While they were shaking, lunch time came. Wang Qi went to see the food at today's construction site, and then came back with a smile.
"What a coincidence, today happens to be a meat-eating day. We have meat in both lunch and dinner. In the morning we drank vegetable and meat porridge. Are the three of you willing to deal with one meal on the construction site?"
Lu You and Yu Yunwen were stunned for a moment, and then looked at Chen Kangbo, who had been silent.
Chen Kangbo hesitated for a moment and nodded, as if he wanted to confirm something, so he agreed.
Wang Qi smiled and asked people to prepare meals for the three main envoys and other attachés of the Southern Song Dynasty envoy. He brought tables and chairs for them to sit down and eat.
While cooking, Chen Kangbo asked Wang Qi, whether intentionally or unintentionally, whether it was not good for so many people to join in to eat, and whether it would prevent the workers from having enough to eat.
Wang Qi shook his head and said they didn't need to worry.
"More meals are always cooked on the construction site. Migrant workers always have a big appetite after a morning's work. Only by eating steamed cakes and pancakes can they be full. Therefore, cooking on the construction site is also fierce, and we try to cook as much as possible. , leaving room.
You are not afraid of having leftovers, but you are afraid of not being full. It doesn’t matter if you have leftovers, but it is important if you are not full. Naturally, you don’t have to worry about wasting the leftovers. Because the construction site lasts for a long time, several years, so there will be a lot of food near each construction site. Make a pen to raise pigs. .
The leftover swill that the big guy ate was sent to feed the pigs. The swill is good food, and pigs are not picky eaters. They gain weight quickly after eating the swill, and they can be slaughtered and eaten in a short time. Haha, the meat we eat today is from the construction site. Serve meat from your own pigs.
There are also benefits to raising pigs. In addition to pigs, the cooks also set up their own vegetable gardens, used pig manure as fertilizer, and planted some green leafy vegetables, which grew well, so the food expenses on the construction site could be saved a lot. "
"This...I..."
Chen Kangbo didn't react for the moment, and didn't know whether to lament the abundance of food on the construction site or the excellent idea of recycling, but after much thought, he still focused on the pigs.
"pork?"
"Ah, the pork is very fragrant."
Wang Qi smiled and said: "The Ming Dynasty ate a lot of pork. Many people like to eat pork. By the way, wasn't Mr. Su Dongpo very good at cooking pork back then? Doesn't the Southern Dynasty still not eat pork much now?"
"This...is true, but not much."
"Don't worry, Daming's pork is so fragrant. Even though this construction site is a big stove, the pork stewed over high fire is so fragrant that it can bite your tongue."
What Wang Qi said is true. The pig raising industry in the Ming Dynasty began to change as early as the Zhongdu General Affairs Bureau period.
As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, the pig-stewing trade had already appeared in China. However, this trade has never flourished, and the pig-stewing method has not been promoted in the pig raising industry, although in some areas there has been no separation of pigs. Mothers need to break this rule, but in most areas, there is still no such rule.
After Su Yonglin conquered Zhongdu and established the General Affairs Bureau, he instructed some people who mastered the technology of raising pigs to gather together to carry out technological innovations in the pig industry and widely taught breeders how to use pigs.
From then on, except for breeding pigs, all the pigs raised in the Ming Dynasty were slaughtered, regardless of male or female. This revolutionized the pig raising industry, and the pig raising industry began to flourish in the Ming Dynasty.
If the pigs are not killed, they will not be separated into males or females. Most of the food they eat will be used to accumulate energy for reproduction, and it will be difficult for them to grow meat.
Boars are not strong, with long and thin bodies, while sows are not strong, have graceful bodies, and have bad tempers. They are easy to hurt people, are very difficult to raise, and the meat tastes bad. After slaughtering, the smell is very strong, so it can't be done without a lot of spices and sugars. It covers up the fishy smell and naturally doesn’t taste good.
Therefore, pork has been made as cheap meat in China for many years. However, any high-end family will not let pork on the table, otherwise it will become the laughing stock of everyone.
However, once the pigs are chopped off, the boars and sows will become taciturn and become docile. They will grow as much as they eat and grow quickly. The smell of meat will also be greatly reduced, making cooking more difficult and easier. The cost is also greatly reduced.
As a result, the advantages of pigs over other livestock began to become apparent.
Therefore, starting from the first year of Hongwu, the number of pig farms in the Ming Dynasty increased year by year. Large state-owned pig farms and small private pig farms soon spread across all provinces, and pork soon accounted for most of the folk meat. Market, it has become the main meat food loved by the people.
The price of pork was originally "as cheap as dirt", and it rose for a while after it became popular. However, with the full expansion of state-run pig farms, a large amount of pork entered the meat market, and the price of pork gradually fell back to a normal level.
Common people in the Ming Dynasty liked to buy some pork from time to time to satisfy their cravings. During festivals or after the harvest, when they had money, they would take their families to the market to buy a whole pig leg, or even half a pig, and then some. Soy sauce, bring back the braised pork and cook it for a few days, and have a hearty meal of meat.
Because the pork after the breeding innovation is very fragrant and delicious, and the price is not expensive, even the chicken, duck, goose, fish and mutton that once dominated the folk table have begun to take a back seat. Pork has become the main meat on the people's table. Folk customs have great changes.
Wang Qi knew that this was a situation in the Ming Dynasty. As for whether there was such a situation in the Southern Song Dynasty, he didn't know much about it, but he probably didn't. Otherwise, why would these officials look so bad when they heard that they were eating pork?
You know, in the Ming Dynasty, the emperor took the lead in eating pork.
Emperor Su Yonglin especially liked to eat pork, and he would give more pork to his ministers during festivals and festivals.
Not only that, he also engaged in the innovation and research and development of pork menus in the palace, and created many famous pork dishes such as burnt pork slices, pot dumplings, and braised lion heads.
Su Yonglin also generously disclosed the menu and preparation methods of the pork he ate in the palace to the entire Ming Dynasty for free.
So not long after, starting from restaurants in Zhongdu, qualified restaurants across the country began to offer the same menu, euphemistically called palace cuisine, which was extremely popular among the people.
Over time, some people among the people also made pork dishes at home, and they thought it was the same meal as the emperor, and they were very proud.
Looking at this posture, it seems that the palace cuisine is going to be transformed into home cooking.
Pork was so popular in the Ming Dynasty, but the envoys of the Southern Song Dynasty were embarrassed about it. They felt depressed before eating, suspecting that their mouths would be full of fishy smell, and they were very sad.
However, they were moved after seeing the food they had brought.
There is no other reason. The meat tastes really fragrant, really fragrant.
It was only then that they discovered that the pork on the construction site was braised with soy sauce. There was no fishy smell, but only the aroma of meat.
The smell of meat really aroused the greed in the stomach. A group of people looked at each other, and finally looked at Chen Kangbo together.
As an envoy, as the highest-ranking official, he must set an example and take the lead.
"Ms. Chen, please."
Wang Qi looked at Chen Kangbo with a smile.
Chen Kangbo swallowed, hesitated, then stretched out his chopsticks to pick up a piece of the pork that belonged to him, slowly put it into his mouth, and chewed it.
this……
This smell...
Is it pork that these migrant workers on the construction site can eat?
Chen Kangbo had eaten pork in the Southern Song Dynasty.
To be precise, I have eaten two kinds of pork. One is high-end pork carefully cooked with a lot of seasonings. It tastes really delicious, but it is said that sugar and a lot of seasonings and spices are used, and the fishy smell is suppressed by cooking it over high fire. , so the price is quite expensive.
He also ate cheap pork, but the fishy smell of the meat made him feel uncomfortable eating for several days.
Of course, given his status, he could easily eat mutton that was difficult for ordinary wealthy people in the Southern Song Dynasty to eat.
Even if you can't eat mutton, you can still eat a lot of other meats. There is no need to embarrass yourself by eating pork that only the lowest common people and those "honest officials" who pretend to be noble eat.
But despite this, he did not expect that the migrant workers on the Ming Dynasty construction site could actually eat this pork.
This taste, this meaty aroma, was definitely not something that ordinary people could afford in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, they could go into restaurants and sell it to officials and wealthy businessmen, but here...
Chen Kangbo swallowed the pork in his mouth and looked at Wang Qi.
"Why would Mr. Wang prepare this kind of pork specially for us?"
