delicious little cook

Chapter 113 The Deacon Has a Man
When the lunch time was over, everyone had finished their meals. The kitchen was cleaned up. Four large pots of rice washing water and hot and cold water were lined up on the long table. A big fire was lit under a stove. A long-handled fork picks up the pork belly and roasts it on the fire, and the cooks and maids around look at it together.

Bai Kou is not secretive at all. She generously taught everyone how to make this dish, how long the meat needs to be roasted, and how the skin should be roasted before it is removed. She explained everything very clearly. If you have any questions, just ask, and she will answer them patiently. .

After soaking the roasted pork belly in the rice washing water for a stick of incense, Bai Kou stopped doing it. She just said that the cooks and cooks rolled up their sleeves and competed to wash the meat. Zeng Zhu was in charge of maintaining order and beware of disputes. It hurts peace too much.

The meat was washed clean by all the people in turn. Bai Kou folded his arms and instructed them to sit in a pot of water and start cooking the meat for a quarter of an hour. Soup.

The cooked meat has to be simmered for half an hour, and Bai Kou has no time to wait. She made it clear to everyone that after simmering for enough time, take it out and let it cool naturally before putting it in the ice cellar.

Seeing that everyone nodded in agreement, Bai Kou went back to Wenling Courtyard. She walked forward, and Zeng Zhu threatened and lured everyone, asking them to work honestly during this time. As long as the filial banquet goes well, everyone will be rewarded afterwards Otherwise, they have to be sold to the mines.

If you really want to be sold to the mine, you will die. If you live well in the Duke's mansion, whoever wants to see the King of Hades in advance, immediately everyone shakes their heads desperately, and promises not to cause trouble.

When Bai Kou returned to Wenling Courtyard and just took a nap, a little girl came from Ji Chengtang to send a message that the manpower for the ice cellar was ready, and she asked Bai Kou to go to the ice cellar and wait.

Bai Kou first went to the small kitchen to make a urn of sour plum soup, and then rushed to the ice cellar. Mistress Shui obviously also got the news, and cleaned the courtyard so clean that not a single fallen leaf could be seen.

In the guard's hut, the old and the young were drinking sour plum soup, and it didn't take long to see a large group of people coming in.

In addition to Pang's mother bringing eight daughter-in-laws in their 20s, Bai Kou also brought shelves and other items for the ice cellar.

Mistress Shui cleverly hid her cup of sour plum soup first, then followed Bai Kou, went out to greet Pang's mother, and then went to help the servants put all the objects, large and small, in a corner of the yard.

Bai Kou bowed to Pang's mother, and the eight daughters-in-law put the bundles in their hands on the ground, bowed to her, and called her sister Kou neatly.

Bai Kou was really not used to being saluted like this out of the blue, so she responded stiffly, and when she looked up, she saw Pang's mother pursing her lips in joy.

"You only need four people, and I'll send you eight. You can just pick the ones and keep them. If you don't like them, you can leave them all, and I'll send you new ones. This is Madam's order. Now the government There's a lot going on here, and the masters don't want to hear any more annoying bad news."

"My servant must do my best, Xie Pang's mother, Mrs. Xie."

"This is their list, and they will hand it over to you. I have other things to do, so I'm leaving first." Mother Pang gave Bai Kou a piece of paper.

"Mother Pang, walk slowly."

Everyone watched Pang's mother leave. Bai Kou opened the list and called the newcomers. After matching the names and faces, they were asked to put on the cotton clothes they brought. Tie on a cotton cape and hand a lighted lantern.

Bai Kou walked in the front carrying a lantern, the daughters-in-law walked in the middle carrying their things, and Mistress Shui also carried a lantern behind her. A group of people walked slowly into the ice cellar along the ramp at the entrance of the ice cellar.

The ramp is slow and long, so the large open space on both sides of the gentle slope is reserved for the east and west kitchens. The east kitchen has a lot of odds and ends, while the west kitchen mainly has a huge amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. They must be used up before the evening when they come in that morning. , never left.

But thinking about how many people the West Kitchen has to cook every day, it is normal to use a huge amount of ingredients.

So Bai Kou prepared pallets for the west kitchen, which were laid out one by one along the wall of the ice cellar, leaving only a passage for walking. Although the fresh vegetables were packed in baskets, the baskets were sparse. It's just that the things inside won't fall out, especially the meat baskets are placed on the ground so directly, people come and go, and the ice cellar is dark, kicking and stepping often happens.

After the pallets in the west kitchen were finished, it was the turn of the east kitchen to put shelves. In addition, the daily fresh fruits of the masters were also placed in the east kitchen, so at the end of the gentle slope, Bai Kou put the remaining pieces The pallets are spread there, and the shelves are lined up against the wall, like bookshelves, divided into raw and cooked.

After finishing the arrangement of the two most occupied places, it is the turn of the ice darkrooms of the owners of the fourth house.

The old lady is getting older, and she uses the least amount of ice. There are seven children in the third room, and a large population uses more ice. However, in Bai Kou's plan, the four ice rooms are all the same size, and they are backed by icebergs. The distance between the storage of ice and the area occupied by the east and west kitchens is the site of the darkroom. Once a few shelves are moved, and a few pieces of marine canvas are used to cover the front, back, left, and right sides, the small secret room is set up in the blink of an eye.

If you want better secrecy and prevent people with cheap hands from sneaking in and tampering with things, you can also punch a padlock on the canvas.

After careful inspection and confirmation, a group of people returned to the ground panting, took off their cotton clothes and squatted in a cool and ventilated place to drink anti-heat medicine.

But the work was not finished. After a short rest, everyone dressed neatly again, took the whole bundle of small straw bags by the wall and the ice-cutting tools down, and went to the deepest part of the ice cellar to cut the whole block of ice into small pieces. , and then put it into a small straw bag with a small ice shovel, one straw bag is the amount of an ice tray.

In the past, the ice cellars were severely understaffed, and girls from each house and courtyard went down to fetch ice by themselves. She counts the number of rooms clearly, and the number of straw bags is also prepared according to this. She knows how many bags of ice should be taken away from each room every day. The cheapness of the public, when the time comes, Mama Pang will come forward to pursue it.

All the masters have to face, if they really come to ask for a penny for a straw bag, this face will be thrown into the cesspit.

The straw bags brought down were filled up one after another, everyone went back to the ground and took down the remaining bundles of straw bags, Bai Kou looked up and saw the direction of the sun, feeling that it was not early, the third young master was about to go home from school , she handed over the rest to Mistress Shui, borrowed the basket from her house, carried four bags of ice, and recorded it in the book.

(End of this chapter)