Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 396 - 393: The First Day of Making Sweet Potato Starch

Chapter 396: Chapter 393: The First Day of Making Sweet Potato Starch

Those who are unaware of the situation would surely think that Lin Wanwan, based on her current posture, must be a very handy farm girl.

However, everyone at Lin Family Manor knows that Lin Wanwan is actually someone who grew up in the lap of luxury, thriving on sweet talk. Frankly speaking, when it comes to farming, she’s not very adept; she can’t even till the soil!

According to what the Clan Leader mentioned, this method for making rice cakes is recorded in a book, likely one left behind by Wanwan’s teacher. It’s uncertain if Wanwan can succeed in making it.

Perhaps Official Xiao is here to help, after all, they are both scholars.

Lin Wanwan is quite confident about making sweet potato noodles, having specifically practiced hands-on with an elder in the family who specializes in sweet potato noodles in the modern era.

Of course, in modern times, an electric machine is used for the final step of producing the noodles, while the machine Lin Wanwan brought to the Great Tang had its battery removed.

But the principle is essentially the same, one uses electricity to save time and effort; the other relies on hand cranking, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

When the children grow a bit older, Lin Wanwan plans to give them physics lessons to teach the concept of electricity. For now, it’s still early, and they must overcome life without electricity.

The first step is to wash and sort the approximately 700 pounds of sweet potatoes that Xiao Chong brought. Naturally, this task won’t be left to Lin Wanwan; she is only responsible for directing.

Everyone first selects large, full, smooth-surfaced sweet potatoes without visible defects and puts them into large baskets, then carries them to the lake at the foot of the mountain to wash them thoroughly, cutting off some of the ends as well.

After they’re cleaned, the next step is to crush the sweet potatoes.

In modern times, one would naturally use a crusher, but in the Great Tang, they can only replace it with ancient stone mills and pestles.

Both of these items are located at the threshing floor and are communal property of the clan (a family needs cohesion, and the existence of shared property is quite necessary).

The stone mill and stone pestle were invented by the craftsman Lu Ban from the State of Lu during the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period.

Since their inception, and over the following two thousand years, they have been indispensable tools in people’s lives. They are generally used for pounding rice, though they can also be used for crushing.

The stone pestle employs the lever principle, which is an extremely labor-saving method of grain production.

It’s fascinating to imagine that over two thousand years ago, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, the ancestors of Huaxia craftsmen had already invented such scientifically advanced living tools, which endured for thousands of years, remaining in use in rural areas into the early days of the republic when electricity was unavailable.

Compared with a modern electric crusher, using a stone pestle to crush sweet potatoes is naturally slower, but for people in the Great Tang, this wasn’t slow at all.

Families and villages with poor conditions couldn’t even afford to make stone pestles, relying entirely on manual labor!

The Lin Family Manor’s tools were purchased during the Direct Lineage’s wealth and prosperity, lacking nothing, and they weren’t farmer-made imitations; they were meticulously crafted by craftsmen.

Lin Wanwan watched as Lin Mengjin stood at the back of the pestle, stomping up and down, listening to the rhythmic "thump, thump, thump" as it raised and fell, cracking the sweet potatoes with one hit and smashing them with two, feeling greatly amused.

"Cousin Mengjin, let me try too!" After watching for a while, Lin Wanwan finally spoke, eager to try it herself.

"Sure, this work isn’t too tiring, just a bit dull." Lin Mengjin smiled and stepped aside.

Lin Wanwan stepped forward to try stomping for a while, satisfying her curiosity, and then stepped aside, not interfering with their continued work.

"You need to add water while crushing."

"Oh, okay."

There’s no need for everyone to stand guard during the sweet potato crushing process.

To speed things up, besides using the stone pestle and mill, people also grabbed large wooden mallets for pounding rice and got to work directly!

Lin Wanwan also wanted to join in the work, but everyone stopped her. Such delicate women shouldn’t be doing rough tasks; the clan isn’t lacking menfolk.

Even maids like Hua Nong and Hong Yan were not allowed to do such heavy labor, so there was no way they’d let Lin Wanwan do it.

With many hands to make work light, the young and able-bodied men of the clan collectively tackled the task, and even Xiao Chong didn’t stay idle. It took less than an hour to crush all 700 pounds of sweet potatoes.

Lin Wanwan inspected the preliminary crushed sweet potato remnants, which were then finely processed using the stone pestle and mill, feeling that it was even better than what a modern crusher would produce!

"This is good enough. Now bring some cotton cloth for filtering to sieve out the residue, and fetch a few clean wooden buckets to collect the starch water."

Lin Wanwan continued to direct; Xiao Chong naturally understood this step too, as it’s clearly written in the cake-making section of "Essential Techniques for the People."

However, although Xiao Chong was well aware of it, he remained silent, simply watching Lin Wanwan command the clan members with high spirits, a barely noticeable smile on his lips.

This filtering and watering process is rather lengthy, requiring a minimum of six hours of standing still to allow the sweet potato starch to settle. Then, the water is poured out and a suitable amount of fresh water is added, aimed at removing impurities.

This cleaning step is then repeated every few hours.

Of course, Xiao Chong doesn’t have the time to wait around. After enjoying a meal, he took Dugu Di along with other servants and rode back to Xiaoxi Town.

Dugu Di spent an afternoon fishing and caught a carp that Lin Wanwan had stocked, and actually suggested making carp sashimi!

Sinically, in the Great Tang, it was the Li family’s empire; Li Tongli, and the Tang Code forbade people from eating carp, with such rules recorded: "National law, any caught carp should be released and should not be eaten."

Yet, the famous figures of the Great Tang hardly cared for this regulation! They not only found ways to eat carp, but also composed poetry about it that has been passed down through the ages!

For example, Bai Juyi’s "The stove was on the prow, cooking rice and red carp," Wang Wei’s "The nobleman with jade bit reins riding a dapple gray horse, the maidservant with gold plate tendered raw carp," and Quan Deyu’s "From the embrace I depart, long thoughts as I cook the carp," and so forth.

The gentry of the Great Tang were that audacious; "Emperor, go ahead and issue your edicts; if anyone complies, I’ll eat my hat!"

Nevertheless, although the Great Tang scholar Dugu Di was moved to eat raw carp sashimi, Lin Wanwan dared not.

She wasn’t afraid of the Li Tang Imperial Family; she was afraid of parasites!

Though Xiao Chong had consumed pagoda sugar sent by Lin Wanwan, he may possibly not have noticed any parasites in his stomach due to cultivating martial arts and having Inner Strength.

However, the recent chaos of chickens and dogs at Lin Family Manor, he had seen with his own eyes when he came to Lin Wanwan’s home to freeload a meal!

Since then, he hasn’t been fond of eating raw freshwater fish.

Xiao Chong firmly believes in Lin Wanwan’s meticulousness when it comes to cuisine.

Dugu Di was somewhat skeptical, but seeing Xiao Chong’s demeanor, he couldn’t help but have second thoughts.

Lin Wanwan might deceive him, but Xiao Chong definitely wouldn’t.

Ultimately, Dugu Di gave up on the idea of eating carp sashimi, but since he had caught it himself, he could at least enjoy a dish of steamed carp!

Instead of making steamed carp, they decided to prepare it differently—indeed, to make spicy braised carp with chili peppers and black pepper to mask the taste!

Dugu Di, tasting chili peppers for the first time, nearly lost his composure from the heat, but after the initial pain, he blissfully devoured an entire plate of savory braised spicy carp, finding joy in the pain.

Xiao Chong still harbored trepidation towards chili peppers, recalling when Lin Wanwan tricked him into tasting one—and it nearly sent him to the heavens—so he still doesn’t favor them to this day.