Besides, the household lacked nothing. Madam Wang arranged all her clothing, food, and daily necessities properly, and she freely allowed Sushu to use whatever household supplies she needed, so Sushu had no particular desire for money.
After some time, Madam Wang really did send her a small dish of silver fragments, amounting to a little over twenty liang.
One had to understand that her monthly allowance was only two liang of silver. She could never spend more than twenty liang.
With this silver, she planned to visit an apothecary and see whether there were any medicinal ingredients that could be used as seasonings.
She had heard that the medicinal ingredients usable in cooking were very expensive, so she had never dared to buy any.
Only after bringing her maids and older servants to the apothecary did she discover that the various medicinal ingredients were not nearly as expensive as the servants had claimed.
According to her maid Cuier, she had been sold by her own father because her mother had suffered severe blood loss while giving birth to her younger brother and needed medicinal ingredients to replenish her qi and blood, but the family had no money to buy medicine.
She bought two jin of dried red dates for one hundred wen, and one jin of peppercorns for five hundred wen.
She also bought several liang each of familiar medicinal ingredients such as bay leaves, cassia bark, and star anise. Altogether, the purchases cost her an entire month's allowance.
If one put oneself in the position of a farming family that could barely grow enough to fill their stomachs, then medicinal ingredients were indeed quite expensive.
After coming to this era, with no mobile phones or computers to pass the time, she had resolved to recreate the delicious foods she had eaten in her previous life and improve her family's quality of life.
After leaving the apothecary, she led her maids and older servants straight to the market.
When she saw that the butcher's stall actually had pork tripe for sale, she gave Nanny Zhang one-tenth of a liang of silver and told her to buy it.
After a while, Nanny Zhang returned carrying pork tripe threaded onto a piece of straw. Her face was troubled. “Miss, pork offal is something only poor families eat. What could you possibly want it for?”
Li Sushu smiled, brimming with confidence. “When we get home, I'll teach you how to prepare it. There are so many people in our household that one may not be enough. Let's see whether there are any more and buy two additional ones.”
Seeing Miss looking so confident, Nanny Zhang relaxed. She thought to herself that she did not know why Miss's mind was so clever. Miss could always think of ways to turn such ordinary ingredients into something so delicious.
It was truly fortunate that she could learn all kinds of skills from Miss. If she took those skills outside, they would be worth quite a lot of money.
Once she learned a skill, it became her own, and no one could take it away.
With a skill to rely on, she would not have to worry about lacking someone to support her in her old age, even when she could no longer work.
The three of them walked around for several more rounds, buying two more pork stomachs as well as some fresh seasonal vegetables.
Li Sushu felt somewhat tired, and only then did she return to the residence.
By the time they arrived home, it was almost mealtime. She planned to teach Nanny Zhang how to make the new dish in the afternoon.
At noon, she simply ate the kitchen's usual fare, washed up, and took a nap.
After sleeping for half an hour, she awoke to find Nanny Zhang already waiting in the kitchen. Following Miss's instructions, Nanny Zhang had led the kitchen servants in carefully cleaning the three pork stomachs.
They had also slaughtered three hens sent from the estate and cleaned them thoroughly.
When Li Sushu woke up and saw the prepared pork stomachs and chickens on the kitchen worktable, she became a little conflicted. Should she cut them into pieces, or stew them whole?
There were three portions of ingredients, so she decided to stew one whole chicken and one whole pork stomach together in a large earthenware pot, cut one portion into chunks before stewing it, and cut the last portion into even thinner slices.
First, she blanched the three portions of ingredients separately. Then she placed each portion into an earthenware pot of boiling water, lowered the heat, and simmered everything slowly, adding pepper, red dates, goji berries, and various other ingredients.
After stewing for about an hour, she added an appropriate amount of salt. The fresh and spicy Pork Tripe Chicken was ready.
Nanny Zhang ladled three small bowls of soup for Miss to taste. After trying them, Li Sushu felt that the flavors of the three bowls were more or less the same.
She had the servants keep the three pots of Pork Tripe Chicken warm over charcoal. It was said that the longer the soup simmered, the better it tasted.
The whole family ate dinner together. Today was a rest day.
There were not many masters in the Li Family: the married couple, four children, and one concubine, who counted as half a master.
Madam Wang was a broad-minded principal wife. At mealtimes, the concubine would serve the principal wife and the lord of the household a single helping of each dish, after which Madam Wang would let her sit down.
Three plates of Pork Tripe Chicken soup were placed in the middle of the table, each one more imposing than the last.
A quick-witted maid served every master a bowl of soup. Each bowl also contained several finely sliced pieces of pork tripe and chicken.
“Mother, taste these three pots of soup and see which one is the best. From now on, we'll prepare it using that method.”
Madam Wang tasted each one carefully and decided that the flavors were essentially no different. The one cut into the finest pieces was obviously the most convenient, however.
The whole one required a maid to wash her hands and tear it into strips.
Li Sushu also had the maids prepare a dipping sauce. They minced ginger into a paste, added some cilantro, and drizzled hot oil over it.
The pork tripe and chicken dipped into the sauce tasted even more delicious.
After trying the pieces dipped in sauce, Madam Wang felt that the whole ingredients stewed together were also quite good. For some reason, meat torn into strips made people more eager to eat than meat cut into chunks.
Li Weidong found this meal extremely satisfying. He felt that this rest day had gone wonderfully: his wife was virtuous, his children filial, and the food in his household was more delicious than that served in his colleagues' homes.
The others ate with such enthusiasm that they kept nodding and could not stop. Eating was the most important thing.
They all felt that there could not possibly be anything in this world more delicious.
From now on, they would do whatever Sushu told them to do, as long as she researched several more dishes this delicious.
After the meal, Li Sushu handed Madam Wang the Pork Tripe Chicken recipe she had written earlier. The dish was somewhat costly, so whether to add it to the family's restaurant was for Madam Wang to decide.
Madam Wang looked over the recipe. One chicken cost sixty wen, the pork stomach cost thirty wen, and pepper, red dates, goji berries, and the other seasonings cost one hundred wen altogether. Truly, the seasonings cost more than the meat.
The cost of making one portion was two hundred wen. A restaurant or tavern could not survive without a profit margin of at least half, so if the restaurant added such a dish, its price would have to be three hundred and ninety-eight wen.
Why not set a round number? She did not understand that herself. It was Sushu who had suggested it: a dish that cost twenty wen should be priced at nineteen wen.
After changing the prices, business really did improve somewhat.
Once they gradually introduced several new dishes devised by Sushu, business improved even more.
Madam Wang decided that, from then on, they would follow the old rule: Sushu would receive half the profit from every dish she developed.
Li Sushu said that if the money became too much, they could use it to open branch restaurants and create more jobs.
Li Sushu did not know that the market in this era was fixed. There were only so many people who could afford to eat at restaurants. If one family's business improved, it meant taking away the share that belonged to another family.
Fortunately, her father was an official of some standing, which allowed their restaurant to continue operating safely.
Whoever could open a restaurant in Chang'an City had some sort of backing, after all.
Those without backing had long since been squeezed out. The businesses that remained competed fairly, each relying on its own abilities to seize a share of the market.
Seeing that Li Sushu was not particularly interested in her share of the profits, Madam Wang said nothing more. She merely shook her head with a smile, thinking that perhaps the child was still young and did not understand the importance of money.
For children around ten years old, money's purpose was simply to buy the things they liked.
Take Eldest Young Master Li Ming, for example. He used most of his monthly allowance to buy strange and unusual ornaments. Usually, once the novelty wore off, those ornaments would remain in a corner gathering dust forever.
Second Miss Li Yueyue, on the other hand, liked buying all kinds of silk flowers, as well as gold and silver hairpins and ornaments. She was a young girl who loved dressing up.
Li Sushu's hobby benefited the entire family more. She liked buying ingredients and adding dishes to the family's meals.
That was why Li Sushu was very popular. Who could dislike a girl who paid out of her own pocket to buy ingredients and cook them for everyone?
It was not that Li Sushu regarded wealth as dirt. The main reason was that her monthly allowance was enough to leave her with money to spare after covering her expenses each month.
She was not good at managing money, either. She figured that as long as Madam Wang could ensure that anything her elder sisters had would not be lacking for her, then everything was fine.
With such a fair principal wife, Madam Wang would treat all of them equally even when arranging their dowries after they married.
Thus, Li Sushu did not mind whether she received a share of the profits. If they gave it to her, she would accept it and buy ingredients more boldly.
If they did not give it to her, she would not hold it against them. When one lived in this world, contentment brought happiness.
Besides, what she contributed was not her own knowledge. She had already gained an enormous advantage by possessing knowledge that did not exist in this era.
After dinner, everyone returned to their own courtyards. Li Yueyue and Li Sushu headed back along the same path, since their courtyards were next to each other.
The two had a good relationship and, just as they had when they were children, they returned hand in hand.
Li Yueyue whispered, “Mother is preparing to arrange a matchmaking meeting for Eldest Brother.”
Li Sushu was a little surprised, but after thinking about it, she realized that Eldest Young Master Li was sixteen this year. In this world, that made him a grown man. It was perfectly reasonable to spend two years meeting potential matches before marrying.
“Ah, I don't think any girl will like him,” Li Sushu said bluntly.
Why did she say that? Because Eldest Young Master Li was a straight man—and not only a straight man, but one who had yet to mature and did not care about hygiene.
It was common for him to go one or two months without bathing in winter. Granted, winter really was cold.
But the household had maids and older servants, and there was an unlimited supply of hot water. It was not as though the family could not afford it. Why could he not bathe at noon, before the weather became too cold?
As for her, she bathed every day even in winter. In the afternoon, she had the servants prepare the water, then soaked comfortably for a while in her room. How pleasant was that?
Li Yueyue nodded. “I think so too. Just now, he even snatched my chicken leg!”
Li Sushu's face went blank. She disliked eating whole chicken legs most of all because the flavor did not penetrate them.
But her elder brother and sister liked them, so the kitchen had deliberately given each of them a whole chicken leg.
“If you like them, next time tell the kitchen not to chop up the chicken legs. They can leave them all whole.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can only eat one.” Li Yueyue furrowed her brows in distress.
“…”
Why was her elder sister being so childish? She could not finish one herself, yet she did not want her brother to eat his fill.
Perhaps she was pursuing absolute fairness. Probably.
Her brother was childish too. He was nearly old enough to marry, yet he still snatched the chicken leg from his younger sister's bowl. Would any girl really like him?
Wasn't it said that children in ancient times matured earlier?
Why was her family so different?
When they reached the entrance to the courtyard, Li Yueyue stopped and said seriously, “How about we sleep together tonight? You can come to my place, or I can go to yours.”
“No.” Li Sushu rejected the suggestion without a second thought.
“Why not?”
“Don't you think it will be too hot?” Li Sushu was someone who feared heat greatly. At night, she even needed a maid on duty to fan her.
Sleeping together would be too hot. It was still acceptable in winter.
Li Yueyue thought about it and admitted that this was true, but she still wanted to chat with her younger sister for a while.
Young ladies confined to their inner chambers had little entertainment. Their only way to pass the time was to gather together and chat.
Li Sushu had originally wanted to produce ice. She remembered that saltpetre could be used to make ice quite easily.
But collecting saltpetre by herself was too difficult. She could scrape the corners of the toilet walls every few days, yet the amount of powder she obtained was only a tiny bit.