The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Working on glass made Min Xi realize that scientific research is much more difficult than engineering design.

Fortunately, Dan Yangzi was very interested in making colored glaze and was full of fighting spirit. In order to make colored glaze, he simply moved from Baiyun Temple to Yun's house and lived in Xiangxiang Garden. He ate, drank and lived here every day. When he woke up, he would think about the colored glaze kiln, which made him find the joy of refining the elixir.

Therefore, the main work of subsequent research on colored glaze is still done by Danyangzi, including rebuilding the kiln and making containers. Min Xi is almost a hands-off boss.

After nearly a month, Danyangzi finally burned out molten silica sand.

Min Xi had some impression of glass production. He had seen a video of glass blowing, so he tried it. But it was not as easy as he thought. It required a strong lung capacity. He blew so hard that his cheeks hurt. He also did not get the desired effect. The silica sand on the other end of the blowpipe cooled and solidified.

Seeing this, Danyangzi also tried to blow it, but he was not much better than Min Xi. As two novices, they still had a lot to learn.

The first time I burned the liquid silica sand with great difficulty, I didn’t make anything decent.

But this still gave Min Xi and Dan Yangzi confidence. At least they were able to burn liquid silica sand. As for blowing glass, they would get better with practice.

When Yun Ji came back, he heard Min Xi excitedly reporting today's results to him: "We finally burned out liquid silica sand. Look, this is what I blew out this afternoon."

Min Xi showed Yun Ji a gray-black round object as if he was presenting a treasure.

Yun Ji took it and found it a bit heavy. It was basically solid, but the surface was very smooth, a bit like the texture of glass products. "What is this?"

Min Xi said proudly: "It's just a piece of glass."

Yun Ji lowered his head and took a closer look. It was opaque, but it was definitely not made of porcelain. It was transparent, but he couldn't see any light through it. "What can this be used for?"

Min Xi chuckled: "It's useless, just a souvenir. It's the first time I made a glass souvenir. I wanted to blow it into a vessel. But my cheeks were sore from blowing it, so I only blew it into this. It's too difficult to blow." He rubbed his cheeks when he said this.

Yun Ji said, "Let me help you."

"Okay, I'll call you next time. But it won't work today. I didn't burn much, and the Taoist priest and I tried to blow it together, but we couldn't blow anything out. As a result, the liquid glass solidified and had to be put back into the furnace. It's a pity." Min Xi said.

"Then call me next time and I'll help you blow it." Yun Ji held the black lump of colored glass and said, "Keep this for me. It's the first colored glass you made."

Min Xi smiled and said, "It's just a lump, if you want it, keep it."

The pain in Min Xi's cheek took two days to get better. During these two days, he didn't even dare to eat hard food. He could only eat soft food for fear that the hard food would hit his cheek.

By the time his cheeks had healed, the second furnace of liquid silica sand was finally ready. This time, with experience, he burned more liquid silica sand and divided it into many small portions, taking it out as he needed it, so that the liquid in the furnace would not solidify.

They also specially chose to open the furnace when Yun Ji was at home. Min Xi made the liquid silica sand into a ball and handed it to Yun Ji. After all, Yun Ji was a martial artist with a large lung capacity, so he was the first one to blow out a glass bubble.

Min Xi hadn't figured out what to blow, so he asked Yun Ji to blow hard. As a result, he blew out a big glass ball, which was as big as a small watermelon.

Yun Ji stopped and said, "I can't blow it anymore."

Min Xi looked at the gray glass ball and was somewhat delighted: "It has cooled down and is difficult to blow. So let's just leave it like this. Cut it off."

Yun Ji took a sharp dagger and, while the glass ball was still soft, quickly cut a circle along the bottom of the blowpipe. The glass ball turned into a glass cover and gently fell on the wooden board.

The weather was already cold, and the glass cover quickly cooled down. Min Xi picked up the cover and said in surprise, "Haha, it's really nice, it's translucent."

Yun Lin also looked at the glass cover curiously: "Second brother, what is this for?"

Min Xi looked at the round-bottomed glass cover and said, "It really seems to be useless. Next time we blow it, we can pinch it into another shape."

So Yun Ji cooperated with Min Xi, blowing out the gourd, blowing out the glass cup, and even making two glass lampshades. Unfortunately, they were gray, not transparent, and the light transmittance was not that good, but compared with the ox horn lamp in the palace, the effect should not be much worse.

Min Xi picked up a glass lampshade and handed it to Yun Lin: "Lin'er, this will be your lampshade. When you read at night, the candlelight will not sway everywhere, and it will not hurt your eyes so much."

"Thank you, second brother!" Yun Lin took it happily and looked at it in his hands.

Min Xi planned to keep the other lampshade for himself.

Danyangzi also tried to blow two. This time he had some experience, so he just made a mold based on the imported glass cup sample that Yunji brought, and he actually made it 70% like the original.

Min Xi looked at the all-gray colored glass products and said, "European glass has a variety of colors. We can also try to add some mineral pigments to it. Maybe the color of the glass will become more diverse." If we sell it in this way, the colorful colored glass will definitely have a better market than the gray one.

Yun Ji said, "I have a lot of mineral pigments. You can try some."

"it is good!"

Green and blue landscapes were popular in the Ming Dynasty. The pigments used by painters, such as azurite, malachite, cinnabar and orpiment, are basically minerals. Putting them in silica sand may produce different effects.

Of course, what Min Xi wanted most was transparent glass, which required removing impurities from the silica sand, which was actually very difficult for them now.