Chapter 80 Why didn’t you call me?
What is brine?
This substance is also called bittern, brine, and is the product of the mother liquor remaining in the salt pond after evaporation and cooling. ①
To put it more simply, this thing is actually a by-product made from the waste of traditional salt production.
In the Dagan Dynasty, or even in Sangluo's original time and space, it was not uncommon in ancient times for families to be so poor that they could not afford salt. Especially in times of war, or when people were burdened with heavy labor and had a hard time living, when they could not even get enough food, the demand for brine would surge among the lowest class of people.
Obviously, people cannot live without salt, so what can we eat as a substitute if we cannot afford salt?
There are three substitutes: nitre, potash and brine.
In order to survive, ordinary people have figured out many ways to make substitutes. The first method of obtaining saltpeter, well, no one would use it unless it was absolutely necessary, because it is too disgusting - it is extracted from the stones used to surround ancient dry toilets.
The second type is potassium salt, which is relatively better. Soak wood ash in water and then boil it in a pot to get potassium salt, which tastes similar to sodium salt.
The relatively normal one is brine.
There are two ways to get brine. One is to go to the mountains and look for stones that animals will lick. Usually, these stones contain salt and can be boiled into brine. Sang Luo has never seen this before. She dares not go deep into the mountains. In places where she often walks, there are only small animals such as rabbits, pheasants, snakes and insects that will flee when they see people. She has never seen large animals, let alone stones licked by animals.
Another way is to buy it with money. The owner of a salt shop most likely has some brine made from salt-making waste hidden in his hands. This kind of brine has almost no cost and he sells it at a low price.
Compared to table salt, this is really cheap. I can buy two large pieces for a few cents. Of course, eating too much of this thing is harmful to the body. The key lies in the quantity.
Sang Luo was certainly not so poor that she could not afford salt. I think all Chinese people have heard the saying, "Brine and tofu go hand in hand; there is always something to conquer something else."
This brine is obtained by diluting the brine. It is the best tofu coagulant. Only a very small amount is needed for a large pot of tofu.
Tofu can be divided into tender tofu and old tofu, also known as southern tofu and northern tofu. The tofu that Sang Luo had previously made with gypsum water was tender tofu, also known as southern tofu, while the tofu made with brine that I bought today is old tofu, also known as northern tofu.
Chen An had been very worried before, because without the magic tofu, his family would have one less means of livelihood.
Indeed, although the magic tofu is gone, more people are buying tofu, but the sales of one single product can never be as good as the sales of two single products. The amount of tofu sold by the three stores in the past few days is obviously less than ten yuan compared to the previous days.
When Sang Luo took Chen An to the mountains to pick leaves of the fairy tree, she said that she had a solution. The solution was naturally not the jujube that had not been discovered at that time, but to increase the variety of tofu.
Now that we have the tender tofu, we can also prepare the old tofu and the dried bean curd.
Two large pieces of brine will last her a long time.
Sang Luo then started going to drugstores. There were three clinics and drugstores in the county town. She went to the three stores and bought some ingredients for the marinade. Now that she had finished all her work in the county, she headed home.
…
The brother and sister Shen An and Shen Ning were particularly anxious today. There were no more magic leaves to pick, and they didn't have to go around looking for wild vegetables to sell. There were konjacs to dig and sour dates to pick in the mountains farther away, but without Sang Luo to lead the way, the brother and sister would not go to the mountains, and at least one of them had to stay at home to look after the house.
After Sang Luo left, Chen An could only find some work for himself, for example, he would catch the tail of the third ripe ramie and find ownerless wild ramie around the village to cut it, and carry it home in bundles, while Chen Ning would sit at home and peel the ramie.
After carrying the hemp for most of the morning, Chen An stopped when he had piled enough hemp. He came back and sat with his sister. While peeling hemp, he would occasionally glance at the mountain road that their eldest sister-in-law often took when she returned home from the county.
I made so many jujube candies. I wonder if my sister-in-law can sell them all today?
That look of longing.
As soon as Sang Luo appeared in the sight of the brother and sister, carrying a basket, Shen An and Shen Ning jumped up. Then, seeing their sister-in-law carrying two full baskets of something, they ran over to help.
When we got closer, I heard Sang Luo say that it was all cotton!
It’s all cotton!!!
"Sister-in-law, are all the candies sold out?"
This was all Shen An and Shen Ning could think of. Only when all the sugar was sold out could the sister-in-law buy back so much cotton.
Sang Luo smiled: "They are all sold out! If we save for a few more days, we can get a quilt."
Shen An and Shen Ning cheered and jumped up on the spot. With the quilt, they could have a warm winter this year.
The brother and sister wanted to help Sang Luo, but they found that the bags of cotton were tied up and fixed on the basket, so they had no way to help. So they happily surrounded Sang Luo on both sides and walked home.
When Sang Luo carried the basket to her home, she found more than a dozen bundles of ramie piled on the gravel road outside the yard.
She looked at the brother and sister in surprise: "Did you go to get the circumcision done?"
Shen Ning smiled and pointed at Shen An: "Second brother cut it back."
Shen An praised his sister: "Aning is peeling hemp at home and looking after the house."
Money is needed everywhere at home. They are small and weak, but they try to save as much as they can for the family.
Sang Luo couldn't help but frown and rubbed Shen Ning's head, "All great!"
She carried the things into the yard, and the two little ones followed her in, chattering and asking questions. Of course, the first question they asked was why the candy was selling so quickly.
Sang Luo didn't hide the family business from the two children. She simply told them about the sale of sugar to Yongfengzhai and said, "From now on, we can just send our crystal preserved meat and brown sugar there."
Chen An and Shen Ning were still young and didn't understand how many people would covet a sugar-making recipe. They only knew that there were people waiting to take their products before they were even made. As long as they could make them, they could exchange them for money, and their sister-in-law wouldn't have to go out early and come back late, walking around the streets, so they were very happy.
Chen An couldn't wait for his sister-in-law to take a break, so that she could take him into the mountains to pick sour jujubes and jujubes.
Sang Luo shook her head and refused, saying with a smile: "Let's not go into the mountain for now. We need to make some preparations and cook some new food."
The brother and sister were confused: "What new food?"
Sang Luo smiled: "It's also tofu. You will know later. I will go to your grandmother Chen's house first."
…
In order to make braised bean curd and old tofu, the original tofu frames and tofu pressing boards were obviously not enough. Sang Luo was unable to handle this kind of carpentry work which required a little bit of precision, so she went to Chen's house to ask Chen Youtian for help.
When they heard that tofu was going to be made into new styles and flavors, Old Man Chen and Mrs. Chen were very happy. Being able to come up with new food, especially tofu, it went without saying that Sang Luo would most likely let the three families sell it together, which meant they could make more money in a day.
Mrs. Chen smiled so much that wrinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes. She asked Chen Youtian to take his tools and go to work for Sang Luo.
The tofu frames and pressing boards used to make firm tofu are no different from those used to make tender tofu. However, when making dried tofu with soybean sauce, frames are not needed, but a lot of boards are needed.
So after Chen Youtian heard the quantity of what Sang Luo wanted to make, he went to the Shi family and the Lu family and called Shi Erlang, Lu Dalang and Lu Sanlang to go up the mountain to cut down trees.
What happened next was not something Sang Luo had to worry about, because Sang Luo's family always made something. In order to avoid suspicion, Chen Youtian didn't even plan to make it at Sang Luo's house. Instead, he made these things at home and sent them to Sang Luo when they were ready.
After all, it's cooked, so Sang Luo doesn't need to check the size from time to time.
Since they were going to cut down trees, Sang Luo asked Chen Youtian with a smug look on her face to make two more sets of shelves to be placed in the kitchen to store some things.
The dried konjac chips have to be sealed in jars for storage. The three families actually have some left over from the soybeans and mulberry leaves that they use to pay for their daily purchases. These are stored in empty grain bags, and now they have two large bags.
Soybeans are prone to insect infestation, and mulberry trees cannot be piled together with millet. Now these two things are piled next to each other on the wall farthest from the two large stoves in the kitchen. Things will accumulate more and more, and piling them up like this is not a good idea.
Chen Youtian readily agreed. Without saying anything else, he just said that Dongfulou had tofu orders worth dozens of yuan every day. This was given to their family for free by Sang Luo, so helping with this little work was no problem.
In response to Sang Luo's request, the first things made were fifteen large square wooden boards, which are indispensable for pressing dried bean curd. One board of dried bean curd requires a bottom board and four pressing boards of the same size. These fifteen boards are barely enough to make three boards of dried bean curd.
When Sang Luo and Chen Youtian were discussing making something, Shen Ning also came to Chen's house. She was thinking of taking the little girl to her house to drink sweet soup.
In the two jars that Sang Luo brought back today, the brother and sister scraped off all the sugar left on the wall of the jar without wasting any. They even boiled hot water and poured the sugar that was not scraped off into the jars. They shook the jars left and right, and now there were two and a half jars of sugar water.
Sugar water is an expensive drink not only in the countryside but also in the city. Now they have a lot of it. So much that even the three of them can't finish it. How can they not think of their friends?
Notify the little girl, should we call Chen Ershan?
Well, Chen Ershan is old enough to stop following a group of kids and be greedy. Shen Ning called him, but he didn't go.
Then we have to notify Hu Zi and Er Niu who are good friends with her brother. Hu Zi and Er Niu also have younger brothers and sisters, so we can't favor one over the other.
Although he didn't know the term "favoritism", Chen Ning knew very well that these were the friends who often came to help their family, so they had to be treated equally.
So while Chen Youtian and Sang Luo went around asking the adults from the three families to help cut down trees, Chen Ning also went around with the little girl, inviting the kids from the three families to their homes to drink sweet soup.
She didn't say that the candy was homemade, she just said that her sister-in-law bought some for her and her second brother to eat. She thought that everyone helped pave the road last time, so she invited everyone to have some.
Several families lived close to each other, and when Shen Ning wandered around here, she would inevitably come to her third uncle's door. When the children heard that there was sugar water to drink, although they didn't shout out, they were excited and ran around to tell others. Of course, they whispered in their ears. Children are most familiar with this situation.
For example, sinking gold, sinking silver, and sinking iron.
The three brothers looked at it and felt that Shen Ning must have something to eat.
Shen Jin pursed his lips and looked at Shen Ning's direction. He walked past several houses but didn't even look at his house.
Shen Yin looked around his house and didn't see their parents. He asked in a low voice, "Third brother, didn't you grab some lard last time and eat it with second brother and elder sister? Didn't you say that second brother would call us when he had food in the future?"
Then why didn't you shout?
Shen Tie: "Should we stand outside?"
It seemed like my second brother and eldest sister hadn't stepped into their house for a long time.
Shen Jin bit his lip and looked at him for a long time, then suddenly said, "No, go back inside."
Shen Yin, Shen Tie: ???
Shen Yin: "Wouldn't that mean there would be even less to eat?"
But since the family split up, the two brothers usually just followed their brother. They could only listen to whatever Shen Jin said, and followed Shen Jin into the house, looking back every few steps.
It’s not that Shen Ning didn’t see Shen Jin, she just got upset.
Don’t think she didn’t hear the last time Third Aunt scolded her.
A group of children ran towards the hill where the Shen family's main house was located, shouting and screaming like the sound of a tsunami.
Shen Yin and Shen Tie were both a little confused.
The two brothers sat on a small bench, looking at each other, and finally looking at their brother. Seeing Shen Jin busy playing with a spinning top and not looking at them at all, the two brothers silently lowered their heads, looking at the large group of people running away with envy and greed.
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