GBP Chapter 167 His Entrepreneurial Venture Collapsed Before It Was Halfway Through
Chapter 167 His Entrepreneurial Venture Collapsed Before It Was Halfway Through
With a single order from Magistrate Yang, a pig at a pig farm in Ningyang County reached the end of its life, and two roosters at a chicken farm in Ningyang County were killed.
"The two chickens were dried with a cloth, then some salt was rubbed on their surfaces, and then they were hung in the yard to air dry."
"Clean the pig's small intestines thoroughly, scrape the inside clean as well. Freeze all the pork first. After the casings have dried in a couple of days, slice the meat into pieces this size and this thickness," Magistrate Yang gestured with his hand. "Eight ounces of lean meat and two ounces of fat are needed per pound of meat. Then stuff them into the casings. I want to make some sausages."
"Cook all those ribs and stuff, and then have someone get me some pine or cypress wood to smoke out the cooked ribs."
"This time, the pig's head will be the same. First boil it, then smoke it. I want to try something different."
"Also, make sure to keep that pig pancreas. Turn it into a pancreas later, and whoever wants it can take it."
This was something that greatly displeased Magistrate Yang.
The famous decadent writer Mr. Feng Yu once said: The easiest money to make in this world is women's money, followed by the elderly and children, and then men's money.
Later generations of merchants have also proven Mr. Feng Yu's point with countless real-world examples. Whether it's all sorts of messy Valentine's Day, Goddess Day, and shopping festivals, or various skincare, whitening, moisturizing, and freckle-removing cosmetics, they all prove that women's money is the easiest to earn.
Then, Magistrate Yang had long ago thought of making soap, or even an improved version of soap, just like his predecessors who had traveled through time, so as to make a fortune and profit from all the beauty-loving women in the Ming Dynasty.
Unfortunately, Mr. Feng Yu also once said another famous saying: "Ideals are very rich, but reality is very harsh."
The Tang Dynasty physician Sun Simiao's "Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold" and "Supplement to Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold" recorded that after washing away the blood and grease from a pig's pancreas and removing the fat, the pancreas was ground into a paste. Then, bean flour, spices, and other ingredients were added and mixed evenly. After being naturally dried, the paste became a bath powder for washing.
Look at this, soap made from pancreas and spices, isn't this just a soap made from pig pancreas?
If the ingredients of this stuff are disgusting and wealthy ladies don't want to use it, that's simple: just switch to regular soap.
In Zhuang Chuo's *Chicken Ribs Compilation* from the Northern Song Dynasty, it is mentioned that "In Zhejiang, there is little soapberry; people use fat soapberry for washing their face and clothes. The tree is also tall, with leaves like locust leaves but smaller, and it produces pods, the longest of which are no more than three or four inches long. The seeds are round, black, and large, with thick flesh, and the oil is as rich as that of the soapberry, hence the name soap. People steam them, dry them in the sun, and then collect them. In the capital, people take the seeds of soapberry, boil them, soak them in sugar water, and eat them, calling them 'crystal soapberries.' When the emperor was in Yue, northerners also took fat soapberry seeds to make this. Those who ate it often suffered from back pain, probably because of its cold nature."
The book "Ren Zhai Zhi Zhi Fang Lun" written by Yang Shiying, a famous doctor in Fujian during the Southern Song Dynasty, mentions a detailed method of making soap: remove the inner and outer skin, tendons and seeds, leaving only a teacup of clean meat. Pound it, mix it with egg white, and sun-dry it for a period of time to remove the odor. Then mix it with medicinal powder, lard and other ingredients to form pills.
This recipe is called the Soap Recipe.
In other words, starting from the Song and Yuan dynasties, soap was no longer just for cleaning. Many merchants would add traditional medicinal ingredients such as angelica, bletilla, aconite, and clove to their soap formulas to remove blemishes, whiten skin, and improve complexion. They would also add almonds and lard to moisturize and smooth the skin. Finally, they would mix the medicinal powder with soap powder, which had a cleaning effect, along with pig tooth soap, bean flour, and soap, using egg whites. The mixture would then be formed into balls to create a high-quality "blemish-removing, whitening, and moisturizing facial soap".
For example, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng had a "freckle-removing, whitening, and moisturizing facial soap" given to him by Princess Jin'er and Princess Yu'er. He even ingeniously added some flower petals to enhance the fragrance. It is said that there are people in the capital who make a living by selling this stuff.
It can be said that Magistrate Yang's dream of getting rich by selling soap died before it even began.
To put it more elegantly, it was a case of "dying halfway through an undertaking."
While secretly lamenting the shattered dream of making a fortune with soap before it even began, Magistrate Yang was also pondering whether he should take the lead in developing perfume. After all, Zhu Chongba was a notorious wife-doting maniac, and subsequent emperors of the Zhu family all inherited this trait from him.
As long as we can produce the perfume in advance, we can let Jin'er and Yu'er use it the next time we see them, and then have them pass it on to Empress Ma. We won't have to worry about Zhu Chongba not taking the bait.
But upon further reflection, Magistrate Yang had to abandon his plan to amass a fortune—perfume production requires alcohol, and Old Zhu forbids brewing wine; without winemaking, there is no alcohol, and without alcohol, perfume cannot be made.
Damn it, we're stuck in a vicious cycle.
There's also this sausage and dried chicken that they made. These two things are delicious, but they both need to be dried for a long time. They're really inedible when they're freshly made.
Magistrate Yang shook his head helplessly, sighed softly, and was about to return to his recliner to continue slacking off when a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in his mind.
You can't eat Chinese sausage directly, but you can eat sausage directly, and you can also eat luncheon meat directly!
More importantly, Chinese sausage is made of pure meat, while sausage and luncheon meat are not; they can contain a lot of starch!
Tsk tsk, half a pound of meat mixed with half a pound of starch adds up to a pound. I'll sell it to Lao Xu and Lao Chang at the price of a pound of pork. I'll just waive their labor costs, transportation costs, storage costs and other miscellaneous fees. Isn't that a pretty good deal?
Look, it has to be me, I never forget Lao Xu and Lao Chang when there's something good.
No, Lao Xu and Lao Chang have probably eaten sausages before, and they probably know that sausages are mixed with flour or starch. It would be more reliable to just sell luncheon meat directly.
The only pity is that the chicken farms haven't been able to breed fast-growing broiler chickens yet, so they can't add chicken meat to it. Otherwise, adding some chicken meat to luncheon meat would not only improve the taste but also increase the nutritional value of chicken.
However, pig bones seem to work too?
If you cook it, dry it in the sun or bake it, then grind it into powder and mix it into luncheon meat, will it have a calcium-supplementing effect?
This is all good stuff!
Having made up his mind, Magistrate Yang immediately summoned the cook and instructed her: "First, boil those bones that have been removed, then slowly dry them in a pot and grind them into powder. Next, get me eight ounces of lean meat and two ounces of fat, grind them into a fine paste, then mix in some bean flour and wheat flour, add salt, the five-spice powder I had you grind some time ago, and bone powder, stir it well, form it into a dough, and then steam it until cooked."