Chapter 280: Chapter 279: The Taste of Fernted Cheese Chapter 280: Chapter 279: The Taste of Fernted Cheese The early winter climate was clear and mild this year, nothing like the icy chill Ye Xinyan felt when she escaped from the Duke’s Mansion at the end of last year.
Because the ferntation workshop of the Dairy Products Store was built with a semi-underground structure, it still had a few strands of warmth even in this season. However, when the severe winter set in, the workshop probably wouldn’t be able to retain its warmth anymore. Fortunately, the workshop was equipped with a stove wall, so they could light a fire to keep warm during the cold winter season.
Ye Xinyan thought that they would have to go through a winter and a sumr, combining the cheese fernted in the family cellar, before they could decide whether the ferntation workshop was more suitable for a cellar or a conventional workshop. If the cellar proved to be more appropriate for ferntation, they would build a larger one next year, specifically for fernting cheese.
Ye Xinyan and Zhang Baokui chose three small pieces of test cheese, each marked with different dates. When Zhang Baokui picked up these pieces of cheese, his eyes were full of eagerness and reluctance, as if he was parting with a piece of his heart.
Two days earlier, they had selected two pieces of test cheese from both the family cellar and the ferntation workshop and tried their taste and quality.
For Ye Xinyan, whether it was fresh cheese or purely fernted cheese, it wasn’t sothing new. Even though fernted cheese was expensive, she had indeed tasted it many tis. Aside from a few peculiarly pricey cheeses with odd flavors, she liked the rest.
But for the people of this era, consuming purely fernted cheese was quite a challenging endeavor. Ye Xinyan felt it could compete with eating durians or deep-fried stinky tofu. Of course, within such a short period, Ye Xinyan couldn’t produce cheese with an exceptionally unique taste, so the difficulty of this challenge was much reduced.
Cheese, to those who were just starting to eat it, was a rich and strong-flavored food, even if they liked it. Therefore, for the first ti they tried it, Ye Xinyan introduced the cheese as part of a Chinese-style burger, one for each person, all in small portions, each burger less than three inches in diater. The burger, with a patty, cheese, and thin roasted potato shreds sandwiched between two slices of bread, was served as part of the main al on the dining table.
At dinner, in addition to this cheeseburger, the other dishes and main courses were the sa as usual, all typical Chinese farmhouse als.
The fernted cheese was the first experintal product that the Dairy Products Store focused on introducing, and with Ye Xinyan’s continuous promotion, everyone’s anticipation for the cheese was imaginable.
The first one to take a bite of the burger, naturally, was the head of the family, Qi Younian. Qi Younian bit into the burger full of expectation, carefully savored and chewed it, and then, unconsciously, he stopped chewing and looked at Ye Xinyan with confusion in his eyes.
Was this the fernted cheese that Ye Zi highly praised?
When the cheese was unwrapped and sliced, Ye Xinyan tasted a small piece. There was no problem; it was that taste. So, seeing Qi Younian’s confusion, she just smiled and said, “Grandfather, eat slowly. The taste is fine, it’s just that the habit of eating needs to be adapted to.”
With that, she picked up her own burger and took a big bite, then slowly chewed it, savoring the rich and creamy taste with great enjoynt. Yes, that was the taste. The first ti might feel unusual, but the second ti you’d find it more acceptable, and after that, you’d find yourself liking and missing it, and eventually endorsing it.
Once accustod to it, the affluent nobles of the Great Xia Dynasty would consider cheese an indispensable high-end ingredient in their kitchens, turning fernted cheese into a symbol of prestige for a family.
The delight of the flavor in her mouth combined with the anticipation of the future market made Ye Xinyan’s expression while eating the cheeseburger incredibly rich and intoxicated.
Qi Jiaer looked at his grandfather’s conflicted expression and then at his sister, who was indulging in pleasure. As the third person in the whole world to eat fernted cheese, he picked up the burger and took a big bite, chewing it with the sa expression as Ye Xinyan’s.
Then, Qi Jiaer’s intoxicated expression gradually beca natural. After swallowing, he imdiately took another bite, eating it with evident relish, while at this ti, Qi Younian and Ye Xinyan still hadn’t swallowed their first bites of the burger.
Ye Xinyan watched Qi Jiaer with a smile, indeed, children have a remarkable capacity for acceptance, always able to fall in love with these Western pastries on the first try.
The other people at the table also began eating, and while their expressions varied, the common sentint was that the ingredient was nothing special.
Ye Xinyan made several of these burgers and also took the opportunity to send one to each of the stewards and the permanent junior workers while they were still hot.
After everyone at ho had tried the burgers, they began their proper al. While eating, Cheung Wusi asked Ye Xinyan, “Ye Zi, is this what you called a precious ingredient? It has a strange taste to , not nearly as delicious as the previous cheese atballs.”
Ye Xinyan laughed and said, “Perhaps it’s because it’s your first ti eating it and you’re not used to it after a long-standing dietary habit. After a few more tries, Grandfather Cheung will probably start to like this flavor. Just like Qi Jiaer, who’s the youngest and doesn’t have long-established food preferences, so he’s more receptive to this layered bread.”
She asked Qi Jia, “Jiajia, do you think this cheese-stuffed bread is tasty?”
Qi Jiaer, with his cheeks still puffed out from chewing at, hastily nodded, quickly swallowed the food in his mouth, and said, “Delicious, it’s very tasty. It’s different from the flavor of the cheese atballs, but both are delicious in different ways.”
Qi Younian continued, “I am also not accustod to this cheese. However, as I ate more, it started to feel better than at first, with a rich taste that the atball’s cheese doesn’t have.”
Ye Xinyan replied, “Grandfather is impressive, as that rich taste is exactly what I was aiming for. Ah Qiao, what do you think?”
Wong Qiao smiled and said, “I also feel it’s not as tasty as the atballs’ flavor. But since Ye Zi praises it so highly, it deserves a few more tries before settling on a verdict.”
Overall, the first tasting of cheese was quite disappointing, especially for the stewards and the junior workers to whom it was sent, with reactions that could be described as abysmal. So even opened the bread to discard the soft, slippery cheese inside before they started to enjoy their al. In their words, it would be a sha to let such good bread and at be spoiled by that stuff.
Ye Xinyan, hearing Zhang Baokui recount this with a red face, rely smiled triumphantly, pleased with the outco. If the workers in her ho could only watch enviously as the master and stewards enjoyed the delicacies from the store, Ye Xinyan would feel uneasy. But if they didn’t like it, that was another story altogether.
Well…, she seed to have a bit of a darker side.
The key issue was…, Ye Xinyan asked Zhang Baokui, “Steward Zhang, do you also find this unpalatable, not as good as the cheese made from cheese powder residue?”
Zhang Baokui replied sowhat awkwardly but still managed to express his true feelings with a pained expression, “Chief Steward, I really don’t find this tasty at all. Making it not only wastes cow’s milk and ti, but it’s also not as delicious as cheese made from cheese powder residue.”
Ye Xinyan consoled, “With anything new, there has to be a process of getting used to it. Don’t worry about wasting cow’s milk and ti, just focus on making the fernted cheese properly, and try to minimize spoilage—that’s the real way to avoid waste.”
Joking aside, the price difference between cheese remade from cheese powder and pure fernted cheese is not even on the sa scale; the profit margin is worlds apart.
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