Nu Yalang of Tang Dynasty

Thinking of this, Zhou Jun stood up and asked Chun Niang: "Is there any bean oil (soybean oil) in the dining room?"

Chun Niang thought for a moment and replied: "Shu oil? I've never seen it before. Madam Yuping may know about it."

Zhou Jun nodded, turned around and left the dining room.

Huayue followed out, walked behind Zhou Jun, and asked, "Why did you suddenly find soybean oil?"

Zhou Jun asked as he walked: "Does Dashi have a stir-fry method like the one I just did?"

Huayue nodded and said, "Yes."

Zhou Jun was stunned, then turned around and asked: "Yes? How to make it? What kind of oil to use?"

Huayue: "When I was in Dashi, I once ate two kinds of stir-fry dishes, one was scrambled eggs with white oil, and the other was smart rice."

Seeing Zhou Jun's confused look, Huayue explained: "White oil is white sesame oil. I remember that this dish was also served in the Tang Dynasty."

"As for wisdom rice, it is the most common meal provided to believers in mosques."

"Flax is pure and untainted. It is a gift from the gods and is shared by the gods. Flaxseed oil is called the purest and true oil. Mix it with rice and fry it to make wisdom rice."

Huayue added: "In my memory, every time after worship, people would hold scriptures in their hands and pray and swear, and then eat wisdom rice."

Burn eggs with sesame oil?

Fried rice with flax oil?

Zhou Jun asked Hua Yue: "Are these two dishes delicious?"

Hua Yue hesitated and said, "The taste is okay."

Looking at Huayue's expression, Zhou Jun knew that she didn't mean what she said.

While talking, Zhou Jun walked out of the outer garden, came to the middle garden, and rushed towards Yuping's residence.

When he arrived at the entrance of the courtyard, Zhou Jun happened to see Yuping sitting on a table in the courtyard, so he went over and said, "Ms. Yuping, excuse me for disturbing you."

Yuping turned around and saw Zhou Jun and Hua Yue rushing into the courtyard, and was startled: "Why are you here?"

Zhou Jun: "I have something I would like to ask you for advice."

Yuping quickly stopped what she was doing and said politely: "I don't dare to ask for advice. Mr. Pang is rubbing out words in the study. Erlang can go there to find him."

Zhou Jun shook his head and said: "It has nothing to do with Mr. Pang, but there is something related to cooking. I want to ask Lady Yuping for advice."

Yuping was stunned: "Shanchui? When did Erlang pay attention to the kitchen?"

Zhou Jun: "If you find this thing, you will definitely get countless delicacies."

Seeing the two of them circling back and forth, Hua Yue became impatient and asked, "Yuping, do you know where I can find soybean oil?"

Yuping: "Soybean oil? Soybeans are called squid, and adzuki beans are called squid. Which one is it?"

Huayue: "Soybeans are the bean oil."

Yuping felt strange: "In the dining room, bean curd is cooked on weekdays. This bean oil is rare. How can it be used in cooking?"

Zhou Jun: "Why is bean oil so rare?"

Yuping walked to the table in the courtyard and motioned for Zhou Jun and Hua Yue to come and sit too.

After the two of them were seated, Yuping sat down and said, "It's difficult to extract bean oil, and it's not as good as flax."

"When I was working in the Jin Mansion, the little girl from the Jin family couldn't get used to the flax oil bought in the market. She always felt that it was dark in color and tasted bitter."

"I went to an oil pressing shop and bought some freshly pressed flax oil from the store."

"It was also a coincidence that there happened to be a herbal medicine shop that ordered bean oil from the oil press."

"When I saw it, I asked casually, why can't I see bean oil for sale in the market, but I still want to place an order to make it and sell it now?"

"Then the shopkeeper told me about the bean oil."

Zhou Jun knew that what Yuping said next was that bean oil was rare in the Tang Dynasty, and it was also the reason why stir-fry cooking methods had not been developed before the Song Dynasty.

Just listen to Yuping say: "The oil extraction process mostly relies on water power or manpower, and heavy objects are repeatedly beaten before the oil is precipitated."

"If there is little bean oil, it takes a lot of work to produce the oil; if there is more sesame oil, it is easy to produce the oil."

"One pound of bean oil often requires twenty pounds of bean seeds, which are pressed repeatedly; one pound of sesame oil only requires five pounds of flax, which is produced at one time. Which one is better and which one is worse can be seen immediately in comparison."

Zhou Jun was stunned when he heard this.

If he remembers correctly, soybeans don’t seem to produce that little oil, right?

But after thinking about it, Zhou Jun quickly understood the mystery behind it.

Put sesame seeds on your fingertips and press them with your nails, and you can easily see oil stains; but if you put soybeans on your fingertips, no matter how you press them, it will be difficult to get oil.

After all, the reason why the sweet potato produced less oil in the Tang Dynasty was not because the sweet potato itself had less oil, but because the oil extraction technology in the Tang Dynasty was relatively rudimentary and it was impossible to squeeze out all the oil from the sweet potato.

The threshold for oil extraction from flax (sesame) is relatively low, and it does not require much punching force to squeeze out the oil.

Therefore, most common people and restaurants in the Tang Dynasty used flax for cooking instead of soybean oil.

However, once flax oil is heated to high temperatures, the oil smell is too strong and it is not suitable for cooking.

After deducing step by step, it turns out that the reason why there was no cooking in the Tang Dynasty was not because of cooking skills, but because of the oil.

After thinking about this, Zhou Jun asked Yuping: "I want to find beetroot oil. Where is the oil press in Chang'an?"

Yuping glanced at Zhou Jun and said, "If Erlang really wants bean oil, I still have some here, so take it."

Zhou Jun's face lit up when he heard this, and he quickly said: "Ms. Yuping, are you here?"

Yuping: "Well, my beetroot oil is not prepared for cooking, but it is medicinal oil for bruises and burns."

Zhou Jun was stunned for a moment, then recalled that when Yuping just spoke, she seemed to have said that the herbal medicine store had ordered bean oil from the oil press.

It turns out that bean oil was also used in the Tang Dynasty, but it was just a medicinal herb.

Yuping turned around and went back to the room. After a while, she walked out holding a clay pot the size of a hydrangea in both hands.

Putting the pottery pot gently on the table, Yuping said, "It's all here."

Zhou Jun opened the seal of the clay pot and looked at the bean oil inside.

The color is darker than the soybean oil in the previous life, and there are some mist floating on the surface, but overall, the difference is not big.

Hua Yue also came to the mouth of the clay pot, straightened her nose and smelled it, frowned and said, "It's not as fragrant as sesame oil."

Zhou Jun sealed the pottery pot again and said to Yuping, "Thank you, Madam Yuping. This thing will be of great use to me."

Seeing Zhou Jun turn around and leave, Hua Yue quickly followed him.

On the way, Huayue asked suspiciously: "Is it possible that you want to use this medicinal oil for cooking?"

Zhou Jun had a smile on his lips: "You are disgusted now, but when the food comes out, I'm afraid I won't even drive you away."

Hua Yue didn't believe it: "This bean oil has no fragrance at all. It is just a medicinal material for external use. How can the dishes cooked with it be delicious?"

Zhou Jun didn't say anything and returned directly to the dining room.

Asking Chun Niang to add firewood to light the fire again, Zhou Jun took advantage of the hot stall and took the fresh sheep tripe, raw and cut it into thin leaves.

Then, take the clover leaves and cut them into pieces.

When the fire in the stove was burning brightly, Zhou Jun poured some beetroot oil into the pot and covered the entire pot surface with the oil by turning the pot back with a ladle.

After the oil in the pot started to smoke, Zhou Jun put all the shredded lamb tripe in it.

In an instant, the oil boiled. Huayue and Chunniang looked at this scene and their eyes widened for a moment.

Zhou Jun gently lifted the pot, looked at the stove fire, and said two words: "Add more firewood!"

Chun Niang hurriedly stuffed some more firewood into the stove. Suddenly, the fire in the stove was very strong, and some of it even spit out from the stove cavity, which looked horrifying.

The fire in the stove touched the surface of the pot and suddenly ignited the bean oil inside.

In an instant, a fire broke out from the entire pot and shot straight to the roof, causing Hua Yue to scream.

Zhou Jun was not surprised, he just put down the wooden spoon, grabbed the edge of the pot, raised his arms, and used his wrists to shake the ingredients in the pot.

After shaking it for a few times, Zhou Jun saw that the color of the sheep's belly turned golden, so he put down the pot, put out the fire with a wooden lid, and said to Chun Niang again: "Reduce the firewood."

When the fire in the stove weakened, Zhou Jun put a little more stone honey (caramel sugar), seasoning sauce, refined salt, black pepper (Sichuan peppercorns) into the pot, and stir-fried for a while.

When the mutton tripe changed color to deep red again, Zhou Jun threw the previously cut clover leaves into the pot and covered the pot.

After simmering for a while over low heat, when Zhou Jun finally opened the lid of the pot, a rich and fresh aroma of meat floated around, making Hua Yue and Chun Niang salivate with greed.

Huayue glanced at Zhou Jun, and after getting the latter's consent, she carefully picked up a piece of fried tripe from the pot and put it into her mouth.

After just chewing it lightly, Hua Yue suddenly felt so happy that she wanted to scream.

"I have never eaten such delicious food!" Hua Yue couldn't hold back his chopsticks, completely forgetting to be reserved. While eating the stir-fried tripe, he said inarticulately: "Not even in my father's palace.

I’ve never had such delicious food!”

Zhou Jun smiled and rubbed his hands, feeling reassured.

The cooking thing is finally done.