Lin Jingchu opened the small ceramic jar and caught a faint scent that reminded her of Sichuan pepper powder. She shook her head.
Putting Sichuan pepper into braised pork would ruin it.
She grabbed a handful of scallion segments, chopped them, then found some cooking wine and soy sauce and added them to the pot. Finally, she poured in enough boiling water to cover the pork.
After covering the pot with a lid, Lin Jingchu asked casually, “This pot can hold two hundred jin of meat? It’s pretty big.”
Madam Chen crouched down to add firewood. Hearing this, she raised her round, fair face and wiped the sweat from it with a smile. “Second Miss must be joking. There’s nowhere near two hundred jin here—at most fifty.”
Lin Jingchu raised an eyebrow. “All the pork purchased for the manor is in this pot?”
“All of today’s meat is in there. Meat doesn’t keep well in summer, so whatever’s bought that day is eaten that day.”
The moment those words were spoken, the matron responsible for purchasing felt her heart skip a beat and immediately dropped to her knees. “Second Miss…”
Lin Jingchu raised a hand to stop her. “Whatever you have to say can wait until after I finish cooking.”
Lin Qi was ill and needed light food. Combined with the hot weather, Lin Jingchu selected a few ingredients suitable for cold dishes and instructed the kitchen maids to cut and blanch them.
She added salt and soy sauce. This time she used Madam Chen’s family spice blend, drizzled hot oil over it, and finally added vinegar. A refreshingly sharp aroma instantly spread through the air. The servants nearby found their appetites stirred just by smelling it.
The bowls and plates in the Marquis Manor were regulated according to status.
Masters like Xia Ning used delicate and expensive official kiln porcelain.
Servants, meanwhile, used larger coarse porcelain bowls. Today’s staple food was rice: the masters ate premium imperial japonica rice, while the servants had ordinary rice.
Besides the two dishes Lin Jingchu made, the cooks finished preparing the remaining dishes at the neighboring stoves and kept them warm in steamers.
As for the braised pork, aside from the masters of each household, everyone else could receive at most one piece each. Fifty jin of meat was divided up without a scrap left over.
Lin Jingchu glanced at the food being sent to the western courtyard training ground and frowned slightly. “Pour some of the leftover meat gravy over their rice. Steam two more pots of rice to send over, and send more side dishes with it too.”
What was wrong with these people? Sure, the bowls were large, but you could still hold one with just two hands. In her previous life during military training, she could finish two bowls like that by herself, let alone soldiers who spent years fighting on battlefields.
Lin Jingchu untied her sleeve guards and looked at the kneeling matron indifferently. “Come report to me after lunch.”
“Yes, Second Miss.”
Everyone in the kitchen understood the tricks and hidden dealings there. Although Xia Ning was the daughter of a merchant family, she had still been pampered since childhood and knew little about kitchen affairs. She had entrusted purchasing matters to trusted servants from her dowry household and rarely interfered.
After Lin Jingchu left, Madam Chen stepped forward to help Nanny Lai up. “There are only a few masters in this manor, yet you claim they eat two hundred jin of meat a day? Even lying should follow some logic.”
Madam Chen held back a laugh while everyone nearby busied themselves with work, though their sideways glances clearly showed they were enjoying the spectacle.
Normally the meat was reserved for the masters. If the servants could stir-fry vegetables in the leftover grease from the meat pot, that was already considered a treat. Occasionally, if extra meat had been purchased, they might get to eat a little minced meat.
Nanny Lai managed the kitchen purchases and frequently skimmed off portions for herself. The others had long been dissatisfied with her and all hoped she would fall from power soon.
Nanny Lai shoved Madam Chen away. “You foul-mouthed whore! I’m the Madam’s dowry servant. What can that yellow-haired little girl do to me?”
Despite saying that, behind everyone’s backs Nanny Lai still brought fruit, money, and grain to seek mercy from Nanny Fei.
Inside the training grounds—
Lin Zheng insisted on sparring with the soldiers. Knowing he was a young master of the Marquis Manor, the soldiers were careful not to injure him and held back their strength.
These fifty personal guards were the men who had escorted Lin Qi back from the battlefield. Out of a thousand soldiers, only fifty had survived.
“Why hasn’t lunch arrived yet?” Lin Zheng complained, clutching his stomach. “That idiot Lin Jingchu can’t even manage the household properly. Is she trying to starve me to death? After I eat, I’m definitely going to ask Mother to punish her.”