The first legitimate son of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 119 Soap Making Process
The small fish were grilled until golden brown, and sprinkled with a little salt. What made Li An frown was that the salt particles in the Tang Dynasty were a bit large at this time, and the color was yellowish brown.

Anyone who has read a certain novel must remember that the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty ate vinegar cloth.

The vinegar cloth in the novel simply means cloth boiled with vinegar and salt, which can be regarded as a storage method.In ancient times, it was not convenient to carry seasonings when marching and fighting, but it was much more convenient to make vinegar cloth.

When cooking, just cut off a small piece of cloth and put it in the pot to get the flavor.

The protagonist presented the method of making salt and won a rare title. However, it was not rigorous enough. In fact, during the Tang Dynasty, the technology of making salt was already very developed, and vinegar cloth was only used in the army.

Because when the army goes to war, it is more convenient to carry vinegar cloth. In addition to the vinegar cloth, the Tang Dynasty army also prepared some salted food as non-staple food for the military rations.People combined salt with non-staple food to make soybean paste and pickles, and added a little when cooking rice to improve the taste.

During the Zhenguan period, salt was widely available and the price was not high, because during the Zhenguan period, salt was not monopolized by the court. The salt used in Lijiacun cost five cents per pound. Of course, it was not fine salt.

Today's salt in Datang can be roughly divided into four types: first, pool salt formed in salt ponds; second, sea salt formed by boiling sea water; third, well salt formed by boiling water from salt wells; fourth, salt grown on cliffs Cliff salt on the cliff.

However, the output of this kind of cliff salt is very small, so the production of salt is still dominated by the previous three types. The types of salt production in different regions are also different: the Jianghuai area mostly produces sea salt; the Hedong area mostly produces pond salt; and the two Sichuan areas mainly produce well salt. .

Among these types of salts, sea salt has the largest output: taking a certain state as an example, the salt output of Hailingjian during the Yuanhe period was as high as 60 shi.

Some people may ask, if your output is so large, why the people of the Tang Dynasty still cannot afford salt.

In fact, the salt in the Tang Dynasty became more and more expensive and the common people could not afford it. This was because salt was monopolized by the imperial court and became a means of making money. During the reign of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Qi (the fifth is the surname) implemented the salt law. The production and sales of salt were all controlled by the court, and the price of salt was increased from the previous ten cents per dou to 110 cents per dou, from which the court directly profited 40 guan.

Later, Liu Yan improved it, and at this point, the salt industry was officially taken over by the government.

Since the implementation of the Salt Law, the price of salt controlled by the government has generally shown an upward trend: since the first year of Qianyuan, the price of salt has increased from the previous ten cents per dou to about 370 cents, and the overall price has remained roughly at the It costs about [-] yuan.

Coupled with the serious land annexation in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the people lost their stable source of income and naturally had no money to buy official salt.

The soaring price and the severe crackdown on private salt forced many people to eat lightly and reduce their salt intake. If this is the case for ordinary people, let alone the life of soldiers under the conscription system.

But if you want to say that the method of questioning salt is not good, the method of questioning salt has extended the life of the Tang Dynasty for a long time. Now you have to talk about the iron pot. What is Li An's iron pot used for? In fact, it is used to cook salt in the future. , he wanted to eat fine salt, which is salt with large yellow-brown grains. Li An didn't want to eat it, so he went to Chang'an to buy rock salt and green salt, but the price was too expensive.

Li An is still going to boil the salt himself to get fine salt.

"It's delicious. It's delicious!" Li Duoduo's mouth was full of food, but there was a happy smile on her face.Seeing Li Duoduo and the children eating happily, Li An also showed a smile. After the children finished eating the small fish, the plant ashes were burned away. The arrangements in Liuxiatian were about one meter high. A wooden barrel with a diameter of half a meter was brought over. The women first sieved the plant ash to filter out the impurities, namely small stones.

Then they poured the plant ash into the wooden barrel. The old people fetched water from the bucket, poured it into the barrel, and then used wooden sticks to fully stir the plant ash and the water inside. After stirring, they took out a gauze net. Filter the mixed plant ash water into another clean wooden barrel again.

Following this clean wooden barrel is lye. This lye cannot be used yet and needs to be heated. Then an iron cauldron was sent over. It was a very large iron cauldron. The iron cauldron was set up and the All the filtered lye is poured into the iron cauldron, the bottom is filled with straw, and the heating begins.

At the same time, Liu Nan happened to come back with the lard he bought. He made some iron cauldrons again and started boiling lard directly with weeds. Originally, Li An was still looking forward to lard. You know Li An used to like it the most. What he ate was lard dregs. This time, Li An felt like he had bought so much lard, so he must be enjoying the lard dregs.

However, after the smell of lard came out, Li An knew why the Tang Dynasty people called pork cheap meat. The smell was really unpleasant, with a fishy smell that was indescribable. This is because the pigs are not castrated, so the unique taste is really unacceptable.

After the smell came out, the children like Li Duoduo all covered their noses and ran away. If Li An hadn't been there to supervise them, he would have walked away.

Soon, the chicken feathers dissolved and the lard over there was boiled out. Li Na shouted: "Pour the boiled lard into the lye. But be careful, because both the lye and lard are hot. , if you get burned, it will be bad!"

Liu Dong let out an 'oh', and came over with a bucket of lard in one hand. This bucket of lard weighed about thirty catties, and he slowly added it in bit by bit, while Liu Nan vigorously stirred on the side, To be honest, this stirring was quite tiring, and Liu Nan was out of breath after a while.

One bucket of lye and thirty kilograms of lard were not enough. Liu Dong soon brought another thirty kilograms over and slowly added them in. At this time, saponification in the iron cauldron began.

After stirring again, Li An inserted a thin chopstick into the cauldron, and found that the chopsticks could stand upright. Li An smiled and nodded: "The mold can be installed."

The mold is a rectangular wooden box, piece by piece. The women carefully scoop the soap solution into the mold, and then put all the molds in a ventilated place to dry. These molds need to dry here for half a month before they can Kaifeng.

If this soap sells well, then Li An will add slaked lime to the soap later. This slaked lime can make the soap smoother, and then add some floral essence to it, and it will be a soap.

Soap sells for five cents. Li An will not sell this soap for five cents. Li An has already thought about it. The soap will be sold for bath beans. Bath beans are always sold. His soap sells for five hundred cents. Hehe, because of the soap. It is positioned to be sold to those aristocratic families, and the money these people make is nothing.

Li An smiled slightly and then said to the two brothers Liu Dong and Liu Nan: "Brother Dong, Brother Nan will do this in the future. Then I will leave it all to you. Tell me if you can do a good job?"

"Yes. I promise to do it well." Liu Dong and Liu Nan nodded in unison.

(End of this chapter)