She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 811 - 769: Famine Era 10 (Second Update)

The brine used for making tofu was something she extracted from crystallizations in salt herself, generally, large-grained salt could be boiled to produce it.

Although the salt of this time wasn’t industrial salt, it had large grains, unlike the highly refined salt of the previous era. From now until the 70s or even the 90s, people were still using grainy salt, so substances like salt brine were still easy to obtain.

However, when she brought the tofu home, the family was stunned because this tofu was made by her own hands, and they were shocked by this.

Only then did Ye Huan realize that in this era, their family could make tofu too. With the crackdown on speculation and profiteering, it was already the mid-60s.

Moreover, if they used the soybeans grown by their own family, combined with the beans in her space, the tofu produced would have a harmonized taste, even better.

So she became excited, and fortunately, there was a millstone at home. She asked Uncle, Daddy, and Uncle to make wooden troughs as she described, used for pressing the tofu.

"Get the tools ready this week, I’ll come back early next week to teach you how to make tofu."

From now to 1967, even if they started in 1965, there were still 11 years. During this time, if their family made tofu, could it at least allow the younger siblings to attend school? 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Moreover, they didn’t have to travel far, just pushing a cart to sell in nearby villages would be enough.

Especially since she had other methods in mind besides soft tofu, firm tofu, tofu skin, and dried tofu. Everyone couldn’t afford meat, wouldn’t each family eat a piece of tofu every few days?

On the first weekend of October, Ye Huan arrived home on Saturday afternoon and first extracted a tin of salt brine to set aside for use.

"Everyone remember, you can’t eat this salt brine directly, doing so will cause poisoning. Keep it in a high place, and don’t let my little brother and sister get near it."

To make her family aware of the dangers of salt brine, she emphasized several times, explaining how the brine was very irritating to the skin and mucous membranes and had a depressing effect on the central nervous system, detailing that if ingested accidentally, symptoms like nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, stomach pain, burning sensation, bloating, diarrhea, dizziness, headaches, and rashes might occur. She instructed them to feed large amounts of soy milk quickly to combine with the brine to form protein sediments, thus neutralizing the brine’s toxicity. This was the most direct method.

Then she started grinding soy milk. The beans were soaked in advance as she instructed last week. With all preparations complete, under the family’s watchful eyes, she led them in grinding soy milk, filtering, boiling soy milk, mixing the brine proportionally, and demonstrated each step from forming to pressing.

Afterward, she said, "If you don’t have salt brine, you can actually use Plaster as a substitute, but tofu made with salt brine is more tender and lacks the coarse texture compared to plaster-made tofu. Salt brine tofu can also be made into dried tofu, chili tofu, fried tofu, rich in nutrients. Once you’re familiar, I’ll teach you more."

Actually, selecting materials, soaking beans, grinding, filtering, and boiling were easy to learn; it’s just when forming the tofu you need to pay attention to the proportions – pressing too hard makes it dried tofu, and different levels of pressing create different products.

The family learned an entire night and somewhat got the hang of it. The tofu made on the first day was distributed to neighbors as they needed to promote their new venture, and offering free samples was a promotional strategy.

The next morning, everyone rose early. The beans had been soaked the previous night, ready to grind for the day.

Making tofu was hard, involving early mornings and late nights, but in pursuit of earnings, the family worked diligently. After sleeping late, they rose early again to quickly master the process. On Sunday, Ye Huan only observed and pointed out mistakes, while the entire process was handled by the Uncle and the three brothers, with Mom and the three sisters-in-law assisting.

Eventually, they made sixty jin of tofu in three slabs, which at the market price of two yuan per jin (in government currency), the lot could be sold for US$ 120.

Currently, beans were three yuan for two jin, making sixty jin require twenty jin of beans, costing thirty yuan.

Water was free, while brine cost ten yuan per session, making the total cost around US$ 40, leaving a profit of eighty yuan.

Eighty yuan divided among four households – three households of the brothers and one of the old couple, with each family getting twenty yuan.

Twenty yuan a day, quite the hard work; it seemed only a hardship fee, not including the selling time.

Doing the math, it doesn’t seem profitable since a jin of wheat could sell for three to four yuan per jin nowadays.

But if you don’t do it, wouldn’t you miss even that twenty yuan? At least the gain from five jin of wheat a day was still okay?

Of course, the premise is that you can sell all of it.

Sixty jin would require selling to sixty households, one jin per household.

To sell tofu, their family specially bought a cart, with the cost shared among the three brothers, each contributing ten silver coins. Thirty silver coins bought such a cart.

On the first day, Aunt and Uncle went to sell; the second day, it was Dad and Mom’s turn; the third day, it was the Uncle and Auntie’s turn, with the three brothers rotating like this.

Once the tofu was ready, they eagerly pushed the cart out the door, but walking on the road, they hesitated to call out.

Ye Huan called from behind, "Tofu for sale, Ye Family Tofu – soft or firm, grab whichever you like, only two yuan per jin, five yuan for three jin!"

This was a promotional price, saving one yuan. After all, it was the first day; there had to be a three-day opening promotion, right?