Chapter 392 Silence
The scraps of dough were placed on the cutting board. To solve the problem of cracking during steaming, the three of them discussed and decided to add some water to the starch water.
Fearing they would ruin all the starch water, they scooped out one and a half spoonfuls of starch water into a bowl, then added half a spoonful of water, stirred it well, and steamed it again.
Two minutes later, when the lid was lifted, the cracks in the plate had decreased.
This is a good sign, proving that they are on the right track.
After six attempts, I finally steamed a complete dough sheet.
Having learned from past experience, Old Wang carefully put the plate in cold water to cool it down before peeling the dough, but he still managed to tear it.
Song Lubai thought she should try greasing the bottom of the plate.
So she went to the supply and marketing cooperative and got two ounces of oil. Before steaming, she first used a cloth to spread a layer of oil on the plate.
After numerous experiments, they finally obtained a complete starch sheet.
The steamed dough is very elastic and won't break even when pulled. Through the yellowish-brown dough, you can vaguely see the scene on the other side. Such a beautiful dough looks delicious.
Before the dough dried, Song Lubai cut it into finger-width pieces and hung them to dry in a well-ventilated area indoors.
Deng Hong asked expectantly, "After drying, will it last for several months without spoiling, just like the sweet potato starch sold in stores?"
Song Lubai nodded and said, "If it's done successfully, it should be like this: after steaming this whole bucket and letting it dry, we'll weigh it, then divide it up, take it home, and try it to see if there are any problems with the taste."
Old Wang and Deng Hong were both amazed; before today, they had no idea that sweet potato starch was made this way.
In the afternoon, Lao Wang brought back another ten kilograms of sweet potatoes. Song Lubai planned to make sweet potato starch using traditional methods for this batch, and asked Deng Hong to record the whole process so that she could supervise the work later.
Once the preliminary work was completed and everything was confirmed to be in order, Yu Lin delivered five tons of sweet potatoes and five wooden barrels to the food workshop, and also hired ten workers.
The workers were both men and women. After a meeting to emphasize discipline, Song Lubai began to divide them into groups.
Two people wash and cut sweet potatoes into chunks, two partners crush the sweet potato chunks into a paste and filter it, two people are responsible for tending the fire, one person is responsible for steaming the dough, one person is responsible for peeling and cutting, one person is responsible for "cooking" the dried sweet potato starch in a pot, and the last person is responsible for pressing out sweet potato noodles with a mold.
Cutting sweet potatoes and filtering the starch slurry do not require any technical skills; the step that does require skills is the shaping of the sweet potato starch.
For the first few days, Song Lubai spent her time teaching those people. It was a week later before they were able to properly make sweet potato starch.
Recently, people from food workshops have been bringing home some substandard sweet potato starch every day.
Although those cracked and defective products are broken and misshapen, they can still be eaten after being cooked in a pot, and they are quite chewy.
It's been half a month, and there are still defective products today. Before leaving get off work, Song Lubai called everyone in the workshop together for a meeting.
"Deng Hong keeps a record of how many buckets of starch water you make every day. She remembers exactly how many spoonfuls of starch water you wasted. If you two continue like this starting tomorrow, you're both fired."
Deng Hong had suggested that Liu Xiaohua and her companion might have deliberately produced defective products.
If they had strictly followed the proportions they had previously tested, it would have been impossible for them to have made so many mistakes every day after half a month.
Either they didn't put in enough water, or they didn't steam it long enough or for too long. Song Lubai had had enough of them.
She had reminded them multiple times, but they continued to act this way, so she couldn't blame her for criticizing them in public.
Liu Xiaohua and her companion's expressions changed.
The badly made rice noodle sheets could be shared with everyone and taken home to eat. This was the reason why Liu Xiaohua dared to deliberately not work properly.
She argued, "We were both busy, one tending the pot and the other steaming. We had to quickly put down one plate after another, so it was inevitable that we'd be flustered..."
Song Lubai's eyes sharpened. "If you think you can't do it well in a flustered manner, then don't do it. I'll replace you immediately tomorrow."
"It's been half a month and you're still wasting so much every day. Are you just thinking of taking some home for your family? Let's make a rule: from now on, those scraps of rice noodles won't be distributed to everyone. They'll be dried and sent to the supply and marketing cooperative to be sold cheaply to the residents of our group."
Liu Xiaohua was so frightened that she dared not speak.
Being kicked out was something she couldn't accept.
Steaming rice noodles is indeed a skill, and these two have already mastered it. Song Lubai doesn't want to change people and teach them again yet, but in order to put pressure on them, Song Lubai ordered one of them to join the team of steaming rice noodles, washing and cutting sweet potatoes.
One person can handle washing and cutting sweet potatoes, so assigning people to do this is not difficult at all.
"Don't think you're irreplaceable. If someone doesn't do their job well, there are plenty of people who can learn from them. From now on, anyone who doesn't perform well and gets criticized twice will be fired."
Both Liu Xiaohua and her companion lowered their heads.
After criticizing the two workers, Song Lubai praised the two workers who were filtering the slurry, saying that they did a good job and filtered the slurry carefully so that the sweet potato starch could be formed.
After praising and criticizing, Song Lubai continued, "From now on, Comrade Deng will score everyone's performance every day. At the end of the month, the top three comrades will be rewarded with half a pound of dried sweet potato starch. I hope everyone will perform well."
Deng Hong, standing to the side, straightened her back.
She's been worrying a lot these past two weeks, overseeing every step and every step. Although she doesn't have to do the work herself, she's certainly been very talkative. Not only does she arrive early every day, but she also makes sure everything in the workshop is organized before she leaves.
She's been exhausted these past few days.
Although it was tiring, she felt quite accomplished managing the food workshop.
The meeting had a very noticeable effect: the number of broken rice noodle sheets decreased significantly, and Liu Xiaohua and her partner were so careful with their skin that they dared not cause any more trouble.
During this period, in order to improve efficiency, Song Lubai had three more stoves built and trained six workers to steam rice noodle sheets, which increased the output of sweet potato starch.
In mid-October, the workshop delivered the accumulated dried rice noodle scraps to the supply and marketing cooperative for 16 cents. There were 23 jin in total, which only cost 3.68 yuan.
By the end of October, the food workshop had accumulated 780 jin of dried sweet potato starch.
It looks like a lot was made, but nearly 8,200 kilograms of sweet potatoes were consumed.
The sweet potatoes produced by the food workshop were not free; the workshop had to pay for them to be sold to the community. However, the price of the sweet potatoes was five cents cheaper than the market price.
Firewood and water are free, but oil and labor cost money.
Based on the market price of 26 cents per pound for sweet potato starch, Song Lubai sat at the table and calculated for a while. Excluding labor costs, they had earned more than 81 yuan in about a month and a half.
After deducting everyone's monthly salary, she fell silent.
This was so different from what she had expected!
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