MMB Chapter 28 There's a reason why something is valuable.
Chapter 28 There's a reason why something is valuable.
When the day for delivery arrived, Zhuang Lihui went to the agreed place and saw that Master Zhou and the others were already waiting. In order to avoid being exposed, he found a secluded corner, arranged the corn, and then swaggered out.
"Master Zhou!"
Upon seeing Zhuang Lihui, Master Zhou said, "Comrade Zhuang, these are the oil pressing equipment. If you didn't ask..."
That's why I didn't see any grain and asked a question.
Zhuang Lihui carefully examined the oil pressing equipment in front of him. It was good and met the requirements. He estimated that he could operate it by himself.
"Master Zhou, I left the corn somewhere. Let me take you there!"
After saying that, he led the way.
Master Zhou took two people with him, leaving one person behind to watch over the goods. The place was remote, but it wasn't that no one passed by; it was better to be safe than sorry.
After walking for a few minutes, we arrived at the place where Zhuang Lihui had placed the corn. The precious corn was casually placed on the ground, without anyone watching over it.
"Comrade Zhuang, does your production brigade have a mine... no... a grain mine? Aren't you afraid someone will take it away?"
Zhuang Lihui feigned profundity: "Master Zhou, how do you know no one from our production team is coming?"
They even pretended to look around, as if to say, "Don't get any funny ideas. We have people here, they're just hiding."
Master Zhou never had any bad intentions: "It was my fault for being so talkative!"
The three of them worked together to move the corn to the roadside, then called the remaining person to join them, and also brought the oxcart over.
Although you can transport the corn back without an oxcart, it's too conspicuous. With food shortages, if you suddenly produce so much grain, have you done something shady?
After loading several bags of corn onto the oxcart and covering them with something, Mr. Zhou felt it wasn't safe enough, so he added some more weight on top.
"Comrade Zhuang, remember to contact me if you need anything next time!"
With just a little labor and materials, one can exchange them for food; such a profitable business is something one naturally hopes to continue.
Zhuang Lihui suddenly realized that it would be much more convenient to have a well at home. There would be no need to fetch water every time, and each household was limited to two buckets. If you wanted to take a bath, you had to go into the space, which was very inconvenient.
I came across a hand-cranked water pump in a later era, which is quite suitable for current needs. It doesn't require electricity and is also convenient.
Drilling a well now requires a lot of manpower and resources, and there's no guarantee of getting water. As a result, the team doesn't have many wells. In addition, the drought has caused the groundwater level to drop.
"Master Zhou, do you know any skilled blacksmiths?"
Zhuang Lihui had already drawn up the blueprints, but he didn't know anyone in this field. Luckily, Master Zhou was there, so asking him wouldn't hurt.
Master Zhou asked curiously, "Comrade Zhuang, are you getting some things ready?"
Zhuang Lihui nodded and took out a piece of paper he had prepared in advance from behind his back: "Yes, it's just a little thing."
Master Zhou opened the blueprints and could understand everything on them. If it weren't for the requirement to use iron, he would have preferred to forge them out of wood: "No problem, Old Guo is a well-known blacksmith in the area."
The so-called renowned blacksmith was only a level 3 blacksmith. Keep in mind that a level 3 blacksmith is only considered a low-to-mid-level blacksmith; whether he could forge what Zhuang Lihui needed was truly uncertain.
That makes sense. After all, it's already good enough if a small place can produce a blacksmith. What more advanced do you expect?
"Comrade Zhuang, shall we settle the payment with corn?"
If it were something else, Master Guo might not have been interested.
Zhuang Lihui said, "Okay, it depends on whether Master Guo wants money or grain. If it works out, Master Zhou won't forget you; there will be a referral fee of two jin of corn!"
Master Zhou was surprised that a simple introduction would result in two kilograms of corn: "Comrade Zhuang, don't worry, I'll handle it perfectly for you."
"Master Zhou, then I'll leave it to you! Is five days enough?"
Master Zhou glanced at the blueprints: "It shouldn't take five days, right? Come back in three days? Still here?"
Zhuang Lihui nodded: "Okay, I'll come back in three days!"
After Master Zhou and the others left, he immediately put the oil pressing equipment into his spatial storage. Once he was sure no one was around, he entered the space.
After assembling the oil pressing equipment, he couldn't wait to start pressing the oil. Since he transmigrated, he hadn't eaten any meat, so he wanted to fry the peanuts as soon as possible.
Zhuang Lihui had previously dried the harvested peanuts, which weighed a good thirty or forty jin (approximately 15-20 kg), enough to press oil once.
First, place the dried peanuts on an iron wok and stir-fry them continuously to dry out the excess moisture and bring out their aroma. To avoid burning them, use only low heat throughout the process and do not rush it.
This step took almost an hour, but the aroma of the peanuts made it all worthwhile.
The next step is to crush the roasted peanuts. The finer the peanuts are crushed, the higher the oil yield.
Zhuang Lihui took the peanuts to a small stone mill and began to adjust it. He cleaned the upper and lower grinding discs and loosened the grinding grooves. He didn't adjust them too tightly at first to prevent the material from getting stuck and the mill from not being able to grind.
Place a clean basin under the millstone to catch the ground peanut crumbs.
After adjusting the settings, Zhuang Lihui took a small amount of peanuts and slowly put them into the feed inlet in the middle of the stone mill, adding them little by little at a time, instead of filling it up all at once.
Hold the wooden handle of the millstone with one hand and grind it in a clockwise, even motion, without sudden changes in speed.
In just over ten minutes, all the peanuts were crushed with a stone mill. However, the peanuts were still coarse and needed to be ground multiple times to make them into finer peanut pieces.
Gather the ground peanut pieces again and pour them into the millstone in batches for a second grinding. Gradually tighten the millstone gaps and grind for a few more rounds until the peanuts are evenly ground, finely crushed, and loose, and no oil sticks to the millstone.
After grinding, run the millstone around twice to remove any remaining peanut fragments from the gaps in the millstone. Use a clean brush to sweep away any debris from the grooves of the upper and lower millstones. Collect all the peanut fragments for later use in steaming or pressing oil.
The third step is to spread the crushed peanuts ground by the stone mill evenly, remove any impurities, and loosely pack them into a wooden steamer or bamboo steamer.
Bring water to a boil in a steamer over high heat. Place the steamer basket containing the oil and powder mixture on top, cover with the lid, and steam over high heat. Do not stir while steaming; allow the steam to rise slowly from the bottom, ensuring the powder is heated evenly inside and out.
After steaming for ten to twenty minutes, steam slowly rises from the side of the steamer, filling the room with the rich aroma of cooked oil. The powder becomes moist and soft from the steam, the oil is activated, and the texture becomes soft and fluffy, without drying out or clumping.
Steam until you can grab a handful and it forms a ball, but it will crumble when you gently squeeze it; then turn off the heat.
Take out the steamed powder while it's still hot, and immediately wrap it in cake and press it. Once it cools down, it will revert to its original state, and the oil yield will be greatly reduced.
After several hours of hard work, I finally turned all the peanuts into peanut oil, but I still can't eat peanut oil today.
The crude oil needs to be left to stand for a period of time to remove scum and impurities before it can be used to make traditional peanut oil.
After doing all this, Zhuang Lihui finally understood why traditional peanut oil was so expensive in later generations; there was a reason for its high price.