Ch48.2 - Outstanding Me (Part Two)

Editor: ASplashOfMusic

The mill was continuously used for many days, all for the farmers to grind wheat and bake black bread in the fief’s only bread oven that could bake black bread. 

Even the poorest family among the serfs made a long strip of bread this time. They even discarded a huge portion of the scorched parts of the bread. Although they weren’t rich enough to eat white bread, they didn’t want to gnaw on such stone-like bread.

Cut the black bread into pieces, boil hot water, boil radish soup, and soak the bread. There was still a little sugar paste left in the family wares, so put a little on the bread.

It was as if the serfs were celebrating a holiday. This meal tasted unlike the broth given by the Lord long ago. It was something they exchanged for their own beets. Although the beets were also thanks to the Lord’s blessing, the meaning behind it was a little different.

Ages ago, whenever there was a piece of black bread in the serfs’ house, the black bread had to be hidden and eaten secretly. But these days, everyone in the village held a long black bread strip in hand and went to the square to chat. They chatted about how much wheat they exchanged for, how much they had left to eat, and how much black bread they had made. 

“I got a lot of beets in my field because I followed everything that the people the agricultural official sent to farm with us did. So I managed to make two pieces of black bread. Look, it’s so long.”

“Sigh, if only no insects had grown in my field at that time… Although even without the insects, the yield was also slightly reduced. Otherwise, I would have made more black bread…”

“I’ve left some behind to cook wheat porridge during the winter. My daughter’s already so old, and yet she’s never eaten wheat porridge!”

This year, the serfs ate bread, while the wealthier freemen had surplus grains for the first time. During this year’s harvest, from the wheat, beans, and vegetables grown on the fields, as well as the food that they exchanged sugar beets with, there was still some surplus in supply until the next grain harvest. Everyone didn’t dare eat the surplus grains at first. However, when they got used to this situation, they knew they would have to trade some of those grains for something else in the future. However, this was all in the future.

.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Beet harvest was only one of the things they had to do. In January this year, Northumberland’s vineyards would also have a good harvest.

Po atf ugjqfr mea ijra sfjg tjvc’a yffc mjgfoeiis mjgfv obg, atfs wluta tjnf bcis ugbkc lcab ajii agffr lc atf rfmbcv sfjg jcv atfc bcis yfjg ogela lc atf atlgv sfjg. Lbkfnfg, atf Lfjnfcr tjv gfifcafv, jcv klat Jel HlJtjb, j vfrmfcvjca bo atf Glnlcf Mjgwfg, lc mtjguf, atflg nlcfsjgv kbeiv bynlberis tjnf j ubbv tjgnfra lc atf rfmbcv sfjg.

Northumberland could produce around 1000 jin of grapes per mu. In this era, this was a high-yield machinegun crop. This amount of crops was enough to make the farmer’s eyes glow and have them be so amazed that they couldn’t distinguish day and night anymore. In fact, Cui QiChao was still deliberately controlling the amount of produce. 

Because although the trees might still bear fruit that way, the quality and sugar content was bound to decline. If this was the case, they wouldn’t be able to make enough good wine. Wine brewing involved thirty percent skill and seventy percent raw ingredients, so they couldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture for small matters.

Different from brown sugar, there were many high-quality grape varieties and wines in churches all around the world. Someone had once researched this. At present, even the harvest time was controlled. The wine industry wasn’t very primitive in this era. In fact, it could be said that there was slight competition among wine brewers.

Wine was known as the holy blood by the clergy. Northumberland’s wine was mainly sold to the church, and their only competitor was the church. Thus, they should obviously pay special attention to the quality of the wine.

During the process of cultivating the grapes, Cui QiChao couldn’t possibly control the weather and amount of sunshine that the vineyard received, so he paid special attention to the factors that he could control such as water and soil. Therefore, the grapes produced by Northumberland weren’t particularly big, but they had high acidity, very rich flavor, and thick and compact taste. Overall, it tasted very distinctive. 

During this era, the secrets of wine brewing were only taught to priests. But in the future, every family could brew a little by themselves, and the brewing method was no secret at all.

During this era, wine brewing methods were basically already developed. So Cui QiChao used the method that had the highest cost performance and that was most suitable for Northumberland’s climate in this era. Generally, the methods were almost the same. First, pick out the rotten grapes, leaving only the good grapes. Then break and squeeze out the juice from the grapes, only leaving the juice and the pulp. One couldn’t crush the seeds and stems; otherwise, their bitter taste would affect the taste of the wine.

Based on Northumberland’s consistent thrifty behavior, the remaining grape residue after juice extraction couldn’t be wasted. It could not only be used as fertilizer but also be dried and used as pig feed.

The juice was fermented, stirred properly during fermentation, cultured, and clarified. Finally, the filter was loaded into the container. Taking into account Northumberland’s weather conditions, coupled with the picking and processing of raw ingredients, the whole process took about two months. 

For a long time, Cui QiChao considered whether to add some sugar to the wine in order for it to taste better. In the end, he still found it unnecessary. Sugar was too valuable, and he couldn’t afford to waste it at this point in time. In the future, when they were richer, they could add it in to allow them to remain more competitive.

After the wine finished brewing, it must be quickly sold to the church. Otherwise, these good wines would turn into vinegar if it had been stored for too long. The vinegar here was different from that in China. It was brewed from grapes.

Cui QiChao had long told the archbishop about it. He knew that Cui QiChao was also planting grapes here. But the quality and the price were factors that the archbishop considered when purchasing wine.

Cui QiChao had tasted a lot of wine from all over the country before. After making good-quality wine, the first thing he did was to call Priest William to taste it. William had also tasted all kinds of excellent wine in the church. Although Cui QiChao had inquired about William and found that he didn’t know how to brew wine, it was absolutely no problem for him to taste-test it. 

.

To tell the truth, he felt excited ever since he had received Cui QiChao’s invitation—No, ever since he saw Northumberland picking grapes.

The quality of those grapes could be distinguished with the naked eye. Although he didn’t know how proficient Cui QiChao’s wine brewing skills were, he guessed in his heart that the Lord could’ve asked the archbishop for help. Then he’d learn how to make wine. William had long been obsessed with Northumberland’s food, and he had also long begun to repent inwardly for his gluttony.

Although he was in the process of repenting, he continued to eat the delicious food. 

When William arrived at Cui QiChao’s siheyuan in Northumberland, Cui QiChao asked him to sit down in the open-air yard. A grapevine had also been planted here, but it wasn’t too lush, since it had been less than a year since it was planted. The grapevine might grow lusher after its second year.

William knew that the Lord was generous and could even offer his people a whole sugar feast, but he was stunned when he saw Cui QiChao ask the cook to cook with wine right in front of him.

Cui QiChao sighed. “It’s rare for us to be able to eat beef.” Farm cattle couldn’t be casually killed, so there were few opportunities to eat beef. This time, it just so happened that the cook had all the raw ingredients to make beef stew in red wine, otherwise, he would have to stew pork for William.

Under Cui QiChao’s guidance, the cook had already become very skilled. First, she fried the beef, which had been cut into pieces, with olive oil. 

William swallowed his saliva when he saw the beef sizzling in the oil, its surface being fried into a tempting brown hue.

Unlike how people normally cooked food in this era, cooking the entire animal in one go, the Baron liked to separate the animal into different parts before cooking it. William deeply understood the goodness of this cooking method. He didn’t feel that the meat slices were too small. He thought it was… exquisite.

But this only applied to Northumberland’s kitchen. He would feel humiliated if other territories were to invite him to eat small pieces of meat.

The cook fried the beef, fried the carrots and onions, stirred the vegetables in a stewy mix until they were soft and mushy, added the leaves of some spices such as rosemary and thyme, and stewed the beef and wine. Then lastly, she sprinkled some precious salt and pepper to make the aroma even more salivating. 

The stew was next slowly simmered over a low fire. The bright red liquor was bubbling, and the dish was emanating a strong aroma. However, they wouldn’t be able to eat the food for a while since the food was still being cooked. As William’s eyes lingered on the beef, Cui QiChao poured the alcohol into a silver cup. “Priest, have a drink first.”

“Okay, okay…” William looked away from the beef in a restless manner. He had never tried eating food that was cooked using this method, but just from the look and the scent of it, he knew it must be delicious.

William raised the silver cup. No spices were added to the wine, but it smelled very good. “This wine has a strong aroma. Your brewing skills are really superb.”

Cui QiChao smiled. “It should still be inferior to the wine produced by the churches.” 

“No, no, I think…” William thought that since he had already smelled its aroma, he should go take a sip. It tasted a little sour, which was inevitable, but its level of sourness was just right, unlike those crude and inferior sour wines. There was something charming about this mellow liquor, and it tasted just like apples.

With its charming sweet aftertaste, William was sure he had never tasted any similar wine in the other churches. In comparison, this was definitely not inferior to the red wine produced by any famous church’s vineyard. Sure enough, as he said, the grapes of Northumberland looked to be of high quality.

William closed his eyes and savored the taste of the wine for a long time, before he was able to finish his earlier sentence, “I think it’s not inferior to any church’s wine. Baron, your fief produces excellent wine, worthy of your careful care for the grapes.”

“Thank you for the compliment. Please try the beef.” Cui QiChao motioned for the cook to serve the stewed beef. 

William tasted the beef cooked with luxurious cooking methods. At first, he thought that cooking beef with wine was too ostentatious. But after tasting it, he realized that it was just right and a perfect match.

The beef was already a little old. After all, this was an old cow that had helped with farm work. However, once stewed in red wine, the beef was soft and mushy, and the taste had greatly improved because the beef was fried. The surface was also a little harder and had layers of flavor. The original slightly acidic and somewhat astringent taste of the red wine disappeared completely after stewing, leaving only a strong aroma behind.

A mouthful of soft and hot beef soaked in wine entered his mouth. William was already drunk. “Lord Baron, no matter which church you share your wine and recipes with, it will cause everyone to want to break the rules of the church.”