Eric finally had the chance to bring out a small bowl of sauce that he had intentionally saved from the day before, bringing it to Boa and handing her a pair of chopsticks to taste the flavor.
"Hmm? What kind of drink is this? A bit salty but very fragrant."
Under the kid’s sparkling eyes, Boa dipped her chopsticks into a little sauce and put it in her mouth; the rich aroma made her praise it continuously.
The Ox-Head tribe’s culinary imagination was truly too poor.
Facing a thick sauce and only being able to think of diluting it to drink, Eric didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
"This is paste, made from soybeans and wheat flour. The grilled meat we ate last night was marinated with this. Besides that, it can also be used to braise vegetables, cook soup; it has many uses."
Boa exclaimed in surprise:
"The grilled meat last night was marinated with this? Brother Tu brought me a few grilled skewers; they were much tastier than the kind we grill ourselves."
With this paste, wouldn’t they also be able to make grilled meat rich in flavor like that in the future? Thinking of this, Boa was overjoyed.
Knowing that the kid wouldn’t let them taste it for no reason, Chief Tu, who had participated in the feast yesterday, smiled and said:
"Young Chief, do you want to use this to trade for food with us?"
Eric shook his head:
"My tribe didn’t have much food before, so I made very little paste; this jar is the last stock. If you want to eat more, you’ll probably have to wait a few months."
Kevin and the others behind him heard this and sighed regretfully.
Tu was a bit puzzled:
"Then what do you mean?"
"I want to use the recipe for making paste to trade for food, just like tofu. Later, the Ox-Head tribe can also use the paste to trade with other tribes," Eric giggled.
As soon as these words were spoken, Chief Tu was immediately swayed. The Ox-Head tribe was currently in a stage of being well-fed and really wanted to improve their quality of life. Moreover, the paste could be used as a commodity; it would be strange not to be moved.
Thomas and Joseph looked at Eric with eyes full of pride and comfort, deeply feeling that their young chief had grown up a lot.
Now he could handle things on his own, and furthermore, the paste recipe was entirely Eric’s own, yet he was willing to bring it out to trade for food for the whole tribe.
Pondering for a moment, Tu looked at Eric seriously and said:
"We certainly want to trade. Whether for our own consumption or as a commodity later, this paste is an excellent choice. However, as for the specific price..."
"Eh? This... I haven’t thought about it..." Eric was caught off guard by the question, scratching his head in annoyance.
Praised too soon! Thomas and Joseph rarely reached up to clutch their throbbing foreheads at the same time.
Who discusses business without thinking of the price beforehand! Truly can’t rely on anything, kid Eric! Thomas screamed internally.
But on his face, he still squeezed out a smile:
"Since it’s like this, then I’ll trouble Chief Tu to decide the price."
The difficult problem was pushed back to Tu; he couldn’t help showing a look of difficulty, thinking for a long time.
"How about this, combining with the animal skins, magic cores, pottery, and white wine from before, plus this recipe, a total transaction of five million pounds of food, plus five hundred thousand pounds of vegetables, what do you think?"
As soon as Tu finished speaking, everyone in the room stopped their movements, looking at him in astonishment; only Boa’s expression remained calm.
"Actually, Tu and I have been discussing this for the past few days. This price temporarily adds the sauce part, but we agreed on the other things beforehand. This amount of food isn’t considered much," Boa spoke up to explain.
Eric’s eyes widened, unable to believe his ears.
This isn’t considered much?
An adult Snow Wolf person in human form needed nearly two hundred pounds of food a day to be full. Their tribe, counting children, only had over a hundred people; even if they ate only grain, this food would be enough for them to use for half a year!
It must be known that previously, when the Hadu tribe went to trade for food, at most they got one million pounds. Added to the tribe’s dried meat, not a single tribesman went hungry that year.
And now, the Ox-Head tribe offered five million pounds of food for the trade. Even if this year, because they didn’t trade with the human merchant caravan, the goods they prepared were more than every year, they couldn’t be this generous. This time, not only were the tribesmen’s rations covered, but there were also plenty of seeds left over.
Eric asked suspiciously:
"Chief Tu, is this true? Is the paste recipe worth that much?"
A rough estimate, subtracting the goods they brought, just this recipe alone Tu valued at nearly three million pounds. Even if the Ox-Head tribe was gluttonous, this was just a condiment, unlike tofu which could be a main dish; it wasn’t worth that much food.
Tu laughed, his eyes benevolent:
"Not just the paste, but also the price of the tofu recipe."
Looking around at everyone in the room, he continued:
"The tofu recipe can bring us much more than just this amount of food. Even though you used it to exchange for us teaching farming, we can’t comfortably accept it for free like that. This price offered is already very reasonable."
Eric was extremely moved in his heart; boo hoo, what kind of fairy tribe was this, not taking advantage of others at all, and even being so friendly.
"Then I won’t refuse anymore. Thank you, Chief Tu; this time we don’t need to skimp on food and drink, and we still have enough seeds."
Boa gently stroked his hair:
"The young chief worries so much, be careful not to exhaust yourself."
Eric, who had the soul of an adult, blushed shyly.
Thomas also exclaimed:
"Chief Tu, you truly have helped us a great deal."
"We are mutually beneficial. Like tofu and paste, other tribes will definitely like them too; by then we can trade for quite a few good things," Tu said with a smile.
But ultimately, it was the Ox-Head tribe intentionally helping them. Eric was grateful in his heart, and suddenly had an idea:
"Aunt Boa, let me teach you how to proof dough!"
"Proof dough? Is it to make that kind of white cake? The vegetarian steamed buns last night were really soft, fluffy just like the Dwarves’ bread!" Boa was extremely overjoyed.
The Dwarves had also tried to teach the Ox-Head tribe to proof dough, but they mostly used grape wine yeast for proofing, which wasn’t easy to obtain.
Humans strictly controlled vineyards to sell wine at good prices; without connections, it was very hard to buy grapes.
Buying this from merchant caravans wasn’t easy either; among the Dwarves, only a few kept a little, and in most cases, they couldn’t bear to use it.
Previously, when Eric proofed dough, besides spending a lot of time for natural fermentation, whenever conditions allowed, he would use sourdough starter left from the previous time.
It wasn’t until he received corn from the Ox-Head tribe and ground dried corn into cornmeal that Eric managed to make yeast.
Having yeast was much more convenient. Going out, one only needed to carry a small bag; when proofing dough, sprinkle a little in, and the dough would quickly puff up, saving a lot of time and not fearing forgetting to save the starter.
There wasn’t much wheat flour ground last night left. Kevin volunteered to grind more flour despite his face still being bruised.
Eric took out a bag of yeast from his luggage; just in case, he also brought lye water.
Beastmen ground flour very quickly. Eric used a basin to hold the flour, sprinkled yeast in, then said to Boa who was observing attentively:
"This is yeast; it can speed up the fermentation process, and as long as the proofing time isn’t too long, the dough won’t turn sour."
This point was truly precious.
Dough proofed with starter or natural fermentation, no matter how much it rose, would have a sour taste. Unless lye water was used to neutralize the sourness, the food made would have an unpleasant sour smell and wouldn’t be as soft and fluffy.
Unfortunately, in this era, people were still used to eating sour bread; wealthy families would add sugar to mask it.
...
Author’s Note:
Lye water (Nước tro tàu): Lye water is a liquid filtered from a mixture of ash from burnt firewood and wood. After stirring and waiting for the ash to settle, the clear liquid is decanted or filtered; that is called lye water.
Nowadays, bakers often use baking ammonia to replace it. If baking ammonia is used at permissible levels, the ammonia smell will evaporate completely during heating. No ammonia smell => safe.
I once bought a steamed bun from an uncle at the gate of Binh Chanh district hospital. As soon as I put it in my mouth, the ammonia smell rushed up; I vomited violently, rinsed my mouth with three bottles of Lavie mineral water but still felt the smell lingering.
Oh my God, that baker must have put half a kilo of powder into the cake (T.T)
If you guys eat cakes that need to rise like steamed buns, sponge cakes... and encounter the smell of urine, remember to throw it away, don’t eat it, or you’ll meet the Lord early.