The benefit of having two earthen stoves at home now showed its effect. Jiang Chun, while cooking dinner, was also braising meat.
After braising, she didn’t take it out, letting the braised meat soak in the braising liquid overnight, fully absorbing the flavor. The next day, after slaughtering the pig, she then took it out and carried it away.
These braised meats were obviously not sold to the ordinary town folks. It wasn’t that she was unwilling to sell, but that they simply couldn’t afford it.
The price of meat, depending on the fat-to-lean ratio, ranged from eighteen wen to twenty wen per jin. Recently, as grain prices rose, the price of meat also rose accordingly, going up to thirty-eight wen to forty wen per jin.
And the price she set for her braised meat was as high as eighty wen per jin—exactly double the price of raw meat.
Moreover, you couldn’t just buy pig’s head meat; you had to buy it together with heart, liver, and lungs—the three kinds of pig offal. The proportion of pig offal was about thirty percent.
Such a sky-high price—let alone now, when there was a famine, and most of the townsfolk’s money was spent on hoarding grain—even in peaceful years, few would be willing to eat it.
Only a few wealthy households in town could afford it. They were Jiang Chun’s true customer base.
This wasn’t Jiang Chun asking for an outrageous price—braised meat sold at the town’s restaurants was priced the same.
Although selling at the same price, she bought the pigs herself, slaughtered them herself, and braised them herself. Without the middleman Zheng Yi, she naturally earned more than the restaurants.
She wasn’t worried about not being able to sell it. The spices rewarded by the sign-in system were top-grade; even though she only used a small half, with the other large half being spices she bought from the town yesterday, the taste was definitely better than Hongye Restaurant’s.
There were only two butchers in Hongye Town. Among them, the Zheng family didn’t do retail business, only supplying the town’s restaurants, county restaurants, and the large households in the county.
As for these so-called large households in town, they couldn’t be compared to those in the county. Each household couldn’t even consume the meat of one whole pig a day. Zheng Yi was too lazy to bother with their business.
Therefore, they sent the family’s procurement servants to Jiang’s meat stall every day to buy meat.
Recently, because it was hard for Jiang’s meat stall to acquire pigs, they only set up their stall once every three days. This caused them to be unable to eat fresh meat daily like before. They had to buy a few more jin at a time to store at home, inevitably leading to some complaints.
Even the steward of the Qiu family, Zhang Fang, was no exception: “Cousin Miss, you should have Cousin Master find a way to acquire more pigs and set up the stall every day like before. The young master in our family says frozen meat has a smell and doesn’t like to eat it. It’s worrying our old madam so much that she can’t even sleep.”
Jiang Chun clicked her tongue in her heart.
Meat that had been frozen for a long time did indeed have a strange smell, but their stall only opened once every three days. Even if the Qiu family stored meat, it would at most be frozen for three days—how much smell could there really be?
After all, the young master of a wealthy household had never suffered hardships since childhood. For him, eating a bit of frozen meat probably counted as enduring hardship.
Jiang Chun lifted the lid covering the wooden basin containing the braised meat, raised her chin towards the braised meat, and smiled: “Think the frozen meat smells? Then Uncle Zhang can buy some of our newly made braised meat to bring back for the young master to taste. Guarantee he’ll like it.”
As soon as the lid was opened, the rich aroma of braised meat instantly wafted out. Zhang Fang took a deep breath and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Smells so good!”
The steward of another wealthy household in town, Jiang Youfu from the Jiang family that ran the only money exchange shop in town, was leading a young servant towards the meat stall. Smelling the fragrance, he immediately quickened his pace.
He shouted, “What good stuff is this? Smells so fragrant?”
Zhang Fang had been hesitating about whether to buy the braised pig head meat. After all, the Hongye Restaurant in town also sold braised pig head meat. The master in their family liked it and often sent people to buy it, but the young master said the taste was weird, and he would spit it out after just one bite.
But thinking it over, even if the young master didn’t eat it, there was still the master. Anyway, the master loved to eat it, and deciding on his own to buy it back wouldn’t get him scolded by the old madam.
The main thing was, Jiang Youfu, who often fought with him over the good cuts of meat, had come. He couldn’t let him snatch it first and take the good pig head meat away.
He didn’t even bother to ask the price and immediately said to Jiang Chun: “Cousin Miss, give me two jin of pig head meat.”
Jiang Chun didn’t rush to act. She cut a small piece of pig head meat, placed it on the blade of the knife, and handed it to him, smiling: “Uncle Zhang, have a taste of our braised meat first. Then I’ll tell you the price and the selling method.”
Zhang Fang reached out to take the piece of braised meat, brought it to his mouth, and took a bite. After chewing a few times, his eyes immediately lit up.
He quickly stuffed the remaining half piece of braised meat in his hand into his mouth, chewing with an expression of enjoyment.
Jiang Chun smiled with narrowed eyes and said: “The price of our braised meat is the same as the restaurant’s, all eighty wen, but you can’t just buy pig’s head meat—you have to buy it together with heart, liver, and lungs. Heart, liver, and lungs must account for at least thirty percent.”
Zhang Fang heard this, pondered for a moment, swallowed the pig’s head meat in his mouth, and clicked his tongue, saying: “Cousin Miss, you really know how to do business. Calculating like this, your pig’s head meat, in name the same price as the restaurant, in reality is thirty percent more expensive than the restaurant’s.”
Jiang Chun grinned and said: “Uncle Zhang, don’t worry, it’s all braised in the same pot. Our heart, liver, and lungs taste really good too—buying them won’t be a loss.”
Jiang Youfu, who had been listening for a while, saw Zhang Fang dilly-dallying endlessly, squeezed over and shouted: “Lady Jiang, cut a piece of pig’s head meat for me to try. If it tastes good, I’ll buy five jin, together with your heart, liver, and lungs.”
Jiang Chun smiled and cut him a piece.
Zhang Fang, being mocked by Jiang Youfu, glared at him with annoyance, then turned back to Jiang Chun and smiled: “Cousin Miss, cut me three jin, and according to your rule, pair it with heart, liver, and lungs.”
As he spoke, he reached into his waist pouch and took out three strings of coins. Without handing them to Jiang Chun, he directly placed two strings into the money box beside them, then unwrapped the string of coins in his hand, counted out forty wen, and also placed it inside.
After finishing, he glanced smugly at Jiang Youfu, showing off his close relationship with Jiang Chun.
Jiang Youfu finished eating that piece of meat, waved his hand boldly, and said: “Such delicious braised meat—buying only two or three jin would be too stingy. Lady Jiang, cut me five jin!”
As he spoke, he gave Zhang Fang a contemptuous side-eye.
Jiang Chun curled her lips.
These two were really idle enough—every time they came to the meat stall at almost the same time, either you taunted me a few lines, or I rolled my eyes at you—never tired of it.
In just a little while, eight jin of braised meat were sold, bringing in six hundred and forty wen. Jiang Chun was still quite happy.
The remaining two jin were soon bought by a servant from another Ji family wealthy household.
The size of domestic pigs in ancient times couldn’t be compared to the size of modern, industrially raised pigs. Pig’s head meat plus heart, liver, and lungs altogether only braised into ten jin.
This was still because yesterday’s pig happened to be a bit larger. Other pigs at most would only yield eight or nine jin.
But raw pig’s head and heart, liver, lungs were originally hard to sell, and their price was much cheaper than meat. After being braised into braised meat and sold, the price had multiplied several times over.
Today, these ten jin of braised meat brought in a gross income of eight hundred wen, and a net income of no less than five hundred wen.
Although spice prices were high, the spices and braising liquid used once could still be used again for a second pot. When averaged over two pots, the cost was greatly reduced.
Not to mention, the portion of spices obtained as a reward from the sign-in didn’t cost any money.
Looks like this braised meat business could still continue.
And she kept doing it all the way until the twenty-second of the twelfth lunar month.
Although there was still some time before the New Year, there was a local tradition of slaughtering New Year pigs. Even though this year, due to famine, most farmers had sold off their pigs in advance, the New Year pigs raised by the wealthy households were still there.
After the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month, Jiang He was frequently invited to slaughter New Year pigs, and simply didn’t have time to collect pigs.
Once Jiang Chun finished slaughtering the few pigs stored in the back pigpen, the Jiang family’s meat stall closed up shop early and no longer set up the stall.
Of course, Jiang Chun could have gone to collect pigs herself, but she didn’t have the time.
The ancients valued the New Year greatly, and there were countless things to be busy with before the New Year—these included but were not limited to a thorough cleaning of the whole house, taking apart and washing quilts and cotton-padded clothes, making new clothes, steaming mantou and baozi, making dumplings, offering sacrifices to ancestors, purchasing New Year necessities and food, delivering New Year gifts, as well as putting up couplets and door charms, and so on.
Jiang He was so busy he was hardly ever home. Song Shi’an, not falling ill at this critical time, was already helping Jiang Chun a lot—he couldn’t be counted on.
Jiang Chun was busy inside and out all by herself, wishing she could split herself into eight parts. When she really couldn’t manage, she even had to light the oil lamp at night to steam mantou.
Song Shi’an was afraid she would be too exhausted, so he took the initiative to say: “My outer garment has only been worn for half a year, it’s still new, there’s no need to make me a new set of clothes.”
Jiang Chun glanced at him and laughed at him: “Make new clothes? Husband, what good thing are you dreaming of? Right now there’s a famine, and our family still owes the Zou Lizheng household ten taels of silver, where do we have the spare money to make new clothes?”
This year, none of them in the family would make new clothes. She would just take time to dismantle and wash the cotton-padded clothes of herself and Jiang He, that would be enough. Song Shi’an’s cotton-padded clothes were newly made, so there was no need for this effort.
Of course, after pawning the jade bracelet, plus earning money from pig slaughtering, selling meat, and selling braised meat, she still had over ten taels of silver in her hands.
But borrowing money from the Village Head Zou family was originally to put on the appearance of being poor. They definitely couldn’t repay the money so quickly. At the very least, they had to wait until the famine was over before talking about it.
On the surface, they couldn’t be too showy, but this was, after all, the first New Year that Song Shi’an had “married” into the Jiang family, so the inside had to be bright and proper.
So she not only steamed a pot of sesame flatbread using soybean oil, flour, scallions, and salt as filling, but also bought two blocks of tofu from Widow Li’s house, sliced the tofu, brushed it with saltwater, air-dried it into dried tofu, and then braised a pot of fragrant braised dried tofu for him using braising liquid.
As for the two of them, father and daughter, Jiang He went to help people slaughter pigs, and would bring back one or two sets of pig offal every day. Jiang Chun would gather them together and braise them every three days, braising all of them.
From then on, they began living a happy life of having braised meat to eat at every meal.
But with such a large quantity, and with only the two of them in the family eating meat, even if they ate at every meal, they couldn’t finish it all.
So she packed up a portion and, together with the other New Year gifts, sent it to the Zheng Yi household.
It just so happened that on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the weather suddenly warmed up, the sun was shining brilliantly, and there was a sense of spring returning to the earth and all things melting. She then said to Song Shi’an: “How about you go with me to uncle’s house to deliver the New Year gifts, and while we’re at it, get a free lunch?”
Zheng Yi would definitely invite her to stay for lunch. Since there was no one at home to cook, Song Shi’an could only make do with a casual meal.
Song Shi’an stood in the kitchen, looked up at the sun in the sky.
Having taken Dr. Cao’s medicine for nearly four months, his body was already much better compared to before. And today the weather was so warm, if he rode the mule cart into town, he probably wouldn’t catch a cold.
But what he said in his mouth was lightly: “Going is fine, but you have to bring some soybean oil along, otherwise when I go to uncle’s house, I’ll only be able to eat plain mantou. I don’t mind, but I’m afraid uncle and aunt would feel awkward.”
Jiang Chun slanted a glance at him, while searching in the kitchen for a container for soybean oil, and teased him: “When you first came to our house, you could eat black-faced mantou dry without changing your expression, but now it’s just one meal, and you actually want me to bring soybean oil. Tell me, isn’t this considered being spoiled and becoming arrogant?”
Song Shi’an pursed his lips.
In his heart, he thought, how could you blame me? Isn’t it still because you indulged me?
Every day being raised by her with good food and drink, it’s easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but hard to go from extravagance to frugality. Suddenly going back to eating plain mantou, of course it would be hard to accept for a while.
He stubbornly argued: “Uncle cares about saving face. He has at least run a few errands for me, I can’t let him lose face.”
The painting owed to Lu Zhengheng, after he finished it, he entrusted Zheng Yi to deliver it to the county.