Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 433 How to pickle a jar of pickles is a very mysterious thing

Shen Yu put the dough into the pot one by one and asked Yutao to watch over it. When it turned golden brown, he could take it out and drain the oil.

The two sisters were busy for more than half an hour, one rolling the dough while the other frying it, before they finally put the last few dozen dough pieces for the fried noodles into the pan.

A large tray was filled with fried dough sticks.

By the time Yutao took out the last batch of fried fruits from the pan, all the sweet, golden, crispy, and exquisitely fried dough twist-shaped fruits were ready.

Shen Yu cleaned up the dough board, picked up a cooled fried dough fruit, broke it in half, ate half himself and put the other half to Yutao's mouth.

Yutao held the colander in her hand, giggled, opened her mouth to take it, and there was a crisp "click" sound.

She smiled and said, "It's so sweet, crispy and fragrant."

Shen Yu also tried it. Perhaps because it was fried together with two layers of dough without sugar, it was not as sweet as he had imagined.

Although it tastes a little sweeter than ordinary cakes, it tastes really good, crispy and sweet. As soon as you eat it, you immediately get the flavor of the New Year.

After the fried noodles are ready, the assorted side dishes are much simpler, with a total of four side dishes, two of which are small pickles, and the other two are two home-cooked cold dishes.

Pickled radish and pickled cabbage are two essential pickled vegetables on every household’s winter table. The only difference lies in the skills and success of each family’s pickling.

Although the steps of pickling vegetables are simple, in the eyes of women, it is a very mysterious and uncontrollable thing.

I heard that even if two ladies in the same family pickle vegetables at the same time, using the same large vat, the same ingredients, and the same pickling recipe, the quality of the pickled vegetables can vary.

Some ladies can pickle the vegetables well even if they are careless and casual, and the taste is fragrant and not bad.

Some ladies followed the pickling recipe carefully at every step, being extremely cautious and not daring to make any mistakes.

But for some reason, the pickled vegetables were either sour or smelly. If only one out of ten times of pickling was good, we would consider it a fluke.

Shen Yu was thinking, are these ladies sending each other pickled vegetables to show off that their pickled vegetables won't go bad? Are they really an expert at pickling vegetables?

But what should those ladies who always fail to pickle vegetables do at this time?

Thinking of this, Shen Yu couldn't help but mutter to himself as he prepared to mix the pickles.

Yu Tao laughed as she listened: "Sister, don't forget, there is a pickle and bean paste factory over at the East Street Market."

"Then those ladies who can't make good pickles can only buy them."

“It’s just that the pickles you buy have fewer varieties and are not as good as the ones you pickle at home.”

"I always pickle it very salty because I'm afraid it will go bad, and I have to wash it several times with warm water before eating it."

"But after washing, the pickles taste lighter and lack that salty aroma. You can tell from one bite that serious ladies who cook don't like to eat this kind of pickles."

As Shen Yu listened to Yutao's words, he inexplicably felt sympathy for those ladies who did not pickle vegetables well.

She smiled helplessly and said, "This is really a dilemma. I can't pickle it well myself, and the ones I buy don't taste good either."

"Wouldn't that tell everyone that I can't make pickles well and that I'm a woman with poor cooking skills?"

Yu Tao nodded and smiled, "Pickled vegetables are indispensable in every household in winter. If the pickled vegetables are not pickled well, it is easy for people to complain about them."

"That's why mom is particularly worried that we won't be able to pickle the vegetables properly."

"A few days ago, we opened the two jars of radishes that we pickled together. Mother and Aunt Jiang were relieved after tasting them."

"Mother even told me in secret that she was worried all night before opening the jar of pickled vegetables, fearing that the vegetables we pickled would go bad."

Shen Yu was stunned by these words. He couldn't help but feel lucky that he had insisted on not touching the radishes with his hands during every step of the process.

After the pickle jar is washed with boiling water, it is sprayed with white wine, and the entire process of pickling and stirring is done with dried new bamboo chopsticks.

In fact, the key to successful pickling is to keep the pickled vegetables clean and avoid contact with raw water which may breed bacteria.

Shen Yu summed it up in his mind and decided to tell Yutao that next time when he pickled vegetables, he must pay attention to hygiene, which is the key to preventing the pickled vegetables from going bad.

The two sisters chatted and laughed while they cut the pickles, added some balsamic vinegar and sesame oil to mix them, and put them aside.

When you are ready to give it as a gift tomorrow, just use bamboo chopsticks to pick up some on the platter.

Home-cooked side dishes are more casual. Two pieces of fried tofu are considered a dish, and so are some seasoned bean sprouts.

Li was planning to give a platter of side dishes to a few ladies she was close to, one of which was spiced dried tofu and the other was the delicate flower jelly.

Everything was ready. In the evening, Li put the ingredients for the eight-treasure porridge in a large soup pot to cook. She also checked the prepared fried noodles and assorted side dishes before going to bed with peace of mind.

Early the next morning, as soon as the restaurant opened, Li started to get busy.

She carried the pot of cooked eight-treasure porridge onto the small cart, and placed the large trays of fried noodles, fruits and various side dishes in place one by one. Then she asked Yucheng and Dundun to follow her to deliver the eight-treasure porridge to the ladies.

After delivering the food around, he also delivered some fried dough sticks to the shops where he and Shen Yu usually ate.

However, there is no need for customers to give gifts to each other like they do to ladies. They only need to give some fried dough fruits that are suitable for the festival.

Shen Yu did not forget about the academy and the county government, and prepared one for each and asked Zhou Dalang to deliver it.

When Shen Yu went to the store to deliver Eight Treasure Porridge, he would often see people on the street delivering Eight Treasure Porridge by pulling food on small carts, or by carrying a basket together.

Shen Yu had never seen such a scene before and found it fresh and interesting.

Perhaps there were not many entertainment programs in ancient times, so people took every festival seriously and tried every means to make them interesting, in order to spice up their dull daily lives.

After giving out the Eight Treasure Porridge, ladies came one after another to give out Eight Treasure Porridge as gifts.

The result of giving gifts to each other was that for several consecutive days, there were eight-treasure porridge, fried noodles, and assorted side dishes of various flavors on the table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Shen Yu couldn't help but think of the Mid-Autumn Festival in modern times, when people always had to eat a variety of mooncakes. This was very similar to the scene now.

Fortunately, Laba Festival falls in the coldest part of winter. If we had given so much food to each other in the summer, we would not be able to finish it and it would have gone bad.

Wasting food is a sin.

After a few days, the inn that Shen Yu had been looking forward to the most was finally completed.

First, the backyard alley was cleaned up, and there was no more noise from the craftsmen working.

Then a day later, Lu Lang asked Qi Xi to come and tell him that he had inspected the inn and found that the building was very solid and practical.

Shen Yu can go over to see the house at any time and start renovating it for the opening of the inn.