Chapter 487 Don’t Laugh at the Muddy Farmer’s Wine

"The most delicious...friend?"

In Kong Ming's opinion, people who follow each other can be called friends, and people who share the same interests can be called friends.

Those who can be called friends are either like Shi Yuanyuanzhi, who can sacrifice their lives for the great cause together, or like Zijing, who has noble ambitions and similar views.

Kong Ming never expected that more than a thousand years later, he would ask future generations:

"What is a friend?"

"Delicious."

Well, it can only be said that the humorous and humorous Xianhe of the younger generation is not as good as him.

But Jian Yong, who was secretly compared by Kong Ming in his heart, didn't care so much.

He stared at the few words revealed in the ancient book displayed when talking about the braised pork, and read directly:

"Slow fire, less water, when the fire is enough, it will be delicious...it's so simple?"

If the light curtain hadn't ended at this time, Jian Yong would have wanted to go straight to the kitchen and try it now.

For Jian Yong, besides doing his best to make the world peaceful for Xuande, seeing what the world has never seen and tasting the delicacies of the world are also his personal pursuits.

And now, after the narration of later generations, Jian Yong suddenly realized that such delicacies can also be made by himself, which must be fun!

Liu Bei sighed:

"We would like to slaughter fat pigs every year to welcome the New Year, but what can we do..."

Whenever he saw Guangmu talking about the future, he was filled with envy of its abundant food.

Not to mention the future that "best in five thousand years", the Tang Dynasty has the best climate in two thousand years, and rice is almost planted in Zhuozhou, which is magical to him.

What about the Song Dynasty?

Although it seems that the younger generation has complaints about its civil and military achievements, they also generously acknowledge the improvement of the craftsmanship of the Song Dynasty craftsmen, the prosperity of commerce, and the prosperity of literary style that can be compared with the Tang Dynasty.

Moreover, the population of Tang and Song dynasties far exceeded that of the chaotic times he lived in, not to mention that there are 100,000 Cao thieves in the Central Plains and 100,000 in Jiangdong, and they have not yet been unified...

Originally, this year, the Three Qins were conquered, and under the idea of ​​Kong Ming and others, there was also the confidence to fight Cao Cao head-on and win next year. Liu Bei could be said to be full of confidence.

But every time at this time, he would be tortured by all kinds of prosperous scenes in later generations.

The complacent mood faded, and what remained was the state of self-reflection:

Look at others and then look at yourself. When can the Han people under your rule slaughter pigs to celebrate the New Year? That can be regarded as the real restoration of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bei was full of confidence again!

But then he remembered that many people's toilets in Chang'an are still built in the old custom of building a toilet in front and a toilet in the back.

Then the next thing to do in farming is also very obvious:

Try the method of crop rotation, so that the domestic pigs can change their taste.

After all, although Liu Bei didn't dislike the pigs raised in the toilet, he always felt weird in his heart...

...

"Is this pig meat more fat than lamb?"

This was what Li Shimin was most concerned about, but it was immediately suppressed by Sun Simiao:

"Since your majesty cannot eat fat sheep and fat cattle, then no matter how fat this fat pig is, it cannot enter the imperial kitchen."

Li Shimin stared at Sun Simiao with a serious face for a few times, then turned his head and snorted:

"I don't think it tastes good, but I want to taste it for the people first."

That's what he said, but the saliva he swallowed quietly betrayed all his thoughts.

Empress Changsun saw that even though Li Shimin turned his head away, he was still glancing at the braised pork dish on the screen with the corner of his eyes, and immediately smiled mischievously:

"As the empress, I can also taste it for the people first, so that I can also relieve your majesty's worries."

Li Shimin raised his hand, and finally could only reluctantly say "yes" from his teeth.

Seeing her husband's attitude, Empress Changsun also smiled softly:

"Wait for the imperial kitchen to perfect the recipe of this dish, and present it to your majesty in a month. After all, the recipe above is too crude and it must be difficult to taste delicious."

Empress Changsun knew the art of cooking, and she could see at a glance that the text annotation was too brief. How could such a delicious and appetizing dish be made by just slow cooking without adding anything else?

After hearing what the empress said, Li Shimin nodded and stopped worrying about it.

Then he said thoughtfully:

"This method of raising pigs should be standardized by the Imperial Household Department and promoted throughout the country."

Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling looked at each other and took note of the order.

After experiencing the turbulent times, the two knew that if they wanted to make their men strong and healthy, they had to eat both grain and meat.

This method of raising pigs, which took thousands of years to summarize, is naturally precious.

[Domestic pigs are limited by the problem of meat-to-feed ratio, and it was not until the Ming Dynasty that a relatively complete meat-raising method was developed.

But the lack of pigs does not mean that the ancients could not eat meat. In addition to the well-known cattle and sheep, the most popular poultry among the ancients was of course chicken.

This most common poultry breeding method is simple. After the exploration of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the breeding method was already quite complete at least in the Han Dynasty, and there were sporadic records of large-scale breeding.

But because of the poor resistance of chickens, large-scale breeding soon died in the Han Dynasty, and there was basically no record of large-scale breeding in the feudal era thereafter.

This problem was basically unsolvable in ancient times. It was not until the availability of a large number of cheap antibiotics in modern times that the problem of chicken farms being wiped out by infectious diseases was solved.

After all, even if the ancients suddenly opened up the Ren and Du meridians and used the distillation method to produce allicin, a very low-quality antibiotic, they would still face the problem that this "magic medicine" could only be preserved for half a day.

It is difficult to provide chickens for people, let alone for breeding.

Although large-scale chicken farming has encountered difficulties, ancient China can be said to be far ahead in how to eat chicken.

Some people in modern times have asked, can the emperors of ancient times resist the temptation of fried chicken?

In fact, if you secretly offer fried chicken as a trump card to the emperor, the emperors after the Tang Dynasty will probably think you are a fool.

For example, people in the Tang Dynasty would fix the whole chicken with hemp rope, boil it with white water first, then put it in a bowl and steam it with spices, and finally fry it in rapeseed oil, and finally eat it with pepper salt, which is called gourd chicken.

This method is much better than fried chicken. It is probably that the crispy shell fried after mixing egg white and flour can surprise the ancients - but that's all.

In addition, the price of chicken in ancient times was not expensive.

The Han Dynasty attached great importance to military construction since Emperor Wu. Although it was a little difficult for ordinary people to slaughter chickens for food, judging from the Han Juyan Bamboo Slips, the complete food supply of the Han Dynasty army included grains, whole chickens, salt, vegetables and wine, which basically guaranteed meat all year round.

The sufficient and rich food supply of the Western Han army was far better than that of the Xiongnu, who could only eat meat in winter, so they fought against the five Huns with one Han army and quickly emptied the treasury of the Western Han Dynasty.

The economy was developed in the Song Dynasty, and it became easier to eat chicken. Ordinary people could buy a big rooster with three days' wages. The poem written by Lu You is the best proof:

"Don't laugh at the muddy wine of farmers, there are enough chickens and pigs to entertain guests in a good year"

From the literal meaning, it can be seen that this is the standard configuration for self-cultivating farmers or small landlords in the Song Dynasty to celebrate the New Year.

As for Dai Ming, it goes without saying that ordinary people's one-day wages are enough to buy a chicken or two ducks, and eating meat on a daily basis is more relaxed.

Of course, the above discussion is limited to the peaceful times in ancient times. If you encounter troubled times, don’t think about eating meat during the New Year. The right thing to do is to think about how to survive and compete with others for a bowl of Laba porridge during the New Year. 】