Travel to ancient times and become rich women with your bestie

"I figured it out! Chitosan!"

"what is that?"

"To put it simply, it is what you get from deacetylation of chitin from crabs, shrimps, insects, etc. First, wash the shells and soak them in an acid solution to remove the protein in the shells. Then soak them in potassium permanganate and then rinse them with water. Then heat them and add an acid solution to wash them with water, dry them, and then add them to a high-temperature sodium hydroxide solution..."

As Zheng Yuan spoke, her voice became lower, and Duan Minmin knew why. The acid she was talking about required strong acid, potassium permanganate, and high-purity sodium hydroxide, which were difficult to prepare, so this chitosan was also useless.

Zheng Yuan was a little frustrated: "Why don't we make the jar smaller and put in about a week's worth of liquid at a time, and try to prevent it from getting moldy before it's all used up."

"That's a solution. It doesn't matter. If you can't think of one for now, we can propose to Mr. Jiang to produce jars according to this amount. Don't worry, let's do it this way for now. We still have to cook dinner for Mr. Jiang later, so don't think about it." Duan Minmin rubbed her head.

"Cooking? Hey! I figured it out!"

"Ouch!"

Zheng Yuan raised his head and bumped into Duan Minmin's chin. Duan Minmin covered her chin with her hands, tears welling up in her eyes, silently accusing Zheng Yuan.

"Hold on! Hold on! Forgive me, Amin. I just suddenly thought of how to make this preservative. I was so excited. Hold on, hold on, I'll blow it for you."

Duan Minmin stretched out her hand and pushed Zheng Yuan's pouting face away: "Don't be disgusting, tell me what you have come up with so that you can atone for your crime, otherwise I will punish you by making you cook but not eat tonight!"

"Okay! Sister! Back then, our lab was on the same floor as the one in the food department. They cooked braised chicken or goose every day, which made us very greedy. I went to their lab quite often, and all the experimental samples they couldn't finish were mine. In fact, you said it would have been nice if I had studied food at that time..."

"That's enough, stop talking. You're going to drool." Duan Minmin interrupted Zheng Yuan's memories and pointed at the corner of Zheng Yuan's mouth with disgust.

"Hehe! I'm lost in the memories of delicious food." Zheng Yuan wiped the corner of his mouth embarrassedly.

"In fact, there are many preservatives in nature, such as propolis, allicin, tea polyphenols, and even some bacteria can secrete antibacterial substances. I can't remember what bacteria they are, and we can't use them. There is another thing that is even more shocking, that is, there is a kind of protein in fish sperm, which can also be a preservative, but of course we can't use it. Didn't we just say that propolis or peach gum can be used as a thickener? Since propolis can be used as a preservative and a thickener, let's choose propolis. What do you think?"

"I think it's okay, and it seems that propolis can protect teeth, so let's do it."

Having finally solved the most important recipe problem, the two sisters walked out of the kitchen refreshed.

After receiving Mr. Jiang's order, Ah Ji was already standing under the eaves, waiting for the food delivery man to come and go with him. Mr. Jiang was not seen, so he must be taking a nap.

"Aji, go sit down in the main room. Even if that person comes, you have to eat before leaving. Why are you standing here?"

"It's okay, madams. I'll stand here so I can know what happens when our young master wakes up." Aji said to them in a low voice.

"Aji, don't call us Madam. It makes me uncomfortable. Just call us Aunt." Zheng Yuan couldn't stand Aji calling her Madam all the time, so he corrected Aji's address in a low voice.

Aji nodded, without saying anything or moving.

The two men had no choice but to bring a stool and place it at his feet so that he could sit down whenever he wanted.

The sun has started to set now, it's probably around four or five o'clock.

Aji and the others have to hurry back to town, so they have to have dinner a little earlier. We can't do anything that would make them travel on an empty stomach.

Zheng Yuan went back to the kitchen to look through the frozen meat from yesterday. The ice had almost melted. There were still three chickens, two geese, a lot of pork ribs and pork belly in the bucket, and countless vegetables piled up next to them. If we can't finish it tonight, we have to deal with all these things and send some to Mrs. Chen after dinner.

Looking at the goose, Zheng Yuan thought of a famous dish from Northeast China: goose stewed in an iron pot.

It just so happened that there was a small iron pot among the things delivered yesterday, but I couldn’t find a table on which to place the pot.

Zheng Yuan thought about it and decided to build a small stove next to the firewood pile. When he had time later, he would go to Carpenter Li to see if he could make a table like the one used in future restaurants for making Northeastern iron pot stews.

"Amin, come here quickly, let's build a stove." Zheng Yuan greeted Duan Minmin while holding two buckets.

"What?" Duan Minmin scratched her ears to indicate that she had heard correctly.

"You heard me right, come here, let's go and smooth things over."

Zheng Yuan gave a bucket to Duan Minmin, took her arm and told her his thoughts.

“Okay, I’m drooling over the pancakes soaked in the soup from the goose stewed in the iron pot just thinking about it. Don’t worry, this stove is definitely well built, after all, Longing for Life was not in vain.” Duan Minmin rubbed her hands excitedly.

The two of them carried two half-buckets of yellow mud from the backyard and poured them beside the firewood pile, cut some straw and put it in, added water and mixed it evenly. They also moved a few pieces of soil from the corner of the wall. There was some left when the house was built, which was just right for them.

Relying on the little skills they learned from variety shows, the two of them actually built a decent stove.

Of course, this is just what they think. Aji frowned as he watched from the side. Why are these two aunts building this stove as if they were playing house? Are they going to use this crooked stove to cook?

Zheng Yuan and Duan Minmin didn't care what he thought. They lifted the small iron pot and surrounded it. The more they looked at it, the more satisfied they were. They stuffed straw into it to dry it, and then started to stew the goose in the iron pot.

When it came to lighting the fire, they were in trouble again. Sanni was not here today and there was no one to light the fire. The two of them really couldn't do it.

"Aji, come over and help us light the fire." The two of them hesitated for a long time without any success and finally asked Aji for help.

Aji took the flint and steel and lit the fire in no time.

He was very confused. How could a woman who had lived in the village all her life not know how to light a fire? Moreover, Aunt Zheng looked like she often cooked, but she didn't know how to light a fire. Seeing them rub the flint and sparks flew three meters away, Aji was really full of question marks.

The two of them naturally saw the confusion on Aji's face, but they could only pretend not to know. After all, not being able to light a fire is not a shameful thing, right?

After lighting the fire outside, Duan Minmin was in charge of watching and picking up any leaks or falling over. Zheng Yuan took Aji to the kitchen to light the fire, cooking inside and stewing the goose outside, just in time for dinner.

After the rice was cooked, Zheng Yuan chopped the two geese into large pieces. The livestock and poultry of that era were much smaller than they are today, so two geese were just enough to eat.

The goose has been chopped and is almost cooked in the stove outside. Even if it is not cooked enough, we have to start, otherwise the goose may not be stewed until soft.

Add water, ginger, onion, peppercorns and rice wine to the pot, pour in the goose and blanch it. When the blood foam is almost out, scoop it out, wash the floating foam and drain the water.

Pour oil into the pot, add the goose when the oil is hot and stir-fry until the water is completely evaporated, then add the onion, ginger, star anise and other seasonings and stir-fry evenly, add soy sauce and stir-fry evenly again, then add water to cover the goose.

Finally, I threw some dogwood in, covered the pot and started to simmer. It still needs to be a little spicy to taste good. From the experience of eating cold noodles today, everyone in the family can eat a little spicy.

The next step was to hand it over to Duan Minmin, who was told to beat out the foam and then boil it over high heat until the soup was half done before calling him.

Zheng Yuan went into the kitchen, took out the cornmeal, mixed it with flour, and kneaded it into dough for later use. He also soaked some dried beans and dried mushrooms, and later added them with cabbage and other ingredients to stew. The vegetarian dishes in the iron pot were also very delicious.