Chapter 24: Purification of crude salt
March 30, afternoon.
Jiang Xuan, Chishao, and Shiqiu returned to the Teng tribe with three bags of salt ore and edible tubers such as round potatoes.
When they saw the ancient vines on the stone mountain, the bamboo forest, and the totem pattern on the huge rock in front of the bamboo house again, they felt an indescribable sense of relief in their hearts.
Jiang Xuan thought that this was the feeling of being home.
"Chief, Chishao, Shiqiu, you are finally back!"
Uncaria and Nanxing ran over excitedly, and the tourists who were clearing the land were relieved to see their leader coming back.
After staying here for a few days, the tourists really cherish the life of having a house to live in and enough food to eat.
If something unexpected happens to the leader, these good days may be over.
Jiang Xuan was carrying a bag of salt ore and said, "I took a little longer to be gone. I'm sorry to have worried you. Let's talk inside first."
Jiang Xuan walked into the bamboo house, put down the animal skin bag, and took out a piece of salt ore from it.
Uncaria and Nanxing came over and looked at the stone curiously. Nanxing asked, "Chief, is this salt?"
Jiang Xuan smiled and said, "This is salt, but it's poisonous. You can't eat it now."
"Ah? Is it poisonous?" Nan Xing originally wanted to take a piece to taste it, but he immediately retracted his hand halfway through.
Jiang Xuan said: "Don't worry, I have a way to turn it into non-toxic salt. First take the pottery jar to the stream and wash it. After it is clean, fill it with water and bring it back."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
Nanxing excitedly took a clay pot to the stream to wash it and fetch water.
Jiang Xuan walked out of the bamboo house and found some soft moss nearby.
The mosses are very thick and grow very densely. After being washed, they can be used as filter cloth.
Many people in Jiang Xuan's previous life had done the experiment of purifying crude salt. The process was also very simple, with only four steps:
Dissolve, filter, evaporate, crystallize.
The most important step is filtration. As long as the water-insoluble impurities in the salt ore are filtered out and then evaporated and crystallized, the purified salt can be eaten by humans.
Of course, filtering alone cannot remove all impurities in the salt ore, after all, some impurities are soluble in water.
If conditions permit, it is best to further purify it into refined salt.
Jiang Xuan doesn't have the conditions now, so he can only use the simplest method. There are a few impurities, but considering the physique of the tribesmen, it won't be a big problem after eating it.
Jiang Xuan found a very thick bamboo tube, then chiseled off the upper nodes of the tube and chiseled a hole in the lower nodes.
Next, he spread a layer of clean moss on the bottom of the bamboo tube, and then went to the fire pit and grabbed several handfuls of charcoal and put them into the bamboo tube.
Charcoal has an adsorption effect. Adding charcoal to filter can remove relatively small impurities in salt ore.
He spread a layer of moss on top of the charcoal, added a layer of stones, then another layer of moss, and another layer of charcoal, and then added another layer of stones on the top, and covered the top with moss.
Finally, he poured plenty of clean water into the filter and gave it a brief clean.
A simple primitive filter is ready! After five layers of moss, two layers of charcoal, and two layers of stones, most of the impurities in the dissolved salt ore should be removed.
Chishao and others watched Jiang Xuan making this primitive filter intently.
Although they didn't know what it was used for specifically, they inexplicably felt that it was very powerful.
After Jiang Xuan made the primitive filter, Nan Xing had already cleaned both pottery jars, and one of them was filled with clean water.
"Chief, what can I do?"
Gou Teng looked at Jiang Xuan with anticipation, he also wanted to participate.
Jiang Xuan said: "Find a piece of animal skin and spread it on the ground, put a flat stone on it, and then smash the salt ore."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
Uncaria didn't understand why this stone was called salt ore, but this did not hinder his enthusiasm for work.
He found a piece of animal skin and two stones, one flat stone he placed in the middle of the skin and the other stone he used to smash the salt ore.
Then, Gou Teng took a piece of salt ore out of the animal skin bag, placed it on a flat stone, and smashed the salt ore into pieces according to Jiang Xuan's instructions.
Jiang Xuan put the crushed salt ore into an empty pottery jar, filling about one-third of the jar's capacity, then began to add water, stirring it constantly with a bamboo stick.
As Jiang Xuan stirred, the salt crystals in the salt ore gradually melted, the water became very turbid, and there was a large amount of water-insoluble sediment at the bottom.
Jiang Xuan left the pottery jar alone for a while, waiting for the suspended particles in the water to settle down, before starting to filter.
He poured out the water in the other pottery jar, put it aside, and handed the primitive filter to Chishao.
"Sister, help me hold this bamboo tube steady."
"good."
Chishao held the original filter in both hands and placed it above the empty clay pot.
Jiang Xuan picked up the clay pot containing salt water and gently poured the water into the bamboo tube.
“Drip, drip…”
As the salt water was injected, layers of moss, pebbles and charcoal filtered out most of the impurities. Finally, the water flowing into the pottery jar became clearer, but the color was still a little reddish.
After Jiang Xuan poured the salt water, he went to the stream again and washed away the large amount of sediment at the bottom of the pottery jar. He then returned to the bamboo house and filtered the salt water again.
After filtering it three times, the salt water was very clear and almost no color could be seen.
Jiang Xuan put the salt water that had been filtered three times into the fire pond and boiled it on stones.
This is a relatively long process and requires sufficient patience.
After the brine boiled, Jiang Xuan stirred it from time to time and smashed the remaining salt ore with others.
After they smashed a whole bag of salt ore, the water in the pottery jar had obviously evaporated, and there were a small amount of white crystals on the inner wall of the pottery jar.
Jiang Xuan found a piece of bamboo shoot shell and carefully scraped off the crystals.
He pinched a little salt crystal between his fingers and placed it on the tip of his tongue.
A relatively pure salty taste stimulated the taste buds on the tip of his tongue.
This salty taste is very close to real table salt, and has almost no bitterness and astringency of impure salt.
Chishao and the three young men looked at Jiang Xuan eagerly, hoping to see something on his face.
“Very salty!”
This was the first sentence Jiang Xuan said.
“This is real salt, the salt we can all eat!”
This was the second sentence Jiang Xuan said.
"Very good!"
Nanxing was the first to cheer. He was proud that he was personally involved in the salt-making process. The excitement he felt was simply beyond words.
"Come, try them all."
There was not much crystallized salt, so Jiang Xuan gave each of them a little.
Chishao carefully placed the salt on the tip of his tongue, then closed his mouth and savored the salt carefully.
Soon, her eyes were slightly moist.
“It’s really salt…”
In the past, the Deer Tribe also had salt, which was usually exchanged from the larger tribes for animal skins, bones and other things.
Not only is it expensive, but it is not pure at all and has a very bitter and astringent taste.
They originally thought that with just a few people like them, they might never have the chance to eat salt again, but unexpectedly, Jiang Xuan managed to make better salt.
The three boys felt the same way, and they even licked their fingers clean.
Salt, something that every household in Jiang Xuan's previous life could afford, is extremely precious in this wild world.
It is a happy thing to be able to eat salt.
It is a very happy thing to be able to eat relatively pure salt.
At this moment, all five of them felt very happy.
(End of this chapter)
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