Chapter 86 0081 [Get out of the way, Im going to show off]
The method of making Dongpo pork in the Song Dynasty seems to be relatively primitive.
Lu Tixue did not stir-fry the sugar, or even stir-fry it with oil. He only lightly sautéed the meat, then poured in rice wine and soy sauce and simmered it over low heat. Of course, he also added a little salt, ginger, green onions and other condiments.
When cooking, Lu Tixue became extremely serious. He didn't say a word of nonsense in his mouth and just watched the Dongpo Pork slowly cooking.
Zhu Guoxiang asked his son: "Is there rock candy in the Song Dynasty?"
"Yes, it's called sugar frosting. The output is rare and extremely expensive." Ju Ming said.
In the late Northern Song Dynasty, sugarcane cultivation was extremely common, but there were only five rock sugar producing areas: Futang in Fujian, Siming in Zhejiang, Panyu in Guangdong, Suining in Sichuan and Guanghan.
Among them, Suining rock sugar is of the highest quality and has the highest yield.
People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. In another ten years, Suining sugar farmers will be in bad luck.
Local officials donated rock sugar to Song Huizong, and Suining's rock sugar was immediately listed as a tribute. More than 300 households that could produce high-quality rock sugar were required to pay thousands of kilograms of rock sugar as tribute every year. Coupled with the exploitation of officials and purchasing merchants, Suining's rock sugar industry grew rapidly.
The economy was in ruins, and more than half of the sugar frosting households went bankrupt and fled.
Zhu Guoxiang walked to Bai Zongwang: "Do you have any candies in your house?"
Bai Zongwang replied: "Only brown sugar."
"Where's the honey?" Zhu Guoxiang asked again.
Bai Zongwang said: "There are beekeepers in the villages further upstream, but my family doesn't have any ready-made beekeepers. I only send people to buy them when I need food."
Zhu Guoxiang said: "Give me a few pieces of brown sugar."
Bai Zongwang called his servant and quickly fetched the brown sugar.
Zhu Guoxiang came to Lu Tixue with brown sugar in his hand and said, "Tixue Rongzhen, my hometown also has this cooking method. The villagers call it Dongpo pork or braised pork. After adding sugar, it becomes even sweeter."
"Oh?" Lu Tixue was quite surprised.
Zhu Guoxiang added: "The wealthy families use icing sugar, the small wealthy families use honey, and ordinary people use brown sugar. There is only brown sugar here, so you can try it to improve your education."
Lu Tixue said: "You can give it a try."
There were many people eating meat today, so Lu Tixue made two pots and gave one pot to Zhu Guoxiang to put sugar in.
After estimating the weight, Zhu Guoxiang broke the brown sugar into pieces and sprinkled it evenly into the braised pork - brown sugar cannot boil out caramel water, so he had to sprinkle it in for seasoning.
With fellow cooks, Lu Tixue finally stopped being silent: "Your Excellency, you are also good at cooking?"
"I know a few dishes, but I don't know much." Zhu Guoxiang answered honestly.
For a few years when he was young, he not only sent his son to the countryside to graze, but the couple also lived in two places due to work. Zhu Guoxiang occasionally cooked by himself. He learned the braised pork from a Sichuan colleague.
Unfortunately, when we traveled back to the Song Dynasty, we couldn’t cook many Sichuan dishes.
It’s not that there is a lack of chili peppers, it’s that there is a lack of bean paste. Sichuan food can be made without chili peppers, but it must not be without bean paste.
Lu Tixue stood in front of the stove and said: "When I came to Lizhou Road to serve as an official, the biggest impression I had was the spicy pepper soup. In the Central Plains, pepper is used to make soup, but in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, Sichuan peppercorns are used instead. They are two completely different flavors.
.”
"Cooking is like doing work. You should adapt to local conditions." Zhu Guoxiang already knows how to chat with Lu Tixue.
Lu Tixue was really happy: "This is a wonderful statement. The products of different places are different, so we cannot insist on the original flavor."
Zhu Guoxiang only knew a few specialty dishes and was not a cooking expert. He stopped when he saw something good and immediately turned to agriculture: "The same is true for farming. The climate, water and soil are very different between the north and the south. "Essential Art for Qi Min" can be used in the north, but it needs to be used in the south.
Big discount.”
"It is true," Lu Tixue nodded and said, "Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, many new agricultural books have been compiled, especially those in the south. Your thirteen methods of interplanting can also be written into an article, together with the method of growing rice.
It will be compiled into an agricultural book. When this book is compiled, I will find someone to print it."
Zhu Guoxiang said happily: "Thank you for the lesson!"
Lu Tixue said with a smile: "Farming is the foundation of all industries, so it should be like this."
Zhu Guoxiang continued to peddle his agricultural science, and also applied the ancient world view: "All things are divided into yin and yang, and the same is true for plants. Whether crops or fruit trees, there are male and female flowers. Some are monoecious, some are dioecious, and are driven by insects and wind.
Yin and Yang copulate. When the butterflies and bees are dipped in the powder of male flowers, and then go to the female flowers to collect nectar, they can become pregnant and give birth to children. This is how food and fruits come."
"Is that so?" Lu Tixue's eyes lit up when he heard this.
Zhu Guoxiang said: "If the flowering period coincides with rainy weather, bees and butterflies will not come, and the production of grain and fruits will be reduced."
Lu Tixue combined his own experience and nodded: "That's true."
Zhu Guoxiang added: "At this time, we can artificially pollinate. We can make a kind of hair brush to transfer pollen to the style, which can also make the male and female have sex."
These words opened the door to a new world for Lu Tixue, and he wanted to study the problem of plant pollination immediately.
Most of the accompanying scholars felt very bored. Only two or three people were still standing in the kitchen, and the rest went outside to chat among themselves.
The fifth son of Lu Guanren, the richest man in Xixiang, was also there, named Lu Heng. He was the twelfth in the family, and was also called Lu Twelve Lang.
The scholar who was the first to answer the question was named Yu Dayuan. At this moment, he said angrily: "Twelve Masters, we are all famous scholars in this county, but we let a foreign boy get the limelight. Don't you think of some way to control him?"
Lu Heng said with a smile: "What can I do to control him? Even in the imperial examination, I failed twice in the examination. There is no use trying to get a higher education. You have passed the examination, so you should be the one to control him."
Another scholar named Huang Sheng said: "This man claims to have mastered the Three Classics. I'm afraid his attainments in Confucian classics are extraordinary. You must not discuss Confucian classics with him. You must use poems to make things difficult for him!"
"Yes, just use poetry!" Yu Dayuan nodded.
Huang Sheng added: "Today's meal will definitely involve drinking. You can propose a drinking order, or you can compose poems on the spot to accompany the wine to cheer up. This will definitely teach this ignorant young man how to come to Taiwan! You can also let the disciples know that there are talented people in Xixiang County.
.”
Yu Dayuan patted his chest and said, "Just write poems. I have brought many old works that will come in handy."
"I brought it with me too," Huang Sheng said with a smile.
These guys wanted to show off in front of the envoys, so they all brought poems and essays. The old works must have been revised many times. Even if Ju Ming was good at poetry, it would probably be difficult to compare with his on-the-spot creations.
Yu Dayuan immediately called all the scholars and went to a remote place to discuss quietly.
Lu Heng just squatted next to him and laughed. He was not very knowledgeable, and it was difficult for everyone to pass the examination. Moreover, his brother had already won the Jinshi, and he was the son of the richest man, so why bother with this kind of thing?
He had already seen that Lu Tixue admired the Zhu family and his son quite a lot.
To prevent the Zhu family and his son from coming to Taiwan is to prevent Lu Tixue from coming to Taiwan!
Scholars should know such a simple truth. However, those scholars were all determined to take the imperial examination and racked their brains to stand out in front of the scholars. They were so stupid that they lost their basic judgment.
The scholars were discussing how to do things, and the subordinate officials had already gone to eat. They were so tired that they had to fill their stomachs quickly, waiting for the scholar to be dispatched at any time. This scholar was intermittently crazy, and who knew he would be there soon?
What to do.
At around five o'clock in the afternoon, dinner finally started.
Three tables were set up in the courtyard of the Bai family. Lu Tixue, Xiang Zhixian, Professor Qian, Bai Zongwang, Zhu family father and son, Lu Heng and Yu Dayuan were at the main table. Bai Dalang, Bai Erlang and other scholars sat at the other two tables.
The two pots of Dongpo pork were all divided, and each person only got four pieces.
Zhu Guoxiang's twice-cooked pork has added brown sugar, which makes it darker in color. Unfortunately, there is no caramel water, so the color is not red and bright, and it does not look so pleasing to the eye.
Lu Tixue took a sip and immediately became happy: "With the sweet taste, it is indeed better to eat!"
Zhu Guoxiang said: "If there is icing sugar, you can boil caramel water and pour it into it during cooking. Not only will the aroma be rich, but the surface of the pork will also be bright in color, like red pearls."
Lu Tixue lamented: "Ice sugar is not easy to get, and the price is higher than gold and silver."
At this time, rock sugar production technology was still very primitive. It was originally a by-product of making granulated sugar (liquid brown sugar). The sugar households who mastered the technology kept this secret. Take Suining, the most developed sugar industry, there are only more than 300 households.
It can make rock candy. And the production process is time-consuming and takes more than a year.
When the new rock candy came on the market, it was sold out instantly and shipped to the Central Plains and Jiangnan for sale.
Lu Tixue lives in Hanzhong and cannot buy it even if he has money.
Although Yu Dayuan couldn't stand the Zhu family and his son, when he ate Dongpo pork with brown sugar, he waved his chopsticks and ate it. It was so delicious!
Ju Ming had done enough in the afternoon and stopped fussing, chewing steamed mutton and drinking wine.
After eating a few mouthfuls, I heard someone at the next table say: "Today we are here to study, and all the scholars from Xixiang have arrived. It can be said to be a grand gathering. We might as well share some poetry with the wine to lighten the mood."
"Poetry and wine add to the fun, it's really an elegant thing!" the scholars all agreed.
Lu Tixue just smiled. He had seen this kind of scene too many times.
Every time they visited a place for inspection, the scholars would be eager to show off. If any scholar was not popular in the local area and happened to be appreciated by Lu Tixue, he would definitely encounter difficulties from other scholars.
"I have a work, please tell me about it." Huang Sheng couldn't wait to take out the poem.
Lu Tixue finally said: "There is no need to bring out the old works. I will come up with a topic and have students compose poems on the spot. Only in this way can I show my ability."
After saying these words, half of the scholars had expressions of embarrassment on their faces.
After the imperial examination abolished poetry and poetry, fewer scholars studied this subject, and the poetry talent of the scholars in the Song Dynasty seriously declined.
"Please ask me to ask some questions." Lu Heng was the first to speak up. Anyway, he was already lying down, and he looked like a ghost in learning, and he was happy to see many scholars suffer.
Lu Tixue had a narrow-minded personality and deliberately teased everyone. He thought hard for a while: "Since we are all scholars, we will take it as a topic to do academic research."
At this time, all the accompanying scholars were dumbfounded.
The topic can be anything you want, including mountains and rivers, fields, farmhouses, wine, meals, wind and moon, seasons...these are all acceptable, and everyone can write a poem.
But taking it as a question of learning is too abstract!
None of them were in the mood to eat, they were all scratching their heads and scratching their heads.
Lu Tixue held back his laughter and asked the Zhu family and his son: "Are you two together?"
Zhu Guoxiang said directly: "I'm not proficient in poetry, and I only make people laugh when I write it. As for the dog...it's okay."
Yu Dayuan couldn't hold it in himself, and he didn't want to make Zhu Ming feel better, so he immediately said: "Since my wise brother Chenggong has mastered the Three Classics, he must also have great attainments in poetry. We are just going to ask for advice."
Zhu Ming turned around and looked at the two tables next door. These guys were all looking at him, their expressions full of... gloating!
Putting down his chopsticks, Zhu Ming pretended to be deep in thought, and suddenly recited: "The ancients spared no effort in learning, and it was only when they were young that they were able to master it. When they are old, they will only learn it on paper. They know that they have to do it."
When Zhu Guoxiang heard this poem, he almost burst into laughter.
It's so appropriate for the occasion. It not only fits the title perfectly, but also caters to Lu Tixue's academic thoughts. It also has a bit of self-effacement and secretly flatters Lu Tixue!
In the courtyard, no one spoke, and it seemed a bit lonely.
Yu Dayuan held chopsticks in his hand and looked at Ju Ming stupidly.
(Thanks to brother Hengfeng for the reward, and to all my family members for their subscriptions and monthly votes.)
(What do you say about this book? The results are actually very good. The first order was 32,000 yuan in 24 hours. However, due to an error, many people came to watch the fun. I guess the first order was a bit heavy. Based on the second chapter, it should be 20,000 yuan.
five.)
(Well, the program was very effective, and I discovered that I am a marketing genius. Haha. At the same time, I would also like to thank the editor for giving a lot of good recommendations, but Lao Wang’s mistake was a bit sorry for the editor’s hard work.)