Chapter 62: Start Making Maltose
Jiang Tian and Zhao Mingyue felt a little embarrassed. They earned 256 coins from 80 kilograms of tofu, but Shen Qing didn't even get a fraction of it.
Shen Qing understood that this was the dividend money for her.
She did nothing and earned fifty-two cents!
Although it is still far from the eleven ounces of silver needed to buy a donkey, but little by little it adds up and buying a donkey is no longer a dream.
Shen Qing thanked him gratefully, which made Jiang Tian and Zhao Mingyue feel even more awkward.
Zhao Mingyue suddenly thought of something important, "Oh, right, I went to both Yangliu Lane and Shengping Lane. There were few people buying in Yangliu Lane, so I didn't get any useful information.
There were many people buying things in Shengping Lane, including the old maid who served Madam Sun. I struck up a conversation with her and became familiar with her.
The families living in Shengping Lane were much wealthier and had servants to serve them, but they were far inferior to the hordes of slaves in the homes of wealthy businessmen and officials. Captain Sun's family was not well off, and the only two servants he had were his wife's dowry.
The old nanny's life was extremely poor after she came to the Sun family. She gave her an extra half pound of tofu, and the old nanny happily pulled her aside and talked to her for a long time.
She continued, "Today is only the first day of selling. Let's go to these two alleys first. Tomorrow, make more tofu and then go to these two alleys last to ask around."
Jiang Tian added, "The people in Yangliu Lane need to know which household it is. If Captain Sun really dares to come and cause trouble for us, we should tell the principal wife in Shengping Lane about this. They'll cause a lot of trouble for a while."
Mr. Jiang Sanye was talking about causing trouble for us. Shen Qing understood that they were treating this matter as a matter for the entire family, and immediately felt warm in his heart.
Zhao Mingyue hummed, and said with some worry, "I'm just worried that Madam Sun will eventually forgive Captain Sun. I can only hold her back for a while, but she'll come looking for me later. It won't work in the end."
Shen Qing thought that it would be enough to delay them for a while!
The flood is coming in less than two months. By then, the whole city will be flooded. Even if Captain Sun is not dead, his glory will be gone. How can he have the time and energy to stand up for the Liu family?
She made an excuse and said, "It's okay, just hold off for a while. Once the anger subsides and time passes, I'll probably earn a lot more money, so I'll just use the money to pay him off when the time comes."
Jiang Tian and Zhao Mingyue thought so too. Since Captain Sun was greedy for money, the worst that could happen was that they would have to pay extra money, which could be considered as spending money to ward off disaster - their family was making money now and could contribute to Shen Qing's income.
As long as everyone is okay.
After exchanging information, both parties went home.
After Zhao Mingyue got home, she began to instruct people to pick and soak the beans, determine the weight for tomorrow's tofu, and adjust the route for selling tofu tomorrow.
Not only the routes in the city need to be adjusted, but also those in the village.
Even if farmers could exchange beans, they would not be willing to do so every day. Fortunately, there are main roads in the east, south, west and north directions corresponding to the city. If you go to the south today, you can go to the west tomorrow, and go in a cycle in sequence. If it really doesn't work, the worst that can happen is that you can walk a little further to get to the next village.
It's just a matter of walking a little further.
After giving instructions about tofu, Zhao Mingyue returned to her room, closed the door tightly, and poured all the copper coins in the small cloth bag onto the bed.
Although I have counted them several times since I got home, I still can't stop getting excited when I count them now!
After deducting the tofu bought in exchange for soybeans, the total income in copper coins was 200 wen, of which Shen Qing received 52 wen and her family received 148 wen.
One hundred and forty-eight cents. Even if the head of the family and the eldest, second, and third sons take care of it, they can’t earn it back in a day.
This is pure profit, and I don’t even need to buy soybeans anymore.
"Tomorrow I'll make over twenty pounds of beans, sell eighty pounds in the city, and trade the rest for beans in the village. The total... after deducting... I'll have over two hundred and fifty coins.
If I earn this amount every day, at the end of the month... I can work hard for three to five years and then I won’t have to worry about getting married for several children...”
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Tofu's dividends were delivered every day, sometimes from Zhao Mingyue and sometimes from Jiang Dabao. Shen Qing suggested that the payment could be made every five or ten days, but Zhao Mingyue rejected the idea, saying that in that case they would still have to keep accounts.
I lived in a village not far away, and the money had been delivered by the time I had time to keep track of it.
After receiving four dividends, the second batch of brushes was shipped!
After the pen holders were outsourced, three people were freed up. With the return of Jiang Yu, the workload in each link doubled, and the output naturally increased a lot.
The current daily output is seventy to eighty sticks, which is much more than the original agreement with Manager Lin that 300 sticks would be produced in six days.
With inventory, Shen Qing no longer has to worry about not being able to deliver the goods on the agreed date, and his psychological pressure is much less.
Early in the morning, the two brothers Jiang Xiangnan and Jiang Xiangbei packed up and set off for the city with a bamboo basket full of brushes on their backs. Shen Qing was not idle either. After breakfast, she came to Mr. Jiang's house without any delay.
Because today is the big day for making malt sugar!
When Zhou Yan saw Shen Qing, she hurriedly reported, "I soaked the glutinous rice and corn kernels last night, steamed them this morning, and kept them warm in the pot. Is that okay?"
Yesterday, Shen Qing came to check the germination level of the wheat and said that it should be ready this morning. He asked us to do the preparations first. Both families were very happy.
God knows how they have been getting through these days. It’s really harder than working!
They would rather work, especially seeing their third uncle's family busying around, they were extremely envious. Now they can finally work themselves.
Shen Qing instructed: "You can open the lid of the pot, put it in the pot when it is warm, and then cover it to keep it warm;
Let's take out the fermented malt, clean it, and crush it all. The finer the better."
The malt was sent out in several batches, so that after making it today, we don’t have to wait five or six days to make the second batch.
"good!"
The women hurried into the house to bring out the fermented malt, and gently pulled the finger-length malt from the bamboo strips by the roots, trying not to break the roots;
Then put it in a large wooden basin and wash it repeatedly.
The man brought a stone mortar and a wooden pestle to crush the cleaned malt.
Shen Qing began preparing the recipe according to the proportions in the book, mixing the mashed malt with the warm glutinous rice while giving a live instruction: "It's important to remember the respective amounts of malt and glutinous rice, as the sweetness of maltose can be controlled by adjusting the amount of each.
Too little malt will slow down fermentation—I'll tell you what fermentation is later. Too much malt will speed up fermentation, but too much will create a sour taste, which will affect the sweetness, right? So remember this."
Zhou Yan, Jiang Ying and other women nodded seriously and said they had taken note of it.
The eldest sons of their two families still have work to do in the city, and the rest of the men mostly do the physical work of pounding and working in the fields and water. The stirring and boiling processes are naturally done by the women, so they must remember them well.
Shui Qing gave everyone some time to digest and think, and then he continued, "After mixing it, let it ferment. The temperature is not high enough now. Let's fill a wooden basin with warm water that is slightly hotter than bath water, and then put the mixed malt in the wooden barrel. It will take about three hours.
I'll be back in two and a half hours. During these two or three hours, remember to add hot water and keep the water in the basin slightly hot.
The book says it's best to use the keep-warm setting on the rice cooker. If converted to warm water, it's probably slightly hotter than bath water.
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