Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 86 0081【Get out of the way, I'm going to pretend】

The Dongpo meat method in the Song Dynasty seems to be relatively primitive.

Lu Tixue did not stir-fry the meat with sugar or even oil. He only stir-fried the meat a little, then poured rice wine and soy sauce and cooked it slowly.Of course, a little salt is also added, as well as condiments such as ginger and shallots.

While cooking, Lu Tixue became very serious, without a word of nonsense, just watched Dongpo meat cook slowly.

Zhu Guoxiang asked his son: "Is there rock candy in the Song Dynasty?"

"Yes, it's called icing sugar, which is scarce and extremely expensive," said Ju Ming.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, sugarcane cultivation was very common, but there were only five rock sugar producing areas: Fujian Futang, Zhejiang Siming, Guangdong Panyu, Sichuan Suining and Guanghan.

Among them, Suining rock sugar is the most high-quality, and the output is also the highest.

People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. In another ten years, Suining sugar farmers will be in great trouble.

Local officials presented rock sugar to Song Huizong, and Suining rock sugar was immediately listed as a tribute. More than 300 households that can produce high-quality rock sugar were required to pay thousands of catties every year.Coupled with the exploitation by officials and buyers, Suining's rock sugar industry quickly withered, and more than half of the sugar frost households went bankrupt and fled.

Zhu Guoxiang walked to Bai Zongwang's side: "Do you have any candies in your residence?"

Bai Zongwang replied, "Only brown sugar."

"Where's honey?" Zhu Guoxiang asked again.

Bai Zongwang said: "There are beekeepers in the villages further upstream, but my family doesn't have any regular supplies. I only send people to buy them when I need them."

Zhu Guoxiang said, "Give me a few pieces of brown sugar."

Bai Zongwang called his servants and quickly went to fetch the brown sugar.

Zhu Guoxiang took the brown sugar and came behind Lu Tixue: "Tixue Rong said that my hometown also has this cooking method. The villagers call it Dongpo pork and braised pork. After adding sugar, it will be more luscious."

"Oh?" Lu Tixue was quite surprised.

Zhu Guoxiang also said: "The big rich families use icing sugar, the small rich families use honey, and ordinary people use brown sugar. There is only brown sugar here, so you can try a little bit to learn."

Lu Tixue said: "You can try it."

There are a lot of people eating meat today, so Lu Tixue made two pots, one of which was put in sugar for Zhu Guoxiang.

Estimating the amount, Zhu Guoxiang broke the brown sugar into pieces and sprinkled it evenly in the braised pork—the brown sugar wouldn't make caramel water, so it could only be sprinkled in like this for seasoning.

With cooking fellows, Lu Tixue finally stopped being silent: "Your Excellency is also good at cooking?"

"Knows a few dishes, but not much." Zhu Guoxiang answered honestly.

For a few years when he was young, he not only threw his son to the countryside to be raised, but even the husband and wife were separated due to work.Zhu Guoxiang occasionally cooks by himself, and he learned the braised pork from a colleague in Sichuan.

It's a pity that after traveling to the Song Dynasty, many Sichuan dishes could not be prepared.

It's not the lack of chili, but the lack of bean paste.Sichuan cuisine can be without chili, but it must not be without bean paste.

Lu Tixue stood in front of the stove and said: "When I became an official on Lizhou Road, the biggest feeling was the hot pepper soup. All the soups in the Central Plains use pepper, but the Sichuan and Shanxi roads use peppercorns instead. There are two completely different tastes. .”

"Cooking is like doing things, you should adapt to local conditions." Zhu Guoxiang knew how to chat with Lu Tixue.

Lu Tixue was really happy: "This is very good. The products are different in different places, so we can't force the original taste to be authentic."

Zhu Guoxiang only knows a few special dishes, not a culinary expert.He accepted it as soon as it was good, and immediately turned to agriculture: "The same is true for farming. The climate and soil in the north and the south are very different. "Qi Min Yao Shu" is available in the north, but it will be greatly discounted in the south."

"Indeed," Lu Tixue nodded and said, "Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, many agricultural books have been compiled, especially in the south. Your thirteen methods of interplanting can also be written into an article, together with the method of growing rice. Compile it as an agricultural book. When this book is compiled, I will find someone to print it."

Zhu Guoxiang happily said: "Thank you for your study!"

Lu Tixue said with a smile: "Agriculture is the foundation of all industries, and it should be so."

Zhu Guoxiang continued to peddle his own agronomy, and he also applied the ancient world view: "All things are divided into yin and yang, and so are plants. Whether it is a crop or a fruit tree, there are male and female flowers. Some plants are monoecious, and some are dioecious. They are blown by insects and wind. Yin and Yang intercourse. The butterflies and bees are covered with the male flower powder, and then go to the female flower to collect honey, and then they can conceive and give birth. This is how food and fruits come."

"Is that so?" Lu Tixue's eyes sparkled.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "If the flowering period coincides with rainy weather, bees and butterflies will not arrive, and the production of food and fruits will be reduced."

Based on his own experience, Lu Tixue nodded and said, "Indeed."

Zhu Guoxiang also said: "At this time, artificial pollination can be done, and a kind of brush can be made to transfer the pollen to the style, which can also make the male and female copulate."

These words opened the door to a new world for Lu Tixue, and he can't wait to study the pollination of plants immediately.

Most of the entourage felt so bored.Only two or three people were still standing in the kitchen, and the rest went outside to chat individually.

The fifth son of Lu Guanren, the richest man in Xixiang, was also there, named Lu Heng.He is the twelfth in his family, and he is also called Lu Twelve Lang.

The scholar who was the first to answer the question was called Yu Dayuan. At this moment, he said unhappily: "Twelve Lang, we are all famous scholars in this county, but let a boy from a foreign country get the limelight. You don't want to find a way to restrain him?"

Lu Heng said with a smile: "What did I do to restrain him? I even failed the exam twice, and it's useless to climb up to be a student envoy. You passed the exam, and if you want to restrain it, you should restrain it."

Another scholar named Huang Sheng said: "This son claims to have mastered the three classics. I am afraid that 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, use poetry!" Yu Dayuan nodded.

Huang Sheng also said: "We must drink alcohol when we have dinner today. You can propose a drinking order, or compose a poem on the spot to add to the fun, and you will definitely teach this ignorant boy not to come to Taiwan! Or let the teacher know that Xixiang County is also full of talents." .”

Yu Dayuan patted his chest and said: "It's enough to write poems. I brought a lot of old works, which can be used just in time."

"I brought it too." Huang Sheng said with a smile.

These guys wanted to show off in front of the Tixue Envoy, and each of them brought poems.Old works must have been revised repeatedly. Even if Ju Ming is good at poetry, he may not be able to match it when he writes on the spot.

Yu Dayuan immediately called all the scholars and went to a remote place to discuss quietly.

Lu Heng just squatted beside him and laughed. He was not very knowledgeable, and he was not good enough in the exam.Moreover, there is already a brother who has won a Jinshi, and he is the son of the richest man, so why bother with this kind of thing?

He had already seen that Lu Tixue appreciated the Zhu family father and son quite a lot.

Keeping Zhu's father and son from coming to Taiwan is tantamount to keeping Lu Tixue from coming to Taiwan!

Scholars should know such a simple truth.But those scholars were all interested in imperial examinations, and they racked their brains to excel in front of Tixue, so Li Lingzhi was stunned and lost his basic judgment.

The scholars were discussing what to do, and the subordinate officials had already gone to eat.They were so tired that they had to fill their stomachs quickly, and waited to be dispatched by the student envoy at any time.This Tixue went crazy intermittently, who knew what he was going to do in a while.

After five o'clock in the afternoon, dinner was finally served.

Three tables were set up in the Bai family's courtyard, with Lu Tixue, Xiang Zhixian, Professor Qian, Bai Zongwang, Zhu's father and son, Lu Heng and Yu Dayuan as the main tables.Bai Dalang, Bai Erlang and the rest of the scholars sat at the other two tables.

The two pots of Dongpo meat were all shared, and each person only got four yuan.

Zhu Guoxiang's twice-cooked pork has brown sugar added to make it darker in color.It's a pity that there is no caramel water, the color is not bright red, and it doesn't look so pleasing to the eye.

Lu Tixue took a sip, and immediately beamed with joy: "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 when cooking. Not only is it rich in aroma, but the surface of the pork is bright in color, like red pearls."

Lu Tixue lamented: "Icing sugar is not easy to get, and the price is better than gold and silver."

At this time, the rock sugar production technology was still very primitive, and it was originally a by-product of making granulated sugar (liquid brown sugar).The sugar farmers who have mastered the technology keep it secret. Take Suining, where the sugar industry is the most developed, there are only more than 300 households that can make rock sugar.Moreover, the production process is time-consuming and takes more than a year.

When the new rock candy was launched, it was sold out in an instant, and it was shipped to the Central Plains and Jiangnan for sale.

Lu Tixue lives in Hanzhong, and money can't buy it.

Although Yu Dayuan didn't like Zhu's father and son, he waved his chopsticks to eat Dongpo pork with brown sugar at the moment.It smells so good!
Ju Ming had done enough in the afternoon, so he stopped tossing and chomping on steamed mutton and drinking.

After not eating a few mouthfuls, I heard someone at the next table say: "Today, I am here to study, and the scholars from Xixiang have arrived. It can be described as a grand gathering. You might as well serve wine with poems and chat to boost your interest."

"Poetry and wine add to the fun, it's really an elegant thing!" The scholars echoed one after another.

Lu Tixue just smiled, he had seen this kind of scene a lot.

Every time they go to inspect a place, the scholars will be eager to show.If there is a scholar who is not well-known in the local area and happens to be appreciated by Lu Tixue, he will inevitably be made things difficult by other scholars.

"I have a work, please learn from it." Huang Sheng couldn't wait to take out his poems.

Lu Tixue finally said: "There is no need to bring out the old works. I will write a question, and all the students will compose poems on the spot, so that they can show their skills."

After saying these words, half of the scholars have already shown embarrassment.

After the abolition of poetry and prose in the imperial examination, fewer scholars studied this way, and the poetry and prose talent of the scholars of the Great Song Dynasty declined severely.

"Please come up with a question." Lu Heng spoke out first.Anyway, he was already lying on his back, and he looked like a ghost, happy to see many scholars suffer.

Lu Tixue has a narrow personality, deliberately teasing everyone, and thought hard for a while: "Since they are all scholars, let's focus on learning."

At this moment, all the accompanying scholars were dumbfounded.

You can come up with any topic you want, mountains and rivers, fields, farmhouses, drinks, meals, wind and moon, seasons...these contents are all fine, and everyone can hold back a poem.

But it is too abstract to use learning as a problem!
None of them were in the mood to eat, and they were all scratching their heads.

Lu Tixue held back his smile and asked Zhu's father and son, "Are you two together?"

Zhu Guoxiang said directly: "I'm not proficient in poetry, and it's ridiculous to write it out. As for the dog...it's okay."

Yu Dayuan couldn't hold it back by himself, and he didn't want to make Zhu Ming feel better, so he said immediately: "Since my brother Chenggong has mastered the three classics, he must also have a lot of knowledge in poetry. We are just about to ask for a lesson or two."

Zhu Ming turned his head and looked at the two tables next to him. These guys were all looking at him, their expressions were...gloating!
Putting down his chopsticks, Ju Ming pretended to be contemplative, and suddenly recited: "The ancients have no energy left behind in their learning, and the young and the young are the ones who are old. What is learned on paper is always superficial, but I know that this matter must be practiced."

Hearing it was this poem, Zhu Guoxiang was almost overwhelmed.

It fits the situation perfectly, not only fits the topic perfectly, but also caters to Lu Tixue's academic thought.With a bit of self-effacing, he secretly went to flatter Lu Tixue!

In the yard, no one spoke, and it seemed a bit cold.

Holding chopsticks in his hand, Yu Dayuan looked at Zhu Ming stupidly.

(Thanks to Brother Hengfeng for the reward, and thanks to all the family members for the subscription and monthly pass.)
(How about this book? The results are actually very good. The first order in 24 hours is 2. However, because of the oolong, many people came to watch the excitement. I guess the first order is a bit too wet. Based on Chapter [-], it should be [-] .)
(Well, the effect of the program is full, and I realize that I am a marketing wizard. Haha. At the same time, I would like to thank the editor for giving a bunch of good recommendations, but Lao Wang’s oolong is a bit sorry for the editor’s painstaking efforts.)
(End of this chapter)