Chapter 24: Surprise Surprise

Spicy and sour shredded potato was one essential homely dish. However, without vinegar nor chili, he planned to sauté shredded potato. However, don’t underestimate a simply sautéed dish. It would make a big difference with salt. Besides, men in this world didn’t know how to cook at all. With salt still to be extracted, Yu Jinli picked up a chunk of fat meat in order to get some oil out of it since there wasn’t even cooking oil here. Again, he felt sorry for this world. Seeing that Yu Jinli took a piece of fatty meat and was about to put it into the pot, three cooks stopped him in haste: “Young Lady, this meat is too fat. It won’t taste good. Here, this is choice tenderloin. Why not cook this?” Couldn’t help wiping the cold sweat off his forehead, Zheng Peiqi had thought the young lady came here knowing how to cook, however, given what he had done just now, apparently, he knew nothing about it. Was what he was going to cook really edible? What if he delayed the marshal and lady’s dinner? The three cooks felt a bit divided in this awkward situation, not knowing whether to let the young lady have his way or get him out of here and start to cook dinner themselves. “I’m going to make oil with it,” said Yu Jinli smilingly, then he threw it into the pot. Since nobody sautéed food here, there was no pan for sautéing. Luckily, there was a small shallow pan which could be used as a frying pan for the time being. However, Yu Jinli found that the kitchen utensils were quite limited. He couldn’t even find the most essential utensils he needed. He needed to have them made as soon as possible, otherwise it would affect his cooking. The moment the fatty meat went into the hot pan, it made a sputtering sound which startled the three cooks. However, immediately after that, a sweet smell filled the air which drew all their attention. “Smells good! It seems to come from Young Lady’s pan,” said Zheng Peiqi, surprised. The other two cooks took a step forward curiously, eager to see what Yu Jinli put in the pan to make that smell. Yu Jinli was happy with the animal oil, which was better than he expected. Now, he felt more confident about the dishes he was going to cook next. “Don’t come too close. You’ll get burnt.” Turning around and seeing the three cooks behind him, Yu Jinli warned them. “Young Lady, what is this you are cooking? How come it is shining?” asked Zheng Peiqi curiously. “This is cooking oil, used for cooking later.” As he spoke, Yu Jinli poured the oil into a container and went checking on the black lump. Apparently, it was beyond his expectation as well since there was no lump anymore, only a pot of black liquid. At first, he wanted to get the salt out of the black lump and into the water, then get rid of the lump and boil the water, what left would be what he needed. Now that the whole lump had melted, given the current situation, he was going to have quite a lot of salt later. Finding the most suitable ingredient to make salt by accident was a pleasant surprise. “Keep an eye on this pot and turn off the fire when all water evaporates,” Yu Jinli told Zheng Peiqi. “Yes, Young Lady.” He wanted to know what Young Lady was up to. What the Young Lady had done so far was far beyond his knowledge. He was both confused and curious. He had a feeling that Young Lady would surprise them.