"It seems so, but I haven't calculated it. Let's try skewering pork today and see how many skewers we can get out of a pound of pork."
The price will be determined according to quantity at that time.
The three of them spent half an hour skewering pork in the courtyard. There were six people in the family, and Qiu Xuan and her friends skewered two pounds of pork, a total of sixty skewers.
I skewered another pound of pork belly, making thirty-five skewers in total.
Pork is cheap now, only 25 copper coins per catty. If you sell a skewer for 3 copper coins, you can make more than 60 copper coins.
Even if you dig charcoal and so on, you will definitely make some money!
Yueyang was shocked by the profit. It was too much, not less than what he made from cooking in the shop.
Qiu Xuan didn't get too happy too soon. After all, she could only make a profit if she could sell the things.
"Let's try it ourselves tonight. If it's all right, I'll go to the shop and promote it tomorrow."
Qiu Xuan went back to the kitchen and prepared some barbecue sauce. She prepared a bowl of both spicy and non-spicy sauces.
After dark, Zong Xiao and his team, who had been busy all day, finally returned driving a mule cart.
In order to prepare the barbecue skewers tonight, Zong Anji even went next door to buy a jar of green plum wine.
In the past, the grandmother didn't allow them to drink alcohol, but today was a good day, so they each had a bowl to try something new.
In front of the grill, Qiu Xuan was flipping the skewers. She didn't dare put too many in at once and only took ten.
The pork belly was grilled over charcoal, and the aroma of burnt meat slowly wafted out.
"Aunt, this smells so good, even better than the meat in the stir-fry." Huaixue looked at it eagerly and swallowed.
"I'll give you the first skewer after it's grilled." Qiu Xuan turned it back and forth. She was afraid that it would be burnt or not cooked through.
Fortunately, the pork belly was simpler than she thought. Just a thin slice and it would be cooked as soon as the color of the meat changed.
Qiu Xuan sprinkled some non-spicy ingredients on it and handed it to Huai Xue.
"Blow it on yourself, don't burn yourself."
"Auntie, have the first bite." Huaixue blew on it and stood on tiptoe to pass it to Qiuxuan's mouth.
Qiu Xuan had no choice but to take the first bite.
The aroma of barbecue mixed with the smell of charcoal grilled meat is really good.
Qiu Xuan nodded at her and said, "It's delicious, try it yourself."
The remaining nine skewers were soon ready, and Qiu Xuan sprinkled the ingredients on them and divided them among them.
"It smells good." Zong Anji's eyes lit up.
The skewers were much more delicious than he had imagined. He initially thought that the skewers tasted similar to grilled fish.
But after tasting it, I realized that grilled fish has a burnt aroma, while grilled skewers have an oily aroma.
Two completely different flavors!
Seeing that they were enjoying the meal, Qiu Xuan started to grill the meat into skewers.
This one is thicker and takes more time to cook than pork belly. Qiu Yu was unsure and even used a knife to cut it open to check.
Only take it off the grill when the meat is cooked through.
There were less than a hundred skewers of barbecue, and the six of them ate every one.
Zong Anji felt a little unsatisfied. He wiped the corner of his mouth and drank the last sip of plum wine in the bowl.
"Second sister-in-law, I think these skewers can be sold!"
"Three coins for a string, what do you think?" Qiu Yun had to ask everyone's opinions to see what the clan mother thought.
After all, she was not a native here, so she was not sure about the prices.
"Three cents is not cheap, but it's not expensive either." In the past, the grandmother would definitely not be willing to spend it, but if the child wanted to eat it, she would buy two skewers for the child to try.
"Then let's make it this way. We'll go sell it tomorrow."
If it's too expensive, two strings for five cents will do, Qiu Xuan thought to herself.
The next day, Qiu Xuan closed down the pancake stall completely.
Diners who arrived early were disappointed again.
"Shopkeeper Qiu, why are you closing your pancake stall again, but selling new food?"
Qiu Xuan smiled and replied, "We sell barbecued meat skewers in the evening. Today we have pork, but if you want to eat lamb later, we have lamb."
"Wow, this thing must be very expensive."
"You'll know once you try it." Qiu Xuan stood at the door and shouted, "Today, everyone who comes to the restaurant to eat will get two free barbecue skewers per table!"
I can't afford to give one string of Qiuxiu to each person, but two strings for a table is fine.
The business of Tianjin Restaurant was already good, and after she called out like this, a line formed outside at noon.
Zong Anji was almost overwhelmed in the kitchen, but another person who could cook was also busy grilling skewers.
Zong Anji wanted to ask his second brother to come over, but he saw that his second brother was also grilling skewers...
"Shopkeeper Qiu, four more skewers of this spicy pork belly."
"This table also needs four skewers."
For a while, the whole restaurant was ordering skewers. The food that was originally given to everyone as a gimmick became a must-order item at every table.
Qiu Xuan didn’t prepare much at the beginning, so now she can only cut and bake it on the spot.
Fortunately, skewers don’t need to be marinated, just grill them directly.
Everyone was busy for the whole afternoon, and as soon as the shop closed, Qiu Xuan hurried to count the bill.
There were twenty tables of people coming to the shop to eat at noon this day, and she delivered forty skewers of meat alone.
In addition, diners also ordered a hundred skewers separately.
With this calculation, they not only did not lose money but also made a profit!
"It would be great if business could be this good every day in the future," Zong Anji said with emotion.
Zong Xiao tapped him on the forehead as usual to wake him up.
Their restaurant is selling grilled skewers this afternoon. We don't have to wait until tomorrow evening, other restaurants will definitely start selling them too.
This trend of following the trend is very obvious in the town. Everyone is a smart person and no one wants to give up the opportunity to make money.
Business was good, so after noon Qiu Xuan went to Liu Zhong's meat stall again and ordered some pork belly.
Qiu Xuan found that most people actually ordered pork belly, probably because it had more fat on it, which made it sizzle and taste more fragrant.
"It seems that the barbecue business is good." Liu Zhong joked while cutting meat for her.
"Everyone is just trying it out. We'll have to wait a few more days to see if it's good or not," Qiu Xuan said.
"Okay, then when the time comes, just ask Sanshui to come over and tell me about the meat, and I'll deliver it to you."
Qiu Xuan felt embarrassed to trouble him. After all, because of their relationship, the best meat was reserved for their shop.
"Don't be polite, I'm making money too." Because Qiu Xuan's shop uses a lot of meat, the Liu family butcher stall now slaughters two pigs every day.
I was originally worried that I wouldn’t be able to sell all of them, but now that I’ve been selling them for a few days, there’s basically nothing left every time.
It is true that the bolder the person, the louder the coin.
That evening, Qiu Xuan and her friends moved a few tables outside the door.
The small barbecue stall is now open for sale.
The aroma of barbecue attracted passers-by, who paid three cents for one skewer and five cents for two.
After hearing this, most people chose to buy two skewers to try.
You give me two skewers, I give you two skewers, and soon the first batch of roasted Qiuxiu is almost sold out.
Of course, there are also those who are wealthy enough in the crowd. They buy more than ten skewers at a time and order a plate of vegetarian dishes in the restaurant.
When the owner of the tavern next door saw this, he was moved.
He picked up a jar of his own wine and reserved a table for Qiu Yu.
The more you eat, the better the kebabs taste. If anyone sees you, they'll have to have a couple of drinks too.
The nights in early summer are neither too hot nor too cold, so diners are not afraid of eating late.
It was completely dark, but there were still people at Qiu Xuan's stall.
Finally, all the meat was sold out and Qiu Xuan was able to close the stall.
It was the first time for the family to work so late. Everyone was so tired that their legs felt weak, but they were all happier than each other.
Not only did I make money today, I also made a lot of money!
We sat at the table and counted. The revenue from the barbecue skewers in the evening alone was less than eight cents, and we sold nearly ten kilograms of meat!
Needless to say, the profit is much more than selling pancakes.
"I don't know whether I will earn more or less in the future than I do now."
"Take your time. This thing is easy to learn. In a couple of days, the whole town will have it."
Sure enough, everything happened as Qiu Xuan expected.
Three days later, when Qiu Xuan and her friends went into the mountains to cut bamboo, they discovered that there was originally a bamboo forest with very good bamboo growth. They had only cut down a few trees last time, but all were gone when they came today.
Grilling requires bamboo skewers, and most people cut them themselves to save money, so bamboo becomes the most important piece.
Seeing that the bamboo was gone, Qiu Xuan and the others had to find another place.
"Why don't we go deeper today and take a look. There should be more over there."
If Zong Xiao was alone today, he would definitely go deeper to take a look.
But he won't agree to bring Qiu Xuan along.
"Don't worry, there is a bamboo forest up here. If there is no bamboo forest, I..."
Before Zong Xiao could finish, Qiu Yu interrupted, "What do you mean? You're going into the mountains alone, right?"
Qiu Xuan slapped him on the back and snorted, "You just worry too much. We're not going deep into the cave, so what could possibly happen?"
"Let's go, while the weather is nice today, let's go in for a walk."
Qiu Xuan hadn't been to the woods for a long time, and she felt that the air here was much better than outside.
She walked in front, and Zong Xiao had no choice but to follow.
The two were not walking aimlessly, they were also looking for a bamboo forest.
They saw a group of people appearing in front of them, but before they could go forward, a sound came from the woods.
"If you don't dare to do it, I will. I can't stand it anyway."
The voice sounded familiar. Qiu Xuan pulled Zong Xiao into a dark place and continued to listen secretly.
"That's my father, how can I..."
"Why not? You saw it too. Your mother's legs were broken by your father. Your father doesn't care about your mother anymore. If your father knew that you were in debt, do you think you could still save your legs?"
"You know your father is rich, but he won't pay you back. If you can't pay back your debt..."
Qiu Xuan frowned, leaned forward and looked over there quietly.
The man who was talking was actually Hu Zi, her half-brother who wanted to kill her.
The woman opposite was the widow that Hu Zi married.
"That..."
"Mom is dying. You'll take action when she passes away. Then you can say that Dad died of excessive grief with Mom." The woman held Hu Zi's hand and pulled it towards her belly.
"Huzi, we have a child now, so let's do this for the child and for me."
"Okay." Hu Zi had actually had this idea in mind for a long time, but he just had never dared to do it.
Now that he has someone to support him, he is a little bolder.
It’s just a life, just kill him, no one will notice it anyway!
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