Chapter 286: Successful Cheese?
“Ah, let’s skip it then?”
Ainuo and the others were quite startled by Xiang Chuan’s words.
Joking aside, they had no desire to taste this strange food that sounded so bizarre.
It felt even more shocking than the pork they had eaten before.
Xiang Chuan rolled her eyes at them.
“I didn’t make it for you all anyway; I just wanted to eat it myself. And judging the taste before even trying it is a chef’s biggest taboo.”
“Are we even chefs…?”
Liang Gong muttered softly, while Ainuo and Ouyang Yating nodded in agreement nearby.
“How are you not?”
Xiang Chuan looked at the three’s entangled smiling faces, chuckled, and took the milk handed over by the small pot’s robotic arm.
The milk needed this time was much more than what was used earlier for making cheese.
Back when she was still a corporate slave, she had made yogurt with a yogurt maker, but the fermentation back then used yogurt bacteria specially prepared for yogurt, so using whey to make yogurt this time left her a bit uncertain, and she prepared extra as trial samples.
At the very least, this should guarantee a ten-in-a-row safety net!
However, making too much at once might be hard for modern people like Ouyang Yating and the others, who had no contact with yogurt, to accept. So although Xiang Chuan said she wanted to make it, she only prepared about two liters of milk.
As for the excess whey, she had the small pot store it properly.
After all, if it succeeded and got unanimous praise from the three club members, the class group chat would definitely receive the news that very evening, and by the next morning, the gluttons from Class Eight Grade One would probably come knocking again to freeload food and drinks.
Two liters of yogurt wouldn’t be enough to share with everyone then.
And if it succeeded, she could even try making Greek yogurt with these filters.
Though without fruit to go with it, it might feel a bit dry in the throat.
——
The yogurt manufacturing process is actually no different from cheese.
Heat the milk to around eighty-five degrees, keep heating for fifteen minutes, then cool to around forty degrees and divide into four small pots, adding fifty milliliters of whey to each.
Then came the key step: Xiang Chuan handed the small pots to the small pot and had it place them into the thermostat equipment.
Milk fermentation requires maintaining a constant forty degrees for six hours to half a day. Xiang Chuan still remembered that when making yogurt before, once it was done, it needed to be chilled in the refrigerator for a bit, as cold yogurt had a better texture.
This time, she decided to go all out, directly setting the small pot to ferment for 12 hours, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill.
Of course, this chilling could only happen if the manufacturing succeeded; Xiang Chuan would still need to check in the morning to see if the yogurt had fermented properly.
According to what Geegle search results showed, yogurt made with whey would have a richer flavor, but considering that the whey itself was a byproduct of her own making, it was even less stable than the yogurt she made back in the 21st century with yogurt bacteria.
Despite the fact that so far, whether making tofu or yeast, Xiang Chuan’s operations had been thrilling but safe, she didn’t think her luck would hold forever, so when manufacturing food—especially using methods different from the 21st century—she had to be extra careful.
——
The four pots of yogurt were placed into the thermostat equipment by the small pot under Xiang Chuan’s expectant gaze and the onlookers’ indescribable looks.
And at this moment, the cheese in the filter equipment was also ready for inspection.
Because heavy objects were pressing down on this cheese in the filter equipment, it had a fairly square shape. Xiang Chuan carefully took it out and placed it on the cutting board; the cheese made from two liters of milk weighed only about four hundred grams, and this was using modern high-protein premium milk, which counted as a relatively high yield.
The snow-white cheese had a magical tactile sensation in hand, somewhat like old tofu. Xiang Chuan thought.
Then… what to do next?
She stared at the cheese on the cutting board and fell silent.
Logically, she should now taste this freshly made cheese, but the problem was… Xiang Chuan had never eaten raw cheese before either.
At most, she had eaten cheese that was wrapped in fried foods or on pasta, melted or grilled at high temperature, and that cheese was yellow, seemingly different from the white cheese before her eyes. So… could this one be eaten the same way? —
“Xiang Chuan, what’s wrong? Aren’t you going to taste it?”
Ouyang Yating, watching from the side, asked. The three boys also looked at the cheese on the cutting board with expectant and curious gazes.
The square cheese, just like tofu, looked much better than the flocculent substance separated after reacting with white vinegar earlier, and since the whey had been filtered out, there was no sour vinegar smell on the surface.
As it was now, this cheese was actually quite tempting to taste.
But considering Xiang Chuan’s relentless attempts at pork dishes before the castrated pig was discovered—those “famous scenes”—Ouyang Yating and the other two truly lacked the courage to volunteer to taste it before Xiang Chuan personally tested it.
They had recently discovered in class group chat discussions that Xiang Chuan had a high tolerance for the taste of ancient food, so if even Xiang Chuan’s tongue couldn’t be conquered, then they youths who had always been half-hearted about ancient food would be 99% unable to accept it.
So not only Ouyang Yating and the other two, but even the gluttons from Class Eight Grade One would wait for Xiang Chuan to take the first bite before scrambling with their classmates to grab some.
Therefore, as long as Xiang Chuan didn’t move now, Ouyang Yating and the other two didn’t dare to either.
——
How was Xiang Chuan to know all the twists and turns in her club members’ minds? At this moment, she was still entangled over whether to take a bite of this freshly made cheese in her hand.
This entanglement didn’t last long. She picked up the nearby butter knife and fork, cut off a small piece, and put the snow-white cheese into her mouth.
The freshly made cheese had a soft texture with slight elasticity, carrying a hint of milk fragrance in the middle.
The first sensation in her mouth let Xiang Chuan breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the sour liquid had been filtered out.
She had even braced herself just now for the first bite to taste sour cheese.
Of course, this thing couldn’t just be left in the mouth to melt; she chewed lightly, and this texture similar to tofu actually tasted pretty good. Rather than the rich, thick cheese in her memory, it was more like… milk chunks?
This conclusion left Xiang Chuan a bit depressed: could it have failed?
She frowned and handed the remaining cheese to Ouyang Yating and the others.
“Taste it. It’s not bad. Tell me your thoughts after trying.”
Hearing this, aside from Li Wei who looked entangled at the back, the three from A Bite of China Club first breathed a sigh of relief. With Xiang Chuan’s words, they wouldn’t step on a mine no matter what.
But why was she frowning?
The three wondered as they cut three small pieces from the snow-white cheese block and, mimicking Xiang Chuan’s earlier action, put them into their mouths.
The fresh sweet milk flavor and the semi-solid texture akin to tofu made the three’s eyes light up.
Delicious!
This was their first inner reaction, and in the next second, they directly told Xiang Chuan.
“Mm… if it’s delicious, then that’s fine… Eat it for now, but don’t mention this thing in the class group chat yet; there’s not enough to share.”
But contrary to the three’s expectations, after hearing their thoughts, the furrow between Xiang Chuan’s brows didn’t relax; instead, she stepped aside and opened a blank light screen, swiping up and down on it.
Seeing Xiang Chuan like this, the three realized she had run into some problem related to ancient knowledge, but they couldn’t help with that and could only silently watch as she frowned tightly, constantly swiping on the blank light screen.
“But this cheese thing tastes quite like tofu. Ainuo, why not have your family use this to replace it in the future? I see you still haven’t gotten used to the taste of beans.”
Ouyang Yating laughed.
“The cost of this thing is definitely higher than tofu, right? So much milk for just this little piece—if making it tofu-sized, how much milk would that take? Compared to that, tofu doesn’t have such high manufacturing cost.”
Ainuo, from a family not short on money and even from a noble family with honorary status in the fleet, protested with a pained expression.
“Spend when you should, enjoy when you should.” Saying this, Ouyang Yating speared another small piece of cheese and put it in her mouth. “Besides, milk isn’t expensive. Just buy some milk and make it yourself to eat. Uncle and Auntie don’t have your pickiness; they love eating tofu.”
“I think it’s better for Xiang Chuan to work hard on making beanless-tasting tofu.” Ainuo narrowed his eyes at his childhood friend. “My pocket money is all saved for startup funds for a new venture later; I can’t spend it carelessly.”
Ouyang Yating: “You say that, but you’ve nagged about it for three years; our ears are callused from hearing it, and we haven’t seen you actually start preparing anything.”
Ainuo: “That was before; it’s different now, isn’t it?”
Li Wei, standing at the back, put down his serving plate and fork. He hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of tasting the rich cheese when he heard this conversation between Ainuo and Ouyang Yating.
He looked at Xiang Chuan in the kitchen corner, frowning at the blank light screen so hard her brows seemed about to drip water, and sighed inwardly.
It had only just passed one quarter, yet young people were already getting new ideas about the future from these successive ancient culture impacts. These were Xiang Chuan’s peers nearby, but over time, more people might change their future plans because of this.
By then, could the First Fleet and Eleventh Fleet still stop this wave rising within the Third Fleet?
