Chapter 105 Salted Duck

"Sister Xia didn't sleep well last night?"

"I don't know why, I woke up several times last night." Xia Mingyue yawned as she spoke.

"Then I'll boil some hot water for Sister Xia so she can wash up more comfortably." As Jiang Zhuguo spoke, he used a ladle to scoop water into the big pot.

Apply hot water to your face and all your tiredness will disappear.

"Okay." Xia Mingyue agreed with a smile.

After working for a while, He Shunzi arrived at the usual time to get the ice jelly.

"Dexin Garden said that we don't need to take the ice jelly tomorrow." He Shunzi said with a smile, "It may be that the weather is gradually getting cooler, so we won't eat this summer heat relief food anymore."

"That should be the case." Xia Mingyue nodded.

There are still quite a few false nightshade seeds left, which can be put away for next year.

Dexinyuan has earned a lot of money from this ice jelly during this period, and Xia Mingyue is very content at this time.

"I've already inquired about the bamboo sticks that Madam Xia mentioned last time. They can be made and the price is not expensive. If you calculate it based on a bundle of 100 sticks, a bundle will only cost ten cents." He Shunzi said.

"So cheap?" Xia Mingyue didn't expect it to be this price.

"Bamboo is free and the work is easy. The bamboo strippers in the village usually modify the bamboo stripping knives, fix the two blades on the frame, pass the split bamboo strips through the knife gap twice, and a bamboo stick is ready. If you sit there and do the work well, and the whole family comes to help, won't you be able to slice hundreds of bamboo strips a day?"

One hundred sticks cost ten cents, and five hundred sticks cost fifty cents. If the quantity can be fixed, a family can earn more than one or two taels of silver a month. Wouldn't that be making a lot of money?
He Shunzi smiled and said, "This price is not much that Madam Xia wants. If you can keep it for a long time, I think it can be cheaper. I will try to get it down to seven cents per bundle for Madam Xia."

"Okay." Xia Mingyue nodded, "But I haven't told you the exact quantity yet. I'll let you know when I'm sure. Then you can help me order the bamboo sticks."

"Okay." He Shunzi agreed readily, and then asked tentatively, "It's August now, Madam Xia, would you like to make some mooncakes?"

If zongzi can be made so delicious, maybe mooncakes can be the same?
If these mooncakes were sent to Dexin Garden...

Maybe you can make some good money!

"We'll see when the time comes. I haven't made a plan yet." Xia Mingyue replied with a smile, "But even if I do make it, I probably won't make too much. At most, I'll just eat it at home and give some to relatives and friends."

"Save some for Brother He when the time comes," Xia Mingyue added.

This is what I was waiting for.

He Shunzi's eyes lit up, and then he agreed with a smile, "Then I'll wait to eat the mooncakes made by Madam Xia."

It is definitely a delicious mooncake.

Xia Mingyue agreed, packed the ice jelly, and sent He Shunzi out.

Here, Jiang Zhuguo has already prepared breakfast.

Boiled eggs, cold cucumber and bean curd, leavened pancakes, and cornmeal are light and delicious.

But when Xia Mingyue peeled the egg, she found that what she had in her hand was a double yolk egg.

"Sister Xia is lucky." Jiang Zhuguo smiled, "This is an egg laid by our chicken. I picked it up in the morning and cooked it. When I was cooking it, I was wondering why the egg was so big. It turned out to be a double yolk egg."

Double yolk eggs are uncommon and are considered a good omen.

"Then I hope I can have good luck today." Xia Mingyue smiled and looked at the corner of the yard. Eating the egg reminded her that she had not eaten the live chicken and duck that He Shunzi had given her.

I never thought about this, and these two creatures were very obedient under Wu Jin's management. They never ran around in the yard, but only moved around near Wu Jin's nest and slept there at night.

Such silence made Xia Mingyue ignore the existence of these two living creatures even more.

But now that I think about it...

That's so embarrassing!

After Xia Mingyue finished her breakfast and helped prepare some ingredients, she and Jiang Zhuguo caught the ducks.

Kill, pluck and clean.

Then mix the salt with other seasonings such as onions, cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns, ginger slices, cinnamon, etc. and stir-fry until it turns yellow, then spread all over the duck.

Apply a thick layer of sauce from the inside out, stuff all kinds of seasonings into the duck's belly, wrap the duck tightly with oil paper, and drop it into the well to refrigerate.

It takes a full day and night to marinate the duck.

It was almost noon the next day when Xia Mingyue fished the duck out again and rinsed off the salt and various seasonings on it.

At this point, the duck has been marinated for a sufficient amount of time, and its skin and meat have become very firm, and its color has become whiter and tenderer.

Next, you need to cook the duck.

When cooking a duck, the heat must be precisely controlled. The water in the pot must be just barely boiling to ensure that the duck is tender and delicious.

In modern times, there are all kinds of advanced kitchen utensils that can accurately control the temperature and heat, but for the conditions at this time where there is only a firewood pot...

Xia Mingyue thought about it, first filled the pot with water, placed a small iron plate in the water, then placed a casserole used for stewing food on the iron plate, and finally placed the whole duck in the casserole and poured in enough water to submerge the duck.

This method of stewing in water can ensure that the duck is in a state of being neither boiling nor half boiling, thus retaining the overall tenderness of the duck meat to the greatest extent.

And the final result also confirmed Xia Mingyue's approach.

After the salted duck has cooled completely, it is cut into pieces and placed on the table. When you pick up a piece and put it in your mouth, the unique and delicious taste of the duck immediately spreads in your mouth...

The taste is light and delicious, but not boring. The salty and fragrant taste fully brings out the deliciousness of the duck meat. There is no need to dip it in other seasonings. It is delicious just to eat it directly.

The duck is of a perfect age, and the stewing method ensures the freshness and tenderness of the duck meat, bringing the deliciousness of the entire salted duck to a new level.

This was the first time that Xia Mingyue had eaten duck meat since she arrived here, and it was the salted duck that she loved very much in her previous life. She was eating it with relish and couldn't stop at all.

The water used to stew the duck had already become a pot of old duck soup. Xia Mingyue did not waste it. She used it to blanch some vegetables and ate them together with the salted duck.

The combination of meat and vegetables makes it twice as delicious.

Xia Mingyue was very satisfied with the meal, and Jiang Zhuguo also praised it highly.

Mrs. Lu was even more amazed. "I used to think duck meat was old and tasted like firewood sticks. It was not tasty no matter how you ate it. People here would eat chicken but not duck meat. I never thought duck meat would be so delicious."

I can’t eat enough!
It was precisely because she was not full of the salted duck that Mrs. Lu was still thinking about it after the meal, so she simply bought a duck of the right fat and leanness while going to the street to buy all kinds of ingredients needed for Xia Ji’s food stall.

(End of this chapter)