Chapter 132: First Step In Making Koji
There was still quite some time before the beans were fully soaked, so Xiang Chuan simply had Da Xing fetch a parasol and a few chairs. The four of them, plus Lisa tagging along, sat together in the yard chatting. The midday sun was still somewhat hot in the thick of spring, but with juice and fruit milk beverages nearby, and ice cubes in the cups that Xiang Chuan had recently 3D-printed molds for out of boredom, this noon had a bit of the flavor of afternoon tea.
“This soy sauce isn’t something that can be made all at once.” Xiang Chuan frowned tightly. “From soaking the soybeans to completing fermentation, it takes at least three months. Our outdoor study is just one week, so we’re only making the raw materials for fermentation this time. You’re all too impatient.”
“It’s just three months. Worst case, we can ask the school to extend our outdoor study time.” Ainuo saw her looking so nervous and thought it was something serious. Hearing this, he raised an eyebrow: That’s it?
“Just… three months? That’s almost half a semester.” Xiang Chuan widened her eyes.
“In theory, outdoor study can even be applied for up to a year, as long as you submit periodic samples regularly and the final result at the end. The school won’t say anything.” Ouyang Yating explained to her. “Among our previous seniors, there were even senior students who applied for two consecutive years of outdoor study, practically turning high school into university.”
University has to go through all this hassle too? Xiang Chuan furrowed her brows.
But a year of outdoor study… that does sound tempting. Xiang Chuan propped her chin with her thumb, thinking. With her Geegle on this side for A Bite of China Club, periodic samples or final results would be a piece of cake. But… wouldn’t the club activity room she finally built up just become for show?
Thinking of her pocket money that had shrunk by a third, Xiang Chuan felt her heart palpitating.
“Forget it, let’s just honestly stay back at school. The equipment there is sufficient. We only applied for outdoor study because this preparation work needs some equipment at my home. Once the koji is processed, we can rent a transport robot to move these glass jars to the club warehouse for high temperature storage.” Xiang Chuan waved her hand, inwardly shedding tears as she bid farewell to a full year of afternoon slacking off.
No choice, used to being poor. No matter how wealthy her family was, her conscience wouldn’t allow her to waste so much money.
“Didn’t expect you to like school so much.” Ainuo said admiringly.
“…” The corporate slave who had studied for sixteen years and would study another six or seven sighed in silence.
“But three months isn’t short either.” Ouyang Yating looked at the four large glass jars, squinting her eyes from the sunlight refracted off them. “I thought it’d be like making yeast and done in a few days.”
It really is pretty long. Xiang Chuan sighed inwardly.
“If we had wheat bran, it could be shortened a bit, but still needs a month.” Xiang Chuan took a big sip of fruit milk. “And the info says that the wheat bran method for soy sauce requires extra additives later to maintain texture, but I’m not clear on the process, so I chose the safest flour method.”
“Anyway, it’s just for tasting. As long as the texture is about the same, right? I saw you weren’t that picky about texture when making yeast.” Ainuo said.
“It’s the opposite. I pursued texture that’s why I made yeast. Without yeast, how could buns be so fluffy.” Xiang Chuan raised her eyebrow. “And how dare you conclude that yeast won’t affect texture?”
“Huh?” The three were stunned. Really?
“There are plenty of types of yeast. Like these fruits we’re using now as ingredients and dim sum, most of them can make yeast, and they’ll have different flavors.” Xiang Chuan said smugly.
“Then why don’t you make them?”
“This…” Faced with Ainuo’s soul-searching question, Xiang Chuan fell silent. Truth be told, she wanted to, but these fruit yeasts were mostly for baking foods, and her parents’ attitude toward ovens made her temporarily give up on bread, cakes, cookies, and the like. Now being asked, she wasn’t sure if she should say, because when she mentioned it to Chou Manman before, Chou Manman’s attitude was no different from her parents’: firmly opposed to making an oven.
It’s just an oven! It won’t eat anyone!
Xiang Chuan really wanted to shout that, but considering that doing so would get her sent to a mental hospital by her family for lacking common sense, even with her so-called information turbulence cheat!
Okay, maybe not that serious, but at least half a month of confinement at home for ideological education was unavoidable.
Though she had no issue with holing up at home for ten days or half a month, but having lived as an adult in her previous life, if her parents locked her up for this reason, and then Ouyang Yating, Chou Manman, and others found out later, she’d have no face left.
People live to fight for that one breath. Now reborn twice, she couldn’t afford to mess up again.
Xiang Chuan decided to put this matter aside for now. After all, an oven wasn’t the issue; with a steamer basket, it was enough to satisfy her as a descendant of Yan and Huang from her previous life.
Seeing Xiang Chuan silent, the three knew it probably touched on a topic hard to bring up, so they didn’t press. Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong simply shifted the topic to cake. Their recent task in the club activity room was practicing cake-making. After a few tries, Ouyang Yating’s cream piping technique was stabilizing, now able to produce barely standard cream cake shapes. Liang Gong didn’t know if he had an ancestor who ran a cake shop; he could now pipe somewhat three-dimensional flowers with the most basic round piping tip, leaving Xiang Chuan, who was struggling with math problems nearby and distracted, dumbfounded.
Now she was considering searching Geegle for more piping tips to stock in the club activity room kitchen for Liang Gong to play around with. Who knows, maybe she could cultivate a modern cake piping master.
More than an hour passed quickly in the four’s idle chatter. With the timer alarm ringing, they had to start the next process.
Da Xing had already prepared four rented large pots nearby. After draining the water from the four jars of beans, they went into the pots, then boiled on timer for another four hours. If these electronic large pots had pressure cooker function, it could be done in forty or fifty minutes, but like ovens, civilian products seemed restricted from high pressure features, so Xiang Chuan had to honestly use the atmospheric four-hour steaming method.
“President, you went to all this trouble applying for outdoor study, but most of the time is either soaking beans or heating beans. Feels kinda not worth it?” Ainuo posed the soul question.
“Because it’s my first time, I need time for trial and error. After all, unlike pastries, ancient Earth brewing techniques have too many unexpected byproducts.” This was true; Xiang Chuan often saw her mom at home making pickled veggies that somehow always molded, infuriating her mom.
“But waiting like this is boring. How about doing some math problems?” Ainuo said, actually opening the light screen of math problems that had nearly given Xiang Chuan PTSD.
“No, no, Ainuo club member, we’re on outdoor study, don’t bring that out again, Please.” Xiang Chuan backed away two or three steps. She’d rather face the stinky first fermentation yeast dough than see this thing; last month it had her writing until she wanted to puke.
