A Good Country Wife-Chapter 18 - Delicacies_1

Chapter 18: Chapter 18 Delicacies_1

Chapter 18: Chapter 18 Delicacies_1

Previously, Lin Yue had thought of making buns for the little ones at home. Buns from the Bun Shop were expensive, but the actual cost wasn’t high—you’d spend at most two or three tenths of the price on ingredients. What they relied on to make money was their Secret Recipe. However, in ancient times there was no such thing as baking powder, and it took a longer time for dough to ferment, so there was no way she could prepare them for dinner in time tonight. She would have to wait until the next morning. Considering that she still had to pay her respects to her father-in-law and mother-in-law tomorrow morning, and that a first visit gift was indispensable, at this moment, buns were considered a precious food, appropriate for gifting to show respect. Therefore, she prepared extra flour to make more buns the next day.

During the day, she bought many things from the market, so dinner was naturally lavish. Besides the fragrant rice, there was also pork and pork lung soup. Initially, Erhu was supposed to cook, but Lin Yue had sent him to knead dough instead. She had tasted Erhu’s cooking before and found it average at best. He didn’t care whether it was delicious or not; he would merely cook all the ingredients until they were done. That was why she decided to take matters into her own hands.

She didn’t buy all that meat from the morning market just for their own consumption. Erhu, who was going to visit his parents and needed gifts for them, had already set aside two jin of fatty meat. The rest was left to Lin Yue to distribute. Combining more fatty meat with less lean, Lin Yue roughly cut half a jin in total. This half jin was a hefty eight liang, enough to fill a large bowl once cooked.

Lin Yue never ate fatty meat; she used to render the fat for oil. But now that both Erhu and little Brother Erhu clearly enjoyed eating fatty meat, she fried the fatty meat first until it was slightly yellow and had released oil before adding the lean meat and frying them together until fragrant. Then, she added water to simmer until cooked, seasoned with salt, and took it off the stove. As for the pork lung, she fried it in oil before adding it to the soup, seasoning it with salt, some minced ginger, and a sprinkle of pepper right before serving.

After finishing the cooking, Lin Yue tasted the dishes and found the flavor to be quite good, although it hadn’t reached her previous standards. But even so, she felt she had done well. Considering they were lacking in side dishes and seasonings here, the few spices she managed to buy from the pharmacy and spice store today were not easy to come by. Nor were they cheap; though she had only bought a few types of seasonings weighing less than half a jin, they had cost her over three hundred coins. This indulgence was only possible because Erhu was willing to spend money on her. If it were another man’s wife, she would surely have been scolded for being wasteful. Lin Yue had noticed the sour looks and envy on the faces of the other daughters-in-law when they saw what she had bought on the ox cart.

“Niuniu, you’re so thin, eat more fatty meat,” Erhu said, seeing Lin Yue only pick lean meat and pork lung for herself. He thought Lin Yue was kindly leaving the better parts for him and the kids. Thinking how virtuous his wife was, he wondered how her family could bear to sell her. Feeling a pang of pity, he picked up a large piece of fatty meat and placed it in Lin Yue’s bowl.

“Brother Erhu, I don’t eat fatty meat. You should have it,” Lin Yue said with a sense of resignation as she saw the extra piece of fatty meat in her bowl. She moved it back to Erhu’s bowl with her chopsticks, but he transferred it back to hers. After going back and forth a couple of times, Erhu confirmed that Lin Yue genuinely didn’t like fatty meat, so he finally stopped insisting. However, he couldn’t help but worry about his little wife’s picky eating habits.

The dinner was polished off, and Lin Yue, thinking that Erhu and the kids hadn’t eaten well at noon, had deliberately made extra. Yet, the dishes were all gone without a single grain of rice left over. Erhu kept praising how delicious Lin Yue’s cooking was, and the kids, patting their round bellies, nodded in agreement. Even Erlang, who loved to pick fights with Lin Yue, kept silent, apparently conceding to his dad and brothers’ opinions. Reluctantly, he had to admit that the food made by this woman was indeed good. Maybe his dad marrying her wasn’t as bad as he had imagined.

Keeping in mind the visit to her in-laws, Lin Yue woke up early the next day, while it was still dim outside. Seeing that Erhu was still asleep, she didn’t want to wake him. She dressed quietly and left the room for the kitchen. Lifting the lid of the pot, she poked the dough inside with her hand—it had fermented just right.

Lin Yue finished washing up and went to the cupboard to chop fat and lean meat in proportion, seasoning them just right. She took out the dough which was placed on the cleanly washed chopping board. Then she lit the fire, washed the pot, and boiled water. Only after all the preparations were done did she wash her hands and start wrapping the buns. Her movements were skilled and nimble. She never trusted the sanitary conditions of food sold outside, so whenever she had time, she would cook for herself. Besides what her grandfather had taught her when she was little, she would often look up recipes online and figure them out by herself if she didn’t know how to make something. Over time, her culinary skills had greatly improved.

With nimble fingers, Lin Yue deftly wrapped the buns. In a short while, she had a bun ready and placed it in order on a bamboo mat covered with a beige cotton cloth. She didn’t have a steamer, so she had to make do. This bamboo mat was something she had struggled to find in the storage room just the night before, which she had cleaned and set aside for steaming buns this morning.

Lin Yue had prepared two pounds of dough yesterday, and she only used one pound of pork for the filling. So after the filling was used up, there was still leftover dough. After giving it some thought, she took sesame and sugar from the cupboard and made several sugar buns with the remaining dough, each in a different shape. After finishing, Lin Yue counted a total of thirty-five buns—meat and sugar combined. She decided to keep fifteen for her own family and the other twenty would make a nice even number to bring to her in-laws later.

Just as Lin Yue finished wrapping the buns, Zhao Erhu arrived. He was surprised and disbelieving as he looked at the beautifully wrapped and neatly arranged buns on the bamboo mat. The day before, he had thought his wife was just bragging in a fit of anger when she spoke about the Bun Shop; he had no idea she actually had such great skill. The buns looked as if they came from the finest Bun Shop in the city. He wondered how they would taste, but then recalled the delicious meal she had prepared the night before, assuring him these buns wouldn’t be any less delightful.

“Niuniu, where did you learn to make buns with such skill? This must be a secret recipe,” Zhao Erhu asked curiously.

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“I don’t remember where I learned it; it’s probably something I knew before. I just thought of it and did it, not sure if it would turn out right.” Lin Yue pondered before responding with a feigned mystified tone. She internally scoffed at the idea that making a simple bun could be some closely guarded secret technique. No wonder countless women transplanted to ancient times could thrive. Nevertheless, she decided it was best to remain cautious. Caution is the parent of safety, and even Erhu, a farmer of the village, could sense something was amiss. If she encountered someone sharper, she might give her secrets away. She feared they might burn her at the stake for witchcraft, given the local people’s deep respect and fear for the supernatural.

Pairing buns with porridge and pickled vegetables is a classic combination. Lin Yue cooked the porridge before steaming the buns. Without a proper steamer and only a bamboo mat, she couldn’t steam many buns at once, so she decided to do it in two rounds, starting with the ones for breakfast. The remaining would be perfect for cooking during mealtime and could be taken out just as they left.

In addition to the buns and meat, yesterday’s purchase of fabric was discussed between Zhao Erhu and Lin Yue. They decided to cut two sets of clothes from the fine cotton fabric. Additionally, they packed five coins worth of flour to bring over as well, which counted as quite a generous meeting gift. Zhao Erhu had not brought so much the previous two times he got married. The relationship with the old house wasn’t good to begin with, and as far as filial piety was concerned, it was sufficient just to get by.