"Growing wheat?"

As soon as Nesten heard what Hefu said, he knew what he was thinking.

"You plan to let the counties of Neishi increase the planting of wheat around the beginning of autumn......"

The "Su Wheat" mentioned by Nei Shi Teng is the name of winter wheat in this year, and wheat is a foreign variety, which was only introduced to the Central Plains during the Yin and Zhou dynasties. In the beginning, the cultivation season of wheat was the same as that of the original crops such as millet and millet, that is, spring planting and autumn harvesting.

But gradually, the Zhou farmers, who were good at growing crops, found that wheat was more resistant to cold than millet but less resistant to drought, and the most suitable for wheat sowing and growing was not spring but autumn. So, when an unknown Zhou farmer tried to save a handful of wheat seeds until early autumn before sowing them, winter wheat, or "Sumai", came into being.

Because most of the grain crops in the north are planted in spring and harvested in autumn, there is often a shortage of green and yellow crops in summer every year, causing a food crisis, and winter wheat is harvested in summer, which can continue to be scarce and alleviate food shortage, so it has been paid attention to and successfully ranked among the five grains.

Hefu arched his hand: "Exactly! In this way, a large amount of wheat can be harvested at the beginning of next summer, so that the hundreds of thousands of migrants will feed on wheat! ”

Nesten was a little disapproving, and asked Heifu: "Have you ever eaten wheat rice?" ”

"There is little wheat in the south, but I ate it once or twice when I was a child when there was a famine."

"Is it palatable?"

Heifu replied honestly: "No matter how much you cook the wheat rice, it is difficult to chew and swallow, and the taste is far worse than that of corn and rice." ”

"Yes, yes."

Nesteng said: "In some treacherous and mountainous places in Korea, the grain grown by the people is either beans or wheat, so I can often see it. ”

"The food of the savage farmer is also, if it is an ordinary Qiantou, it is enough, and if you can eat wheat rice, you must be grateful to Dade. However, most of those relocated captives are wealthy households in Shandong, and many of them eat meat and embroidered clothes, and let them eat wheat, which may make the public opinion that was already dissatisfied after being forcibly relocated become more and more angry. ”

Heifu thought in his heart that although wheat has become one of the five grains, this does not mean that people in the world like to eat wheat. Steamed wheat rice is hard to chew and difficult to digest in the stomach, so wheat rice is considered by everyone in the world to be "the food of savage farmers", compared with millet and rice, the planting area is not large, only "miscellaneous grains".

In the Qin State, wheat rice was generally used for prisoners to eat, and officials eating wheat rice were regarded as poor and incorruptible, and the same was true among the common people, Heifu remembered that when he was in Yangwu County, there was a local case in which the daughter-in-law of a family ate corn by herself and let her mother-in-law eat wheat rice, so she was scolded by the neighbors as "unfilial......

If the wheat that these prisoners disliked was fed to the wealthy families who had migrated from the Kanto region, they might indeed blow up their nests if they were already dissatisfied.

But Heff had another idea.

He asked the attendants behind him to open a little "gift" he had brought, only to see that it contained a "粔籹" (jù nǚ) similar to fried twist flowers.

This dessert snack is made in Mak's workshop. After a lawsuit was fought to bring those unlucky honey and sugar vendors into the game, the two sides reconciled under the mediation of Wu Shiyan.

Although brown sugar has had a certain impact on the honey and sugar industries in Nanshi, it will not completely take away the jobs of wheat and stone, and it is only produced in the south and cannot be shipped much in a year, so the three families tacitly reached an unwritten agreement on the three-point honey and sugar market.

However, the stones of other mountains can attack jade, and Mai and Shi flatteringly sent some baskets and honey bait, but Heifu was interested.

As soon as he inquired, he learned that the ancestors of the Mai family were originally Qi people, and in the land of Qilu, the stone mill invented by Lu Ban was already a common household item for wealthy families, and it had been introduced to the Qin State for at least a few decades......

It's a pity that the Qin people only use the ground wheat flour to make some snacks, and never try to use them as staple food, so what "the Qin army unified the six countries and relied on pot helmets as military food" is purely false.

So Heifu pointed to these snacks and said, "Can you know from the internal history, what is this basket made of?" ”

Of course, Nesten knew, and he smiled dumbly: "Do you want to make the wheat harvested this year into a basket, so that the resettlers can't eat it as food?" No, no, it's too costly. ”

Heifu said: "Not really, it's just that I stumbled upon that after wheat is ground into powder with a stone mill, it can not only be used as a dessert and a little cooking, but also used as a grain to eat, and it tastes ten times better than wheat rice!" ”

In these days, people ate wheat either directly to porridge, or used it to make maltose and expensive snacks. This kind of violent behavior can't even stand Heifu, a southerner who doesn't like pasta very much!

Now that the wheat and stone mills are complete, the pasta is about to come out.

"Just grinding into powder, how can it have this kind of use for turning decay into magic?"

Nesteng was a little unconvinced of Heifu's idea, at this time, it happened that the lady of the Ye family came up with her maidservant to serve wine, and when she heard her father's questioning, she asked with a smile: "What is the dispute between my father and the guest?" ”

As soon as Heifu turned around, he found that Zijin was wearing plain white clothes today, I don't know if he had eaten too much red dates and brown sugar, his complexion was ruddy, his hair was dark behind him, and he looked more and more beautiful like everyone.

After Heifu got up to greet her, he glanced at Ye Teng again, and saw that he didn't mean to let the woman avoid it, so he briefly told her about Fang Cai.

Hearing this, Zijin was not very surprised.

"Father often said that you always have wonderful ideas, such as the water mill, and ......"

She smiled narrowly, skipped the invention that made Heifu's face green, and mentioned the brown sugar directly, and then persuaded Nesten:

"It is often said in the world that what a husband hears is better than what he sees; Seeing it, it is better to practice it. Since the words are clear, why don't you go and get some wheat flour and try it at home? ”

Heifu also said: "I just brought the cook over today, so I can let them try out some of them." ”

Hefu had been doing this a few days ago, he bought a stone of finely ground wheat flour directly from McS, brought it home, and threw it to the kitchen for a few days, and finally achieved some results.

Of course, asking a southerner who has never kneaded dough and even makes dumplings to invent pasta will naturally encounter many setbacks, and even how to achieve the "dough" described by Heifu is almost difficult to cook. First of all, we had to find a way to find a sake koji that can be called a "limited purchase" and used to ferment the wheat dough, but the steamed dough was not fluffy enough and had a sour taste that was difficult to remove.

Heifu calculated that he was going to come to Ye Teng's Mansion today to offer treasures, and he couldn't wait for the chef to study, so he simply let the cook not have to worry about fermentation, and tried to make some dead noodles first.

"You're well prepared."

Neston glanced at Heifu, but agreed to it......

……

There are two cooks in the Heifu family, a husband and wife, and it is the girl "kite" he rescued from the blind mountain, who is married to a mute cook. Three years ago, the couple went to Heifu's new house with Kite's father, Foal, who raised cattle and horses for Heifu, while Kite and her husband were in charge of the kitchen.

Now that Heifu has come to Xianyang, his mother is relieved, and she thinks that her son must not be used to eating northern food, so she sends the young couple to take care of his diet.

After coming to Xianyang, I have been staying near the small house on Zhangtai Street, although I can see the majestic and tall emperor's palace as soon as I go out, but after staying for a long time, I don't feel anything. It wasn't until today that the husband and wife were brought to the Inner History Mansion by Heifu and entered their kitchen, and both Kite and her husband were stunned.

The kitchen of the Inner Historian is located in the east of the mansion, called the "East Kitchen", which covers an extremely wide area, and it is just in time for the second courtyard where Heifu lives.

There were about a dozen people who helped in the cook's kitchen, and several of them were washing food at the well, and when they looked up, they saw that the beams of the house were full of smoked fish and elbows.

After entering the room, it is divided into an outdoor kitchen and a stove room, and the outer kitchen is full of reeds, basins, jars, etc.; knives and figurines used to cut food; The kettles, tripods, and retorts used for cooking are all bronze and lacquerware. There are five or six stoves in the stove room, each of which is busy, one person kneels in front of the stove, holds a fire stick in his hand to cook food, and puts a kettle on the stove to cook food......

Looking at the staple foods being made, there are rice, millet, and yellow beams, all of which have been washed and ready to be steamed. The chef is blending the flavors of the simmered turtle soup, the roasted lamb, the swan meat, the wild duck pieces, and the plucked geese and pigeons are about to be roasted.

After visiting the kitchen of a large family, the husband and wife, who came here with only a bag of wheat flour, were stunned and felt ashamed of themselves.

"Just entertaining Zuo Shu as a guest, do you need so many people? To make so much food? The kite was stunned and a little surprised.

It wasn't until a nice voice came from behind that the husband and wife came to their senses.

"The feast is only made of wheat flour, why don't you start yet? Could it be that something is missing?"

When she turned around, it was the lady of the Ye family who came to the kitchen in person, and everyone in the kitchen saluted her, but she was very kind, let the kitchen be exempt, and began to ask what utensils the kite needed, and asked Yongren to prepare them for her one by one.

"I want a wooden basin and water, and a hot iron kettle. By the way, can you boil some mutton soup now? It's better to cook it! ”

Then, Kite and her husband put the yellow wheat flour in a large wooden basin and mixed it with water, and began to knead the dough, while the Ye lady knelt on the mat, watched her movements seriously, and suddenly asked, "Who came up with the idea of making food with wheat flour?" ”

Kite's husband immediately gestured in the direction of the main hall, and Kite hurriedly stopped him and replied honestly: "Lady, this is all taught by Zuo Shuchang." ”

Where did he find out? Moreover, he often cooks? ”

Zijin is very curious, men, generally use the excuse of "gentlemen are far away from cooking", and they don't want to see killing, and they are far away from the kitchen.

"Zuo Shu Chang really likes to go in and out of the kitchen."

Ye Zijin didn't put on the shelf of an official lady, and the kite also had a good impression of her, so he smiled and said: "He has a good taste, he likes to instruct us to make some novel food, when I was in Nanjun, I made rice cakes, rice noodles, and zongzi, and then I shared these foods with my family, and we could also get some, whenever that time, the family was full of laughter." ”

"When we arrived in the north, Zuo Shuchang asked us to make pasta from wheat flour, although I was still not used to eating it, but it was much stronger than wheat rice......

Zijin nodded slightly, and just like that, in the kitchen of the Inner History Mansion, through the narration of a little cook, she began to understand the side of Heifu that was unknown to outsiders. After asking Heifu about his taste, he likes to instruct his subordinates to make food, and even picked up the case-solving deeds when Heifu was the head of the small pavilion......

And when it was about to fall in the evening, when Nesten's feast for Heifu began, the food called "pancakes" and "mutton steamed buns" also appeared on the Qin people's dinner table for the first time......