Chapter 78 This scene was something she didn’t expect
It is not difficult to make jujube candy. The simplest steps are to remove the stems, wash, crush, add water, extract the juice and boil it. The tools needed are a mortar, a cloth to filter the juice, a pot, and a jar that has been scalded with boiling water and dried to hold and store the syrup.
The difficulty lies in the fact that they picked up a lot, nearly three backpacks, and after removing the handles, there was nearly a bucket. As a result, each process took a long time. Just the two steps of cutting the handles and crushing the fruits took a long time.
When it comes to boiling the sugar, there is actually no skill involved. You just need to control the heat and stir it frequently in the later stages of boiling the sugar.
Shen Ning read it once and felt that she would be able to do all these things next time.
The brother and sister watched as the greenish-yellow juice that was filtered out at first turned a little red as it was boiled, and finally became a very attractive brown-red syrup. It was really magical.
When it was time to fill the jars, they were so excited that the two little ones carried the dried jars over together and watched as mulberry leaves were scooped from the big pot into the jars one spoonful at a time. The sweet fragrance made the brother and sister drool.
When the scooping was almost done, the walls of the pot were scraped clean and the jar was just full.
The brother and sister looked at the jar full of jujube candies with such expressions that they wished they could hug the jar and smell the fragrance, just like they were staring at honey.
Sang Luo found it funny and called the two children, "Go get a bowl and two pairs of chopsticks."
The brother and sister's eyes lit up. They stopped gathering around the jars by the stove and ran to the wooden table where the bowls and chopsticks were placed, picked up a bowl and three pairs of chopsticks, and happily handed the bowl to Sang Luo.
Sang Luo scraped the bottom of the pot again and again with a wooden spoon. After scraping several times, she took the wooden spoon out and found that there was half a spoonful of dark brown syrup in the spoon.
The two little ones stood on tiptoe, stretched their necks, and watched with shining eyes as the syrup was poured into the bowl bit by bit. They were as happy as little squirrels. When one spoonful was almost full, Sang Luo took the wooden spoon back into the pot and scraped it around again. This time not much came out, but it was enough to make the two little ones happy.
"Okay, use chopsticks to roll it up and eat it."
A pair of chopsticks was handed to Sang Luo: "Sister-in-law is here too!"
Sang Luo was not polite either. She took the chopsticks with a smile, inserted them into the syrup, and then rolled, rolled, and rolled. When the syrup was scooped to the last point, it was actually almost cold and semi-solidified, so it could be easily rolled up. After two or three rolls, one end of the chopstick was rolled like a lollipop.
The two kids followed suit and rolled up the candies happily. One big and two small, they raised their chopsticks together and tilted their heads back to receive the candies.
Sweet, fragrant and smooth!
This satisfying bite was worth it!
In fact, if this thing has a mold and some bamboo sticks are shaved, it can be made into a lollipop, which should be sold at a higher price. But the weather must be cold enough and the temperature must be low, and it can be easily demolded using the soft mold of later generations, so Sang Luo didn't bother.
Shen An and Shen Ning seemed to have fallen into a jar of honey and were extremely satisfied.
"Sister-in-law, this is so delicious!"
“It tastes better than honey.”
The taste in memory of the things eaten as a child should be the most comparable, but Shen Ning just felt that this was sweeter than the little bit of honey that his eldest brother brought back once when he was a child.
Sang Luo asked with a smile: "Are you still staying?"
The brother and sister both smiled shyly and finally nodded.
Chen An: "I will go with my sister-in-law to pick up honey claws every day in the future. Sister-in-law, there should be more in the mountains, right? Let's look for them again?"
Sang Luo shook her head: "Just pick it up if you see it. Don't go deeper to look for it. The mountains inside are all barren and it's easy to encounter wild animals. We can't handle it."
Shen An thought at that time, it would be great if the eldest brother was there, because the eldest brother and Brother Dashan dared to go to very deep places.
But just like that, because of the rent and tax issue, some people in the village who left in the same year as their eldest brother did not come back but had to pay taxes. Many of their families scolded them, and Chen An actually heard some things again.
Because I have heard some other opinions, I dare not think about it too deeply. Only by not thinking about it can I continue to hold some expectations.
So when he heard his sister-in-law say not to go any further, he nodded obediently.
The three of them tasted a chopstick of sugar each. Shen Ning finally covered the syrup at the bottom of the bowl with a plate and saved it for later snacks. He then said, "Can we add some sugar to the egg drop porridge tomorrow morning? I haven't had sweet egg drop porridge yet."
Just thinking about it makes me feel that it must be delicious.
There was still some residual sugar in the cauldron, which was not easy to scrape out. After the pottery cauldron cooled down, Chen Ning added a few scoops of water into it and started to boil it. He used a wooden spoon to pass the boiling water over the wall of the cauldron from time to time, pouring over all the places where sugar was. He boiled out a lot of sweet syrup, which he served in a soup bowl and covered with a lid.
You can drink sugar water directly these two days. Well, if the little girl comes to play with her tomorrow, she can also give her a bowl.
There was a jar of jujube candy. Sang Luo waited until it was completely cooled before putting the lid on it.
For two days in a row, Sang Luo took Chen An into the mountains to pick sour jujubes and dig konjac to dry, and every day they would go to the jujube tree for a walk.
Of course there was no big harvest like the first day. There were some tall bamboos growing next to the tree, and their tops were entangled with the branches of the jujube tree. The uncle and his wife shook the bamboo stalks wildly, causing some ripe jujubes to fall down like rain.
After picking for two days, they made half a jar of jujube candy. Sang Luo saw that there were more than 200 pieces of jujube cakes dried in the sun, so she decided not to wait any longer and prepared to go to the county with Qin Fangniang and the others the next day.
In the evening, I took out the broken clay jar from under the bed. The jar, which was originally full, was now almost empty.
There were only seventy copper coins left after buying cotton last time, and there were quite a few strips of paper stuffed inside, rolled up into a roll.
Sang Luo took out all the strips, called Chen An to bring his small sand table over, and started counting vertically on the sand table with a branch.
Of course, it is impossible to use Arabic numerals. They are all the characters of the Great Gan Dynasty in the original body's memory. They are not easy to write, but there is no other way.
After adding up the stack of receipts and calculating, she found that she had paid back 2,500 copper coins in the beginning. Later, by selling mushrooms and vegetarian tripe, in less than half a month, she had paid back 6,355 copper coins of the 7,200 copper coins she owed.
"I still owe eight hundred and forty-five coins."
Sang Luo pondered.
The twenty pounds of vegetarian tripe that will be delivered to Dongfulou tomorrow morning will cost three hundred and forty cents, so there is still a shortfall of five hundred and five cents.
There are 368 pieces of sour jujube cake, which means 368 coins.
That still leaves one hundred and thirty-seven cents short.
Sang Luo thought about the one and a half jars of jujube candy and felt that the bill with Dongfulou could be settled tomorrow. She breathed a sigh of relief, folded the stack of receipts from Dongfulou neatly, and put them into her purse together with the seventy-odd bills.
Putting the empty clay pot back under the bed, she said, "I'll go out for a while and see if anyone has a horn and borrow one."
She won't be able to use a scale to weigh the sugar she sells tomorrow. This kind of semi-liquid substance can only be measured in a container. The wooden spoon at home is not very convincing. It would be better to use the horn commonly used by Da Ganchao to sell vinegar, sauce and wine.
However, as farmers do not make a living by producing wine and vinegar, the probability of having horns at home is very small. If there is really none, they will have to go to the bamboo shop to buy one tomorrow.
After walking around, she found nothing and was planning to return, but Old Lady Chen reminded her: "Go to Zhou Cunzheng's house and ask. I remember your Aunt Zhou likes to buy some herbs to make wine. Maybe she has some at home."
Hearing that Zhou Cunzheng had one at home, Sang Luo was a little hesitant.
It was no secret among the Chen family members that she could make some things to sell. Because of their cooperative relationship, each family knew their limits and would not ask questions. Some would even take the initiative to help cover up one or two things.
Because of this, Sang Luo came to the three houses to ask if they had any wine grapes to borrow.
If it was Zhou Cunzheng's family, they actually knew something about her situation, but Sang Luo didn't trust them that much.
Sugar is a precious commodity in this era. Maltose, which is also known as maltose, is not a secret technique. The method of making it is quite popular. Since ancient times, there have been books that have passed down the method in the form of poems. Occasionally, some peasant women can make it.
If there were relevant records in medical books about the jujube candy she made, perhaps someone would know how to make it, but she did not find such a thing in her original memory.
So Sang Luo didn't want to show off in the village.
She shook her head: "Forget it, I'll go to the store and buy one tomorrow morning."
Seeing her like this, Mrs. Chen guessed what she was going to sell and nodded: "That's fine, this thing is not expensive."
The next morning, Sang Luo went to the county town early with Qin Fangniang and others.
This time Zhou Cunzheng and others did not go with them. Instead, they asked Feng Liuniang, who was taking turns to carry a load and hawk in the streets, to help keep an eye on the grain shops and prices, so as to avoid going empty-handed and wasting the entrance fee.
Sang Luo also came to the county town by herself, but she still asked Qin Fangniang to help take the Su Maodu over. She planned to sell the goods on hand and collect enough money. She would go to Qin Fangniang later to get today's note and then go to Dongfulou to exchange it for the IOU.
Gan and Feng Liuniang also knew that Sang Luo made some other things to sell, but they had no idea where they were sold, so they didn't ask or invite Sang Luo to go with them. After entering the city, everyone went their separate ways.
Sang Luo's first stop was naturally the wooden shop. All kinds of wooden and bamboo products were available here. The wine measuring vessel was made of bamboo and was indeed not expensive. She only bought one for two cents.
To be honest, if it is not used for weighing when selling sugar, the measuring device must at least be accurate, otherwise it is not difficult to make this thing yourself.
After buying the wine measuring vessel, Sang Luo prepared to go to Yongfengzhai first to sell the sour jujube cakes so that the basket would not be too heavy.
When she arrived with the basket, the door of Yongfengzhai had just opened.
The shop girl who was wiping the counter was so surprised when she saw Sang Luo that she turned around and said, "Boss, Madam Sang is here!"
Shopkeeper Yan looked up and saw Sang Luo, with a smile on his face. He walked out from behind the counter in a few steps and said, "I've been waiting for you to come!"
As he spoke, his eyes glanced at the basket that Sang Luo was carrying.
When he saw the wooden board in the basket with four jars placed on two levels, his eyes lit up: "I've been waiting for your crystal dried fruit. The last time I bought some, it was sold out by yesterday morning. I was just worried about it, and then you came. It's just right. We will pack it in cans and put it on the shelf right away."
As he said this, he asked two shop girls to move the jars and pack them.
The two girls were originally at the counter, and they were familiar with this job from previous times. As the shop was open, customers would come at any time. The two girls also knew that the crystal preserved meat was especially popular these days, so as soon as Manager Yan gave the order, the two of them went to pick up the jars and prepare to quickly count, change the packaging, and put them on the shelves.
Sang Luo was unable to stop them because the lids were not easy to put upside down and the two jars of jujube candies placed on the wooden board were picked up by two shop maids from Yongfengzhai, one jar each.
Sang Luo hurriedly stopped the man and said, "That's not it. The two jars below are the ones."
However, the person was already at the counter, and the shop girl only needed to bend down and stand up to put the things down steadily, and the lid was half opened. How could she catch them in time?
The shop girl said, "What is this?"
Sang Luo: “…”
She had not expected this scene.
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