Is the beginning of a catastrophe? The little farm cook is raising a family with a full warehouse.

"As long as you like it, it's fine. Take this whole bag and eat it on the way."

"By the way, you like that hawthorn cake, right? I'll give you the last few pieces left. If you think it's too salty, just take it out and press it down. The salty and sweet combination will make it even more delicious."

Shen Shulan took the two oil paper bags, one large and one small, with surprise. Feeling the heat from the pancakes, her heart also felt warm.

Watching the last hawthorn cake being given away, Cheng Jingzhu and Cheng Yueli couldn't help but look resentful. They slowed down the speed of chewing the pancakes and their eyes were glued to the small bag of oil paper.

Cheng Yuntao noticed their reluctance and pinched the two children's faces with a smile.

"Oh, if you like it, I can make it for you in a couple of days."

"Sister Shen has finally come here, please give her some space."

Cheng Jingzhu and Cheng Yueli looked at each other and felt that what Cheng Yuntao said made sense. As long as their sister was there and as long as the hawthorn trees in the valley still bore fruit, it would not be difficult to eat hawthorn cakes again.

"Okay, then sister, take us to pick wild hawthorns in a couple of days."

Cheng Yuntao nodded immediately, indicating that this little thing was not difficult at all.

Looking at the pitiful eyes of the two children, Shen Shulan felt a little embarrassed, but she was reluctant to give up the hawthorn cake she had already obtained.

After thinking for a moment, he took out the purse he was carrying, took out some silver from it and handed it to Cheng Yuntao.

"I don't have much silver on me, so this is all I can offer as a token of my gratitude."

"Miss Yuntao, please don't refuse. Please accept it quickly. If you want to live in Junhua City in the future, you will need some money to prepare."

"When you arrive, I will definitely do my best to be a good host and treat you well."

Seeing Shen Shulan's sincere face, Cheng Yuntao couldn't refuse any more, so she took the silver and put it in her arms.

"Since Sister Shen has said this, there is no reason for me to refuse. I will accept the money."

"It's getting late now, and the mountain road is difficult to walk on. I'll show you the way down the mountain early, so that it won't be dark and it will be even more difficult to walk."

Seeing that she accepted the thanks so promptly, Shen Shulan felt relieved and followed Cheng Yuntao with a smile.

After leaving the cave, Cheng Yuntao led her for a short walk and briefly introduced the mountain and the surrounding villages on the way, so that Shen Shulan could feel more at ease.

After nimbly bypassing several obstacles, the way down the mountain became much clearer, and Cheng Yuntao planned to say goodbye to Shen Shulan here.

"Sister Shen, I'll take you here. Just keep walking down this path."

"The mountains are high and the road is long. I look forward to seeing you again someday."

Shen Shulan nodded repeatedly, waved with a smile, turned and left. Cheng Yuntao did not turn back until her figure completely disappeared at the end of the mountain road.

After returning to the cave, she checked the seasoning jars one by one and found that she had made a lot of sweet foods during this period of time. The sugar was consumed very quickly and was almost half used up.

White sugar is expensive, and even the Xu family did not buy a lot at once. Cheng Yuntao felt that it was time to make sugar by themselves.

It's not just sugar. There are many kinds of seasonings in daily necessities such as rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. If you want the dishes to have a delicious flavor, you cannot do without the addition of seasonings.

Cheng Yuntao planned to start with sugar and begin brewing all kinds of seasonings by herself, so that she would not have to worry about running out of seasonings and not having a supply.

……

The frosting process is a delicate and meticulous one, consisting of four main steps.

One of them is sugarcane processing.

Cheng Yuntao cut a batch of sugarcane from his portable farm, filling up the open space in the center of the cave.

The whole family mobilized and everyone helped to carefully peel the sugarcane to remove the rough skin that might affect the purity and taste of the sugar juice.

The sugarcane is then chopped into suitable small pieces and placed in a heavy grinding tool. The rich sugar juice contained in it can be squeezed out through grinding, making full preparations for the subsequent extraction process.

The whole family peeled sugarcane from day to night. At the beginning, Cheng Jingzhu and Cheng Yueli still had time to chew the sugarcane, but later when their hands and feet were sore from peeling, they started shaking their heads at the sight of the sugarcane.

The second is steaming.

The crushed sugarcane is then steamed in a steamer. During the steaming process, the heat and time must be precisely controlled to ensure that the sugarcane is thoroughly steamed.

Because there were only two iron pots on the stove, Cheng Yuntao had to repeat the steaming action several times before all the sugarcanes were steamed.

Every drop of raw material is precious, and waste is minimized. Steaming the sugarcane softens its internal fiber structure, making the sugar easier to extract.

Under strong pressure, the sugar juice in the sugarcane is continuously squeezed out to form relatively pure sugarcane juice, which is the basic raw material for making frosting.

The third is to boil sugar water.

Pour the squeezed sugarcane juice into a large pot and start the boiling process.

This process requires slow cooking over medium-low heat, with constant stirring to prevent the syrup from sticking to the pan and burning, which would affect the quality and flavor of the frosting.

This step is the most torturous. The spatula in hand must be used almost all the time. Everyone takes turns, and whoever's hands are sore will be replaced by the next person.

Cheng Jingzhu and Cheng Yueli have always loved sweet things. After they made sugar themselves and understood the difficulty involved, they began to treasure sweets even more.

Because making sugar is so difficult!

As time goes by, the sugarcane juice in the pot will gradually become thicker, the water will continue to evaporate, and the sugar concentration will continue to rise.

When the sugar juice becomes thick enough, the prepared bamboo strips are evenly inserted into the jar, and then the boiled thick sugar water is slowly poured into the jar.

These bamboo pieces play a key role in crystallization cores during the subsequent frosting process, helping the frosting to form.

The physical work of making sugar has come to an end, but it is not so easy to eat real sucrose and you need to wait for a long time.

The fourth is frost.

When the thick sugar water is poured into the jar filled with bamboo strips, due to the changes in the environment inside the jar and the induction of the bamboo strips, the sugar in the sugar water begins to gradually gather and crystallize, slowly forming small pieces of frosting.

This process is relatively slow, starting from the time the sugar water is put into the vat, and it takes several months for the frosting to completely solidify.

After the frosting is completed, you need to scoop out the sugar water in the jar first, then carefully take out the frosting in the jar and place it on a specific container or tool to drain the remaining water, and finally get a pure, white and unique-tasting frosting product.

However, if you are in a hurry to use it, you can take some and expose it to the sun to speed up the evaporation of the moisture.

There is a slight difference in taste, but when added to dishes, it is actually not that obvious.