I am the chief of a primitive tribe

After collecting corns in Dongshan last time, Mu Feng started to make a stone mill.

However, due to various reasons, he had selected the stone but kept grinding it with a hammer today and a pickaxe tomorrow, until recently it was finished.

A piece of high-quality granite was selected for the stone mill. The stone is hard and the surface can be polished very smoothly. The most important thing is that the stone has fine texture, which is obviously a wear-resistant and durable high-quality material for grinding.

It is not difficult to make a stone mill. The difficulty lies in the fit between the grinding discs of the stone mill, which is why Mu Feng spent a lot of time.

Now that it has been decided to grind some corns to make steamed bread, the stone mill must be polished again before it can be used.

In addition to the repeated grinding before, the grinding of the stone mill also needs to be ground with some coarse grains to grind off the stone powder and debris left on the stone mill.

The stone mill is a bit big, Mu Feng found a few people from the tribe to put the grinding discs together, and then started grinding.

As for coarse grains, he didn't need to think about what to use. What he had now was corn, and it was the most primitive corn he picked from Dongshan last time - it couldn't be coarser.

Because the stone mill was a bit big, Mu Feng had to find someone to help. He asked two tribesmen to push the grinding rod of the stone mill in circles, and he held the corn kernels and added them to the millstone.

First turn it clockwise for a few circles, and then turn it counterclockwise for a few circles.

The round bean-like corn kernels entered the millstone, and soon fell through the gaps, and all that came out was dark and brown powder.

On the one hand, it was because there was stone powder on the millstone, and on the other hand, it was because the starch content of these corns was low and the gluten content was high.

In the past, such things were used to feed chickens and ducks.

But it didn't affect it at the moment. These corn flours containing stone powder and high gluten were just right for feeding chickens.

When the two tribesmen saw that the two pieces of stone rubbed together actually ground the corn into powder, they were so surprised that they couldn't speak.

They couldn't figure out why the chief always came up with so many strange things - just like this thing called "stone mill" in front of them, which grinds corn into powder.

"Isn't corn used for cooking?" The two had doubts in their hearts, but they didn't dare to ask Mu Feng.

Mu Feng was thinking about whether cornmeal should be used to make steamed buns or steamed corn bread.

But both of them require yeast, and only steamed buns and steamed corn bread with yeast are delicious.

Although he didn't have yeast at the moment, he could make it himself.

But the flour for making yeast must be refined flour, which means that small corn kernels are not good, only newly harvested corn will do.

Fortunately, not much flour is needed to make yeast, so he quickly asked people to break off the corn cobs that were harvested, take all the clean ones, and wait until the stone mill is finished, and grind the refined flour first.

The so-called refined flour is to screen the cornmeal that has been ground once, remove the bran, and only grind the white flour part inside.

To put it simply, it is to remove the layer with corn husk, as long as the starch content is high.

After grinding repeatedly for several times, Mu Feng finally got a small jar of refined flour. Although the color cannot be compared with wheat flour, the fineness in the hand is almost the same.

"You two go find two more people, you don't have to do anything else today, just grind these corns into flour, be careful not to put these brans in, sift them out, and throw them into the chicken coop for the chickens to eat!"

"Yes!"

And what he has to do is to make yeast himself in a clay pot.

Making yeast may be difficult for others, but it is familiar to Mu Feng.

Because he lives in a rural area in the north, he has seen too many old people in the village making yeast by themselves.

To put it simply, yeast is not called yeast in the north, but a dough starter.

It is an old dough lump put in when steaming steamed buns, making steamed buns and making dough.

This old dough lump is the dough starter.

It is also relatively easy to make a starter for dough. Just add water to make dough, knead it tightly, cover it with dry flour, and then put it in a relatively warm place with sunlight, but not direct sunlight. Leave it for three or four hours and it is ready.

This method is a rural folk method. After making such a starter for dough, you can keep a piece of old dough every time you steam buns in the future, and you can always use it to make dough.

Mu Feng mixed the dough and made the starter for dough and put it in the sun to ferment.

He no longer needs to worry about grinding flour. What he needs to do now is to get a steamer and make a pot cover.

Considering that the pot for steaming buns is the ceramic pot that Changning has been boiling water in, Mu Feng can't help but secretly hold his forehead: "My God, this pot cover is a bit big! Even the steamer must be big!!"

But fortunately, both the steamer and the pot lid are not too difficult to make.

The steamer is made by crisscrossing thick black bamboo strips and fixing them with animal tendons.

Li Hu seemed to have figured out Mu Feng's temper a long time ago. He knew that he needed bamboo strips to make many new things, so he had already cut a lot of bamboo strips of different lengths, widths and thicknesses and placed them in Mu Feng's cave.

Now he just needs to use local materials and make them.

The steamer was quickly made, and the pot lid was next.

Compared to the steamer, the pot lid It was even simpler. Just splice the wooden boards, saw and repair them, and fix them with wooden wedges.

These two things took Mu Feng only one or two hours in total - not enough time for the starter to ferment.

After doing all this, Mu Feng went to see the flour grinding situation.

Four people took turns pushing the stone mill without stopping for a moment, and they really ground out a lot of flour.

At first glance, it should be enough to steam a large pot of steamed buns.

Mu Feng thought about the people in the tribe, and according to the situation of one pot, Calculated as steaming 40 steamed buns, two large pots can steam 80 at a time.

There are nearly 290 people in the tribe. If each person has one steamed bun, it will need to be steamed at least four times!

In fact, steaming so many steamed buns at a time is a huge consumption of the current corn reserves.

If they really eat like this, the corn in the tribe will probably not be enough for even a month's consumption.

Fortunately, Mu Feng only let everyone eat a steamed bun this time to "taste it", not to eat it all at once.

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt funny. It feels like in the past, when we said "try something new", we meant to eat some delicacies from the mountains and the sea, but now we are eating steamed buns, which is really incredible.

Mu Feng put some corn flour in his mouth and tasted it. It was not particularly sticky, and the starch content was definitely not as high as in later generations.

But the degree of fineness was almost the same - fortunately he asked these people to grind it a few more times.

"Yeast, flour, steamer, pot cover, everything is ready, but it seems that something is missing..." Mu Feng scratched his head and thought carefully, "Why can't I remember it?"