Chapter 224 - 101: Frying Pan_3
Whenever he thought of his future happy life, with seafood and exotic ingredients at every meal, Chen Zhou always felt regret.
He had countless high-quality ingredients but lacked various seasonings, which was completely reverse from modern society.
...
With limited resources and manpower on the island, the only common seasonings he could think of that could be made were vinegar, alcohol, sauce, and salt.
Vinegar could be fermented from alcohol, and alcohol could be brewed from grapes or barley; if brewed more, it could be turned into vinegar as well.
The need for salt was basically met by the seaside drying salt ponds. Although the quality was slightly inferior, at least the yield was high; it was mainly about being filling.
During the hot dry season, every week, just by scraping the cement crystallization pool, he could harvest four or five catties of salt, more than enough for Chen Zhou's consumption, and even the goat couple could benefit from it, achieving salt freedom.
As for sauce making, it had to wait until wheat production was high enough to support the massive consumption of flour to be made.
...
Chen Zhou's third grandmother was an expert at work, skillful and dexterous, tying broom sprouts, binding feather dusters, and twisting hemp ropes were all no problem for her.
The sauce she made was rich, aromatic, and tempting; a spoonful added to stews enhanced the freshness and taste.
Or combine some minced meat, eggs, and oil, stir-fry them together, and drizzle over noodles; the flavor was simply amazing.
From her, Chen Zhou learned the method of making sauce, which mainly used old dough mantou and salt as materials.
Old dough, which is the kneaded dough left to absorb wild yeast bacteria from the air over time, had its own strains, aiding in sauce fermentation.
Break the mantou into small pieces and leave them to ferment in a dark and moderately cool place until they grow white fur, then take them out to dry.
To hasten the drying speed of the mantou, break the pieces even smaller until they are completely dried out, then placing them into a clean container.
Once the main ingredients are ready, spiced water with peppercorns, star anise, fennel, and also yeast and salt are needed.
Peppercorns, star anise, and yeast were things Chen Zhou naturally didn't have.
However, he heard from his third grandmother—
The yeast, which is the sauce starter, only affects the fermentation speed and slightly influences the sauce's taste during the sauce-making process, having no decisive role in its success.
Peppercorns and star anise are similar, only affecting the post-made sauce flavor, i.e., the difference between scoring 60 and 90, not making the sauce taste bad, only making its flavor less varied.
In the end, the most crucial ingredients are just mantou, salt, and water.
With these three, sauce can be made.
Once the broken mantou pieces are dried, prepare a clean large jar and pour the mantou pieces into it.
Then pour cooled spice water or cooled clean water into the jar, just enough to slightly cover the mantou.
While adding water, also add salt into the jar according to proportion.
According to Chen Zhou's third grandmother, heavy-tasters add four-tenths of a pound of salt per pound of mantou, those who dislike overly salty flavor add three-tenths.
After adding all the main ingredients, cover the jar mouth with cloth—usually gauze in the countryside.
At this point, the jar can be moved to basking under the sun.
The sauce jar should not be exposed to rain, and it needs stirring daily.
Generally, after a month of sun exposure, the sauce fragrance can be smelled.
Of course, strictly speaking, Chen Zhou currently did not have suitable fermentation containers.
Wooden barrels were definitely out of the question, glass containers were too small, could not hold many mantou pieces, and were inconvenient for stirring.
A big iron canister seemed like a good choice, but it was tasked with boiling water duties.
Sauce needs to be sun-dried for a month, during which using an iron kettle for boiling water means not being able to eat stews, nor conveniently cooking rice.
For this, Chen Zhou's solution was — pottery making.
He believed that before flour became abundant enough for sauce-making, he would indeed be able to build a charcoal kiln and pottery furnace and successfully fire appropriately sized pottery jars.