When he returned to the manor that night, Old Liu first called the cook over and asked him how to cook vegetables now.
" It's mainly made of pig fat. Just add some salt," the cook replied.
It turned out that there was no soybean oil yet, but this was not a problem for Old Liu. He already knew how soybean oil was squeezed out.
After calling Yan Liang over, Old Liu finished drawing a blueprint and asked him to go to a carpenter shop on the street with the butler tomorrow to make the things on the blueprint. The size were marked on the blueprint. It was fine to spend more money, but they had to make it tomorrow and send it to the Zhen family's Beiping Restaurant.
Yan Liang looked at Old Liu's drawing. On it was a long and thick piece of wood. The one at the bottom looked like a wooden jar, and the piece of wood at the top seemed to be inserted into the wooden jar.
With doubt, Yan Liang said," My lord, I think what you made looks like a man and a woman's thing. Why are you making this? I heard that the current emperor likes these things. Are you going to give them to the emperor?"”
Old Liu was angry and amused at the same time. He kicked Yan Liang." Why do you have so many dirty thoughts? Just do it when I tell you to. When it's done, I'll tell you what it's for."”
Yan Liang was unconvinced. He thought to himself, It's obviously that thing, but you say it's not. You even say that I'm obscene. Then I'll wait and see what it is.
In fact, what Old Liu was making now was just the most primitive oil press. He also drew a picture and asked the Zhen family's caravan to bring it back to Wuji and give it to Ma Jun to study. The picture on it was a more advanced screw press. The main parts were made of steel. With Ou Peng's help, they would probably be able to manufacture it soon.
The next day, after the morning exercise, Old Liu asked Guan Yu to lead everyone to continue training. Yan Liang and the butler went to find someone to make the oil press, and he and Jian Yong went to Beiping Restaurant.
Shopkeeper Wang had already put up the big sign that he was going to close down. The waiters and chefs had also gathered together. They were sitting in the hall on the first floor, waiting for Old Liu.
When Old Liu arrived, he saw that everyone was here, so he first asked about the kitchen.
"Masters, what spices do we need in the kitchen?”
After listening to Old Liu's question, the chefs started to talk about a lot of things. There was salt, vinegar, sauce, sugar, onions, ginger, pepper, garlic, pepper, and sesame.
Old Liu saw that there were a lot of them. How could he not be able to cook good dishes?
"What do you have?"
"It's winter now, so there's only cabbage and radish. They were all stored last year. When summer comes, there'll be cabbage, spinach, taro, radish, leeks, cucumbers, gourds, and lotus roots.”
"What about the meat? What kind of meat dishes do we usually make?"
"We have horses, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, and fish. However, we usually only make barbecued meat and meat soup.”It seemed that these were no different from today. There was probably more wild meat than today.
A chef suddenly said," There's also tofu. It's available all year round. It's just that our hotel doesn't have it. I don't know how to make it."”
With these things, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to make anything good. Old Liu decided to start with the roast duck first. After all, he didn't lack any ingredients for roast duck now.
Hence, he sent Shopkeeper Wang to find a few craftsmen on the street, then bought a thousand red bricks and some peach wood…
Pear wood, dozens of ducks, a few pieces of tofu, and 500 catties of soybeans; He also went to the blacksmith shop to buy two eight-foot-long iron rods and thirty iron hooks.
After Shopkeeper Wang left, Old Liu brought a few chefs into the kitchen and instructed them to make a dish of Beijing Sauce Shredded Pork. This time, Old Liu personally cooked it with a spoon. After it was stir-fried, it tasted very different from before. After the chefs and Jian Yong tasted it, they repeatedly praised it and the dish was swept away by them.
"Don't just eat," Old Liu said."Do you see any difference between what I cook and what you've cooked in the past?”
"The original sauce was only used to eat, not to stir-fry with the meat.”
"That's one of the reasons. Also, we're using pork fat now, so we can only eat it while it's hot. It won't taste good when it's cold, and it will coagulate together. But from tomorrow onwards, I'll let you use another kind of oil to stir-fry the dishes. By then, all these problems will be solved. Let's talk about the dish just now. I named it Beijing Sauce Shredded Pork. Remember the cooking method, and you'll be the ones to cook it in the future. Now, I'm telling you, besides the seasonings you saw, I also added some wine. This way, the fishy smell of the meat could be removed, making the meat more tender and delicious.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, memorizing the ingredients and cooking method of this dish.
Then, Old Liu made a few more dishes. They were soft fried pork tenderloin.(with pepper and salt), sweet and sour tenderloin, stir-fried beef strips, and vinegar cabbage. He taught them as he cooked and patiently answered the questions raised by these chefs. When it was noon, he let them practice again. This was great. At noon, there was a big table full of dishes. Yan Liang and a few others just happened to come back with the two things that he thought should not be made public. When they saw so many dishes, they did not stand on ceremony. In the end, after eating, they exclaimed that it was delicious. He ate almost every dish.
Shopkeeper Wang had bought everything he needed. The fruits and bricks were transported to the backyard. The tofu and soybeans were also put in the kitchen. Seeing so many dishes, Shopkeeper Wang was very surprised. After asking, he found out that it was his son-in-law who taught them how to cook. Liu asked him to sit down and have a taste. After eating, he was also surprised," Son-in-law, if you had told us how to cook these dishes earlier, our hotel would have been popular."”
"It's not too late to make it now. I'll write down some of the dishes when I get back. The ingredients and cooking methods will be clearly marked. This way, our hotel will release new dishes every day, and there will naturally be more and more customers. Also, I'll design a signature dish for our hotel tomorrow, which will definitely attract people.”
Shopkeeper Wang said," Don't worry, son-in-law. I understand. It's just that those craftsmen have come. The bricks and fruit trees are also ready. You can see what to do next."”
Old Liu asked the chef to stir-fry the soybeans first, then put them into a wooden barrel and mashed them with a rice pounding tool. It was fine as long as they were not too crushed. The chefs hurriedly went to work.
He found an empty room in the backyard and placed the oil press that Yan Liang brought back inside. The wooden tank below was placed on a stone slab...
After fixing it, he used a nail to nail a small hole at the bottom. Then, he used a split bamboo to remove the bamboo joints inside. He inserted one end under the small hole and placed the other end diagonally into a ceramic basin.
Then, Old Liu picked up the very thick stick and inserted it into the wooden tank below to try it. As expected, it worked very well, and there was basically no gap.
Seeing Old Liu try, Yan Liang said to Old Liu,""My Lord, I said that you were doing that thing, but you refused to admit it. Looking at your actions just now, weren't you imitating the actions between a man and a woman?”
Old Liu was furious." Gongji, how do you know about the relationship between men and women? You'll know what they're used for in a while."”
Ignoring him, Old Liu went to the courtyard and instructed the craftsmen to build a duck roasting stove against the wall. Two iron rods were placed horizontally inside and the thirty hooks were hung on the iron rods.
While the craftsmen were busy outside, Old Liu didn't rest either. He asked the waiters to help smash the soybeans while he led a few chefs to slaughter the ducks he had bought. He removed the feathers, blood, and internal organs. Then, he poured boiling water on the ducks until the duck skin was scalded until it shrank. Then, he placed the ducks in a porcelain basin. He wiped the duck inside and outside with white wine, added some salt, onions, and ginger, and marinated it for a while.
Seeing that it was about time, he dissolved the syrup with boiling water and hung the ducks up. He asked the chef to brush the syrup evenly on the ducks and told the chefs,"Every half an hour.”
After all this was done, Old Liu saw that there were almost 200 catties of crushed soybeans, so he asked the waiters to carry the crushed soybeans to the room where the oil press was placed. He placed about 50 catties into the wooden tank, then inserted the thick rod on it, then found a sledgehammer and handed it to Yan Liang. Old Liu said,"Use the hammer to hit that piece of wood. Be careful not to let it retreat.”
It seemed that he had misunderstood. However, what could he smash out of these broken soybeans? With some curiosity, Yan Liang began to wave the sledgehammer non-stop and smash the wood on top.
In order to prevent the wood from falling out, Old Liu had someone tie a rope to the wood. Then, one end of the rope was tied to the wall and the other end was pulled by a waiter. This way, the wood on top would not fall out.
After smashing for more than an hour, Yan Liang was exhausted. Old Liu quickly replaced him and continued smashing.
Two hours later, soybean oil began to seep out from the small hole below and gradually became a small stream. In less than fifteen minutes, a porcelain basin was filled. Old Liu quickly asked someone to take away the full basin and replace it with a new one.
Jian Yong saw that the sky had already turned dark, so he quickly reminded Old Liu that he still had to go to his teacher Lu Zhi's place. Today, there would be some ministers from the court coming to Lu Zhi's house for dinner.
It was estimated that a porcelain basin could hold ten catties of oil. Old Liu asked Yan Liang to continue smashing. When he was tired, he would change to someone else. When there was no more oil flowing out, he could pour out the broken soybeans in the wooden jar and put in another fifty catties. He continued to repeat the previous process until the two hundred catties of soybeans that had been smashed today were all smashed.
He asked the chef to use the soybean oil that he had just squeezed out to fry a plate of each dish that he had taught them today. He also made a green onion mixed with tofu (there were no scallion at this time). Then, he packed all these dishes into the food box. He and Jian Yong hurried out of the house…
The horse ran to Lu Zhi's house.
Fortunately, the hotel was not very far from Lu Zhi's house. The two of them rode for less than fifteen minutes and arrived at the door of the Lu residence.
Lu Zhi was worried that Liu Bei had not arrived. He had to accompany the guests and could not leave, so he sent his eldest son Lu Min to wait at the door.
When she saw Old Liu and Old Liu arrive, Lu Min quickly said,"Xuande, why are you so late? The lords have already arrived. My father wants to send someone to look for you, but he doesn't know where you live.”
"Yes, it's a mistake, but I had to prepare some dishes to go with the wine for the lords, so I came late. Brother Lu, don't blame me, I'll go in with you now.”
The two of them followed Lu Min into the Lu residence and went straight to the living room.
After entering the living room, Old Liu realized that there was a big table in the living room today. There were five people sitting around the table. Teacher Lu Zhi sat at the head of the table. He did not know the other four.
Seeing that Old Liu had finally arrived, Lu Zhi was a little unhappy. In order to help him, he had invited a few old friends, but Old Liu, who was the main character, had only arrived now. Thus, he said to Old Liu,"Xuande, where did you go? Today, I specially invited a few lords over to introduce you. Why are you only here now?”
Hearing the teacher's strict words, Old Liu also knew that people were very punctual at that time. His behavior was very rude, so it was normal for his teacher to be angry.
He bowed to everyone and said,""Milords, please forgive me. Since this is my first time meeting you, I wanted to prepare some dishes to go with wine for you, so I came late.”
Then, he quickly asked Jian Yong to take out those dishes and put them on the table.
Seeing how polite Old Liu was to everyone and how he was Lu Zhi's student, the adults did not say anything.
When they saw the few dishes that Jian Yong had placed on the table, the fragrance that came out was very tempting. The few of them could not help but look at each other. What kind of dish was this? Why had he never seen it before, let alone eat it?
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Old Liu hurriedly said,"This is to show respect to you, sirs. I personally instructed the chef of my Beiping Restaurant to make it. Please try it and see if it's delicious.”
In the end, before Lu Zhi could introduce it to everyone, everyone could not wait to eat it. Accompanied by endless praises, the few dishes were quickly swept into everyone's stomachs.
The few of them ate happily and looked at Old Liu differently. It seemed that their trick had worked.
Seeing that everyone had finished eating, Lu Zhi said to Old Liu,"Liu Bei, let me introduce you. This is the current Grand Commandant, Lord Yang Ci. This is Counselor Cai Yong. This is Minister Ma Ri, and this is General Huangfu Song.”
Following Lu Zhi's introduction, Old Liu hurriedly bowed to these people one by one.
After introducing them, Lu Zhi said to them,"This is my student, a relative of the Great Han Dynasty, the hero who defeated the Wuhuan army last year, Liu Bei and Liu Xuande of Zhuo County.”
The men quickly said,"Zi Gan, what are you talking about? Liu Bei is young and promising. He is a rare talent among the younger generation of the Han Dynasty. In the future, he will become a pillar of the Han Dynasty. It is rare."”
He recalled what he had eaten just now…
Delicious. Yang Ci said,"Xuande, you said that you instructed the chef to make all these?" Where did you learn it from? However, to be honest, these dishes are indeed the best I've eaten in my life! It seemed that I would have to come here often to eat Xuande's dishes.”
"Commandant, I learned the cooking methods of these dishes from the local chefs when I went overseas for business. Commandant, if you want to eat them, you can go to the Beiping Restaurant opened by my father-in-law's family in Luoyang. Later on, I will introduce all the dishes that I have learned. You are all good friends of my teacher. You don't have to pay the bill there. You just need to sign your names.”
As expected, they did things appropriately. Although Old Liu was a junior, the few of them still thanked him. Old Liu quickly waved his hand." I don't deserve it. You're too polite. You're all my elders. It's only right to show filial piety to you."”
When they were chatting, Lu Zhi told them that Liu Bei had a better understanding of the current situation than him, so he wanted to know Liu Bei's opinion, especially Cai Yong, who was fascinated by Liu Bei's new genre of songs. So after everyone had eaten and drunk, they removed the leftovers and each took a bowl of tea to start talking about business.
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This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]