Ch 13: Guide to Feeding a Villainous Husband

Starch Sausage

Xing Yiming was eagerly looking forward to the deluxe version of the grilled cold noodles, thinking he would soon get to taste it. However, on the first day, Qin Xia couldn’t find the right pork tenderloin and had to postpone his plans. The next day, he didn’t even open his stall.

Xing Yiming guessed that something must have come up at home and had to suppress his craving, continuing to wait.

At this moment in the Qin household, Qin Xia was facing several newly bought ingredients: a bag of sweet potato starch, a pack of sheep casings, and a small jar of red yeast rice powder. Additionally, he had items that were already in the house, including a bowl of flour and various seasonings.

He planned to use these to make a popular, low-cost street food from modern night markets—starch sausage.

Since there wasn’t the advanced food technology of the future, the starch sausage he could recreate here would be a simplified version, but a healthy one.

Qin Xia started by cleaning the sheep casings, which he had bought from the butcher shop. In Qinan County, it was customary to make sausages during the winter. When buying meat at the butcher shop, you could either have them make the sausages for you or buy the casings to make them at home. The butcher shop also sold casings.

These casings had been pre-cleaned, so they weren’t too slimy. Qin Xia placed them in a saltwater soak to prepare them.

Next, he began making the filling for the starch sausage. He poured the sweet potato starch into a mixing bowl and added a bit of flour to help it bind. He then added salt, sugar, soy sauce, pepper, and five-spice powder.

Speaking of five-spice powder, Qin Xia only realized after arriving here that ready-made five-spice powder wasn’t available in the market. In this aspect, he had slightly overestimated the creativity of Dayong Dynasty chefs. He had no choice but to buy the corresponding spices from the pharmacy and pay a few extra coins to have them ground into powder.

The five-spice powder consisted of star anise, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, fennel, and cloves. The pharmacy clerk didn’t find Qin Xia’s request strange, and the order was fulfilled within a day.

Finally, he added water and continuously stirred in one direction with chopsticks. When his arm started to ache, and the starch mixture in the bowl became sticky, it was time to stop.

The next step was to add the “meaty” appearance to the starch sausage—natural coloring from red yeast rice powder. Red yeast rice is often used to dye red eggs, which are distributed to neighbors after a baby is born. It was inexpensive; Qin Xia bought a small handful for just a few coins.

Even a tiny bit of this powder could dye a significant area, so it would last a long time. Qin Xia tested the color in water and then carefully added it to the starch mixture, doing so gradually to avoid turning the sausage too red, which might make it unappetizing.

He repeated the process several times, adding a little and stirring, until he achieved the desired light pink color. Since there was no meat involved, there was no need for marinating. After thoroughly cleaning the thin casings, Qin Xia filled them and brought everything into the main room.

Yesterday, a light snow had fallen, and Yu Jiuque caught a bit of a chill, resulting in a severe headache that night. Qin Xia immediately decided not to open the stall today. Yu Jiuque had tried to insist that he’d be fine after a nap and wouldn’t cause any delays, but Qin Xia wouldn’t hear of it. In the morning, he made sure Yu Jiuque stayed in bed and went out to buy ingredients, saying that he would take advantage of this day off to experiment with new recipes.

By mid-morning, Yu Jiuque was feeling much better. He stayed inside to care for the gosling and offered to help Qin Xia with his cooking.

“Perfect timing, come help me with stuffing the sausages.”

Qin Xia knew that Yu Jiuque couldn’t sit idle. Stuffing sausages alone would be challenging, so having him help would keep him busy and prevent him from overthinking. He placed all the necessary items on the table and then wandered over to the basket to check on the gosling.

“How’s it doing? Has it eaten?”

“It just ate some greens and softened millet, and even walked around a bit.”

Qin Xia patted the soft, warm fluff on the gosling’s head.

“According to what Aunty Fang said, it seems like it’s going to survive. Maybe we should give it a name.”

Yu Jiuque nodded. “We should name it; it’s awkward to keep calling it nothing.”

He thought Qin Xia might already have a name in mind, but to his surprise, Qin Xia said, “I haven’t thought of anything yet; why don’t you come up with one?”

Yu Jiuque was stumped. He stared into the gosling’s beady eyes for a while before tentatively suggesting, “I was thinking this goose, like we said before, seems to be quite lucky. How about calling it ‘Da Fu’ (Big Blessing)? What do you think?”

“Da Fu.” Qin Xia repeated the name softly, smiling as he said, “It sounds good and auspicious.”

And so, the nameless gosling was officially christened as Da Fu.

Despite being thoroughly petted by its “Big Dad,” Da Fu remained unbothered, tucking its head into its feathers and continuing to sleep soundly.

Qin Xia and Yu Jiuque watched it fondly for a while before washing their hands and sitting down to stuff the starch sausages.

Without any specialized tools, Qin Xia used a small funnel that every household had. The bottom end of the funnel was connected to the casing, while the top was filled with the stuffing, which was then pushed through using a rolling pin.

Yu Jiuque held the casing on the other side, occasionally adjusting the stuffing to ensure that each section of the sausage was evenly filled, preventing the casing from bursting.

Once they had reached the right length, they tied the end with cotton string.

The starch mixture that Qin Xia had prepared ended up filling fifteen sausages, each about the length of a hand with all ten fingers extended.

“Let’s cook these up and see how they taste. The casings can stay in water for a day or two without spoiling.”

Qin Xia coiled the finished sausages in a bowl and planned to fry a few for a taste test.

He simmered them in boiling water on low heat for about half an hour, then let them cool to set. After cutting them apart, he took three sausages and skillfully made decorative cuts on the outside.

He heated some oil in a pan, then fried the sausages. As the temperature rose, the cuts on the outside slightly opened, creating an attractive pattern.

At this point, the sausages closely resembled those sold at modern street stalls.

Using chopsticks, Qin Xia lifted the fried sausages, brushed them with sauce, sprinkled some seasoning, and skewered them with long bamboo sticks, which were always plentiful at home. He held one up and brought it to Yu Jiuque.

“Give it a try. I used some of the sauce from the iron plate tofu on yours.”

Yu Jiuque took it, feeling it was a bit hot, and blew on it gently.

Qin Xia had already taken the first bite, hissing as he blew on his tongue, savoring the flavor.

In his opinion, the key to making delicious starch sausage lies in two words: fragrant and crispy. The heat needs to be just right during frying, so the outer shell can become crispy. The seasoning must be well-mixed to leave a lingering taste on the palate.

He unabashedly thought that what he made was a perfectly qualified and excellent starch sausage!

Yu Jiuque, after cooling it down a bit, eagerly took a bite. The texture was different from what he had imagined. This sausage, made with starch, should have felt like eating noodles, but after tasting it, he realized that it was only slightly starchy in texture. Thanks to the seasoning, it even had a hint of a meaty flavor.

“This will be priced at three wen for one piece and five wen for two pieces. We can sell them individually, where they’ll be scored, fried crispy, and served on bamboo skewers. If you want them added to the iron plate tofu or grilled cold noodles, the price remains the same.”

Starch is cheaper than flour, so this would be a low-margin, high-volume sale. The food business was turning out to be easier than he had imagined. By gradually introducing new items like this, he could ensure people would never get tired of eating at their stall.

Once he made enough money, he planned to rent a shop, so they would have a proper roof over their heads and wouldn’t have to worry about the cold, like the snowfall that caused Yu Jiuque to fall ill yesterday.

He had completely forgotten that his original plan was to save up enough money to rent a separate place for Yu Jiuque to move out as soon as possible.

Qin Xia shared the remaining starch sausage with the young Ge’er. Surrounded by the enticing aroma, he ate happily. Feeling a sudden burst of enthusiasm, he suggested, “Shall we count how much silver we have now?”

Yu Jiuque naturally agreed.

If there’s anything more satisfying than making money, it has to be counting it.

The family’s money jar was hidden under the bed, a habit passed down from the previous generation of Qin Xia’s grandparents. By lifting a bedboard and moving a brick, a small space was revealed.

Qin Xia brought out the jar and poured the copper coins onto the table. Over the past few days, they had been so busy that they just threw all the collected coins into the jar, leaving only a small amount aside for buying tofu and vegetables for the next day, without taking the time to count.

Yu Jiuque found a spool of cotton string from the sewing basket, preparing to string the loose coins together.

After pawning the jade dice for twelve taels, they were left with only one tael and four qian after the initial setup costs. The two days at the temple fair earned them a bit more than one tael. After moving to Liubao Street, business had been steady, with daily earnings around 400 wen.

After counting carefully, they realized they had a total of 4,189 wen.

As they counted and strung the coins together, Qin Xia couldn’t help but feel a bit astonished looking at the dozens of strings of copper coins on the table.

It turned out they had more than four taels of silver?

Staring at the money, Qin Xia rubbed his chin and said, “I’ll draw up a design for a new pot and inquire at the blacksmith’s shop.”

With the capital they had, it was time to expand production. He had already started thinking about what other dishes the Qin family snack stall could sell next.