The Great Tang's King of Provisions

Chapter 22: Brute Force Soybean Oil Extraction

In the back yard, there was a burlap sack of soybeans—exactly what Li Xuanba needed—along with two iron discs the size of wagon wheels. Though called “iron discs,” each had a protrusion and a recess in the center that fit together, and a small spout at the very bottom for draining the oil. Although not finely crafted, they still required some skill to make. Fortunately, Li Xuanba had asked for iron discs, not iron weapons; otherwise, the blacksmith really wouldn’t have dared to forge them for him. “Clang, clang!” The two 50-jin iron discs hung in Li Yuanba’s hands as if they were nothing at all—as light as feathers. Yet as Li Yuanba began to strike them, his brow furrowed. The shape of the discs was passable, but the quality left much to be desired; he had no idea how many times they would hold up. After instructing Mei Hanxue and the other two women to place the selected and washed soybeans between the two iron discs, Li Yuanba clapped his hands together. “Heh!” “Squeak!” Accompanied by the sound of Li Yuanba exhaling as he clasped his hands together, the two iron discs—which had originally been half an inch apart—rapidly closed toward the center as he applied increasing force with each strike. From the small opening left at the bottom, droplets of a translucent, golden-yellow liquid began to emerge, trickling downward. “Drip, drip…” At first, the liquid dripped out drop by drop, but when Li Xuanba suddenly increased his force, it instantly began flowing like a small stream, continuously dripping down and landing directly into the iron basin on the ground. After producing a pleasant sound, a faint, distinctive fragrance of soybean oil wafted through the air. “Mmm! What a wonderful aroma! Is this the soybean oil you were talking about? So soybeans can actually be used to make oil, and not just for tofu and soy milk?” Mei Hanxue took two deep breaths of the soybean oil’s fresh fragrance, gazing in awe at Li Xuanba, who had effortlessly pressed the oil from the soybeans, her heart filled with admiration. Her new business partner was truly talented—not only could he prepare delicious dishes like roujiamo, but he could also come up with solutions for sourcing ingredients in the blink of an eye. Now, he had even produced soybean oil, something that had never before been seen in the Tang Dynasty. This is vegetable oil, after all! If the quality is truly good enough, it could be on par with the rapeseed oil consumed by the imperial family and the great clans. “It’s not bad! Although these soybeans can be pressed for oil, their oil content isn’t very high, so the yield isn’t that great,” Li Xuanba said with a faint smile upon hearing Mei Hanxue’s praise. He was currently using the most primitive—and simplest—method of oil extraction. It’s the most primitive because this method has long been abandoned—it’s simply too labor-intensive. It’s the simplest because he had plenty of strength to spare and didn’t mind expending a little of it. “Drip… drip…” “Clang!” Once this batch of beans had turned into soybean cake and most of the soybean oil had been extracted, Li Xuanba placed the two iron discs onto the millstone. He removed the top disc, took out the soybean cake—which gave off a heady aroma—and, not wanting to waste a single bit, tossed it directly into his ranch storage space to provide some extra nutrition for Zhui Feng Wanli Yun. After having the three women help load more soybeans, Li Xuanba continued his manual oil-pressing method to extract soybean oil. After several rounds of pressing, a sack of 200 jin of soybeans was transformed into 30 jin of golden soybean oil. In other words, Li Xuanba’s manual oil-extraction method yielded a higher oil yield than the 12% average of later generations. Although the soybean oil had been extracted, Li Xuanba did not allow the chef surnamed Huang to use it. If a dish made with this oil sold for only a dozen or so wen, his labor would be far too cheap. Just as Li Xuanba had finished filtering, bottling, and storing the soybean oil, Chef Huang, wiping the sweat from his brow and beaming with excitement, said, “Master, we’re going through meat, flour, and vegetables way too fast. I’m afraid we’ll run out in no time. Should we buy some more meat, flour, and vegetables?” Chef Huang hadn’t expected that simply by serving the roujiamo made with his new employer’s recipe, combined with some improved stir-frying techniques, the once-quiet Plum Blossom Restaurant would suddenly become a huge hit. After working nonstop for two hours, he had actually used up the entire stockpile of ingredients. “What? We’ve used it all up? Young Master Li, do you think we need to stock up on some ingredients?” Upon hearing Chef Huang’s words, Mei Hanxue let out a gasp of surprise and looked at Li Xuanba with great excitement. Li Xuanba looked up at the sky, which was beginning to darken, waved his hand at Mei Hanxue and the others, and said calmly, “No need. It’s past mealtime now. Going to buy ingredients now would not only be a hassle, but we might not even be able to sell them all. Let’s wait until we open for business tomorrow!” “Well… all right!” Seeing Li Xuanba object, Mei Hanxue was taken aback for a moment, but then she caught on and waved to Chef Huang. “Old Huang, see these few tables of guests out, then you can call it a day! Each of you go to the front desk to collect ten wen as a tip—and I’ll add an extra ten wen for you.” “Got it! Thanks for the tip, both of you. I’ll be here first thing tomorrow morning!” “Thank you, both owners, for the reward!” Mei Hanxue’s generosity instantly put smiles on Chef Huang’s and the other Meihua Restaurant staff’s faces; a day’s worth of fatigue vanished in an instant. After bowing respectfully to Li Yuanba and Mei Hanxue, they cheerfully made their way to the dining hall to attend to the last few tables of guests. After Chef Huang and the others left, Li Yuanba cast a surprised glance at Mei Hanxue. This woman he was about to win over certainly had some skills—she knew how to motivate her staff with financial incentives, encouraging them to work even harder. “What? Are you surprised that I know these business tactics?” Noticing Li Xuanba’s look of astonishment, Mei Hanxue pursed her lips, gave a faint smile, and brushed a strand of hair from behind her ear. Her face flushed slightly, but her eyes held a mix of sadness and stubbornness. Sensing the sadness and stubbornness in Mei Hanxue’s eyes, Li Xuanba felt a twinge of pain in his heart. Setting aside any notions of gender distinctions, he patted her slender shoulder with his large hand and said admiringly, ““Though it came as a surprise, I understand. A woman of the Han family, having lost her father, runs this inn all by herself. As a delicate young woman, you’ve managed the Plum Blossom Inn for two years and still maintained steady, consistent performance. You truly deserve the description ‘beautiful on the outside, wise on the inside’! Xuanba admires you!” “Young Master Li, you flatter me!” After Li Xuanba’s pat on the shoulder and his words, Mei Hanxue’s cheeks flushed pink, and tears—whether from shyness or sadness—welled up in her eyes. She gave a faint smile, took the hands of Du Xingxuan and the other young woman, and turned to walk upstairs. “Heh heh!” Gazing at Mei Hanxue’s graceful silhouette, Li Xuanba wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and chuckled, “Flattery? This young master doesn’t hand out compliments lightly. If I were to marry you, having you manage my household affairs would be absolutely perfect!” While Li Xuanba was busy running the Plum Blossom Inn in full swing, two groups were on the hunt for information about him. One group was led by a young man of about eighteen or seventeen dressed in tight-fitting armor. All of them wore black, form-fitting outfits and moved silently through Cold Ice Valley—where Li Xuanba had emerged—carefully searching for any trace of him. After scouting for a while, led by the seventeen- or eighteen-year-old man, they followed the trail Li Xuanba had left behind and headed toward Lantian County. The other group consisted of Hong Dangtou and a middle-aged scholar with slanted eyes. The two held slips of paper containing messages; they would occasionally lower their heads and murmur to each other, their eyes occasionally flashing with malice and smug satisfaction. Li Xuanba was unaware of any of this. At that moment, guided by Mei Hanxue, he was returning to his room at the Plum Blossom Inn. Since Mei Hanxue and the other two women were all ladies, they were staying in the inn’s back courtyard, leaving Li Xuanba no choice but to stay in a guest room on the side of the courtyard. Li Xuanba, however, had no complaints about this. After all, just yesterday he had been sleeping outside a dilapidated temple, and today he had his own room—not to mention that the guest room in the back courtyard wasn’t too far from where the three women were staying.