"Wait, is this salt?"
As a result, when Xiao Luo put salt in for him first, he was stunned by the small spoonful of snow-white powder.
The Cui family controls the salt industry, so he also used pickled vegetables in the last transaction, because the cost of that product is extremely low for their family.
But even the salt they sent to the palace for the emperor was not so white and flawless.
In ancient China, whether it was sea salt, lake salt, or well salt, brine was generally used as raw material, or it was boiled with firewood, or exposed to wind and sun, and the salt was obtained after the water evaporated.
But no matter which method of making salt, there will inevitably be some impurities, and there will never be such pure white salt particles.
As for civilians and even Tang troops, they mostly used vinegar cloth and salt cloth, which were cloth boiled with salt and vinegar or cloth boiled with salt alone.
This makes it easier to carry and store, and secondly, because this kind of cloth absorbs salt, when you throw it into the pot when cooking to make the vegetables taste salty, there won't be so much impurities such as sand.
"My salt is like this!" Although Xiao Luo was similarly surprised before, but now she is only proud. Her son's things are naturally the best.
After adding salt, he took the small bottle of MSG.
"Is this MSG?" They were also small, flawless particles, but Cui Zhongqing still saw the difference.
This thing called monosodium glutamate looks like long prisms if you look closely, but it looks like small square crystals if you look at salt.
Stopping Xiaoluo's hand that was about to put the MSG in, she took a sip of the soup in front of her.
This time, the taste was not much different from the vegetable soup he usually drank. In addition to the fresh fragrance of the vegetables, it also had a salty taste.
The purpose of doing this was to compare the difference between those with and without MSG. By now, he also knew that Tang Ping invited him here today mostly because of this thing called MSG.
Xiaoluo carefully put the MSG into the soup.
Cui Zhongqing picked up the spoon and took another sip. The taste was indeed different.
"This is~" Cui Zhongqing took another sip, smacked his mouth, and finally asked in confusion: "This tastes very similar to the soup made from kelp!"
Tang Ping nodded: "That's right!"
Since Cui Zhongqing's family is in the salt business, he has also been to the sea salt production area.
Local people often use a plant called kelp, which we call kelp, to make soup.
The umami flavor of kombu soup was very similar to the MSG-added soup he was drinking now.
Of course, the kelp mentioned in the Tang Dynasty is actually from the family Pterospermum, while our modern kelp is from the family Laminariaceae, which is slightly different. However, both belong to the order Laminaria, so we will not go into details here.
Kelp is originally rich in sodium glutamate. Japan once used kelp to extract MSG. The main component of MSG and chicken essence is sodium glutamate.
Although he tasted the taste, Cui Zhongqing didn't know how the MSG was made. Just now he saw that there was only a small amount of MSG on Xiao Luo's small teaspoon, which he put into the soup. The soup became so delicious.
"What do you think, Second Young Master Cui, if I take this thing out and sell it?"
Cui Zhongqing looked at the vegetable soup in front of him and thought about the taste. It's not that he's boasting, but few wealthy businessmen in Chang'an City have ever tasted kombu soup, so it's hard to resist such a delicious taste when you first come across it.
As long as the price is not outrageously high, it would be difficult for those powerful people who are very particular about food and clothing to refuse such a thing.
So he told the truth: "We should be able to sell it for a good price."
"Then I wonder if Mr. Cui can help me? Help me advertise?" The reason why Tang Ping found Cui Zhongqing instead of the more familiar Li Jing was because the Cui family was in the salt business, so they were also professional counterparts.
"What's in it for me?" Cui Zhongqing asked with a smile.
"What benefit do you want?"
Cui Zhongqing took the small salt shaker and said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "Brother Tang, can you tell me how to purify such pure salt grains?"
"Uh..." Tang Ping scratched his head, knowing that he would ask this question, but he really couldn't teach this thing.
Despite the ease mentioned in those time-travel novels, ancient coarse salt can be purified in just a few steps.
After careful investigation, he discovered that it was impossible at all.
Because the salt produced by the salt production process at this time actually contains calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and sodium sulfate.
Although the components of these impurities in salt are not good, they cannot be removed only by heating, concentration, cooling and crystallization.
To get rid of these things, at least barium chloride, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and hydrochloric acid are needed.
It's not that these things don't exist in this era, but to get it, you have to ensure the usage and response of each step. To be honest, relying on his 2G network, even if he knows a rough idea, he may not be able to get it.
So he said truthfully: "I really don't know this purification method and I can't teach you, but if you can help me open up the market for MSG, I can sell 100 kilograms of this kind of refined salt to you every month, and besides you No more selling to others.”
"100 pounds? Deal!" Cui Zhongqing thought for a while and nodded in agreement.
He never really thought that Tang Ping would give him the purification technology of snowflake salt. To put it bluntly, with such technology, who wouldn't hide it?
If the Cui family had such technology, it would definitely be the most core secret and could not be exchanged for anything.
Now it is very good to be able to exchange for one hundred pounds per month.
"What's the price?"
"How about five times the most expensive salt sold by your Cui family?"
This price immediately stunned Cui Zhongqing.
Nowadays, a dou of rice in the Tang Dynasty costs 10 qian, which is about 12 kilograms. The price of salt is 20 times that of rice. A bucket of salt costs about 200 yuan, and a pound of salt only costs 17 yuan.
The best salt is of course more than this amount, about 40 yuan.
And five times the price is only 200 yuan.
The most important thing is that Tang Ping promised not to sell this salt to others.
In fact, according to Cui Zhongqing's opinion, such good salt is probably difficult to refine, and one hundred kilograms a month is not a small amount for Tang Ping.
So 200 yuan per catty is really not expensive for the Cui family. According to the principle that rare goods can be lived in, if these salts are sold to the powerful and royal families of various countries, the profit will be more than ten times?
And for such scarce luxuries, sometimes it’s not just about making money.
This is why Wang Shulou was willing to spend a full 1,400 kilograms of grain to buy a bottle of wine.
So Cui Zhongqing felt that the price was too conscientious.
"Zhongqing thanked Brother Tang here!" In Cui Zhongqing's view, this was like Tang Ping betraying him, so his title changed from Little Brother Tang to Brother Tang, which made him look closer.
