Shen Miao led her two “little helpers” out to buy a lot of things.
Today, coarse flour was still ten wen per dou, but fine flour had risen to thirty wen per dou.
Shen Miao had previously done the conversion—one dou was approximately a little over nine Song jin, which, using modern weight measurements, was about eleven jin.
Buying coarse flour and sifting it herself was much more economical, though it took some effort.
Red beans and mung beans were both eight wen per dou, making them quite affordable.
Sugar was cheaper than salt, costing thirty wen per dou, while salt was nearly sixty wen per dou.
The Song Dynasty that Shen Miao found herself in was vastly different from the Northern Song she was familiar with.
The technique of adding tiles to sugar syrup to separate the layers and extract white sugar had already been widely adopted, leading to a significant increase in sugar production.
As a result, common folk could afford to eat sugar regularly.
It wasn’t just sugar.
When she was setting up her morning market stall the previous day, she overheard vendors and customers passionately discussing national affairs.
This was how she learned that the Song Dynasty she was in was currently in a tripartite standoff with the Liao and Jin Dynasties in the north.
However, the Western Xia had not yet emerged, as the powerful and stable Song Dynasty had kept the Tangut tribes under control.
The Tanguts remained a vassal of the Song, with their leader, Li Yuanhao, and his descendants serving as military governors instead of proclaiming an independent Western Xia.
Although the Jin Dynasty had risen to power, it was burdened by heavy tributes and harbored deep animosity toward the Liao.
Just as in history, they sought an alliance with the Song to resist the Liao.
However, the reigning emperor of the Song was an exceptionally wise ruler who understood the principle of “the lips perish, and the teeth feel the cold.”
Thus, he skillfully maneuvered between the Liao and Jin Dynasties.
With the Liao and Jin locked in a battle akin to a clam and a snipe, the Song sought to be the fisherman who reaps the benefits rather than another clam.
Whenever the Liao gained the upper hand, the Song cooperated with the Jin to suppress them.
If the Jin gained the upper hand, the Song would trade with the Liao and secretly supply them with food and weapons.
As a result, the Liao had inadvertently become a barrier preventing the Jin from advancing south.
Meanwhile, the Song took the opportunity to expand its military and even learned to drill for “fire wells”—petroleum.
The Song government had established specialized workshops such as the “Fierce Fire Oil Workshop,” southern and northern factories, and the Crossbow Institute, all dedicated to developing thermal weapons and powerful armaments.
This ensured that the Liao and Jin were unsuccessful in their attempts to break their treaties and invade.
Shen Miao was so absorbed in listening to the men enthusiastically discuss these matters that she almost let her pancake burn.
At present, the Liao, Jin, and Song Dynasties were at a stalemate, a perfect example of imperial balance.
Unfortunately, the Song Dynasty of Shen Miao’s original world had failed to grasp this strategy.
It ultimately attempted to bargain with a tiger and fell to ruin under an incompetent ruler…
For now, however, this version of the Song Dynasty was free from warfare despite its powerful adversaries.
Continuous years of good harvests and smooth canal transportation had stabilized food prices in Bianjing, allowing Shen Miao to buy grain without difficulty.
The previous day, Shen Miao had visited several grain shops and finally decided on one called “Yongfeng Grain Shop.”
The coarse flour there was the cleanest, with the least amount of pebbles added to increase weight.
She bought three dou of coarse flour, three dou of red beans, two jin of sugar, and two dou of soybean oil.
The shopkeeper, eager to do business, not only rounded down the price but also promised to have a worker deliver the goods to her doorstep.
After purchasing red beans and flour, she stopped by Wang’s Dairy Shop nearby to check the price of fresh milk.
Upon learning that a single jin of milk cost 250 wen, Shen Miao smiled slightly and immediately turned to leave.
She mentally crossed off her idea of making “fragrant milk red bean buns”—milk was simply too expensive!
Milk in the Song Dynasty was outrageously pricey!
However, she reasoned, there were very few pastures suitable for raising cattle, sheep, and horses within the Song’s territory.
Most cows were used for farming and were highly valuable, so it made sense that they weren’t primarily used for dairy production.
Xiang Jie solemnly tucked the receipt from the Yongfeng Grain Shop into her small pouch before eagerly looking up and asking, “Sister, what delicious food are you going to make this time?”
Shen Miao could tell from her tone that she was craving something tasty again.
She smiled and said, “When we get home, I’ll make the first batch just for you.”
Xiang Jie beamed with joy and didn’t press further.
Whatever her sister made was bound to be delicious!
Shen Miao had already made up her mind.
Tomorrow, she wouldn’t be selling sausages anymore.
Curing sausages consumed too much salt and spices, making it difficult to lower costs.
Instead, she quickly decided to make red bean paste pull-apart bread, a simple and delicious treat from the modern era.
She was already selling savory hand-grabbed pancakes, so adding a sweet option would cater to both sweet and savory preferences.
Besides, someone like her, who loved all kinds of food, would probably buy both.
The cost of making red bean paste pull-apart bread was much lower than that of sausages.
Based on her past experience making stuffed buns, one jin of red beans, once soaked and ground, would yield two jin of paste.
Each pull-apart loaf needed about two liang of filling, meaning that one jin of flour, one jin of red beans, one egg, and two liang of sugar would produce seven to eight loaves.
Excluding her own labor and adding costs for yeast, oil, and fuel, the production cost per loaf was estimated to be around two wen.
Although most residents of the inner city of Bianjing lived relatively well—especially near Jinliang Bridge, which was close to both Xiangguo Temple and the Imperial Street, home to countless officials—vegetarian pastries couldn’t be sold at too high a price.
After some thought, Shen Miao decided that each loaf, which could be cut into four bun-sized portions, would be sold for eight wen.
If someone wanted to buy individual portions, they would be three wen each.
She planned to make fifty loaves for the first batch and see how well they sold.
She had bought enough ingredients to last for several days.
Moreover, these loaves were easy to make.
In the modern era, with an air fryer, one wouldn’t even need to knead the dough—anyone could make soft, stretchy red bean bread.
But in the Song Dynasty, her clay oven wasn’t fully dry yet, so she had to rely on her pancake stove.
The temperature control of the pancake stove was tricky, requiring skill to bake the loaves properly.
After finalizing her plans for the stall, Shen Miao took Ji Ge to buy a set of calligraphy tools, a large woven bamboo backpack, ten oversized bamboo steamer trays, and a shoulder pole.
On the way home, they passed a bookstore.
Shen Miao initially wanted to buy some books, but upon seeing the prices—several guan for a complete set of the Four Books and Five Classics—she hesitated.
Ji Ge said, “Sister, don’t buy books. I know the owner of Lanxin Bookstore near the South City Gate. He provides paper and ink for a small fee of two wen, and people can copy books themselves.
A copy of the Analects can be finished in three to five days. Everyone did this when I studied under Master Liu.”
What a great idea!
Shen Miao immediately decided that Ji Ge would go copy books himself starting tomorrow.
Though it would be a bit of work, copying books was beneficial in multiple ways—it practiced handwriting, reinforced learning, and provided a personal copy of the text.
After finishing her work, Shen Miao sent Xiang Jie to build a small chicken coop with broken tiles to shelter the chicks from the wind and rain.
Then, she soaked the red beans and began frying chicken chops, pork chops, and cutting cucumber strips.
She prepared all the ingredients for the hand-grabbed pancakes she would make the next day and went to bed early.
The next day, she woke up before dawn, first frying the meat chops again and then starting on the red bean pull-apart bread.
The bread had to be freshly baked to taste good, so she had only made the red bean filling and sifted the flour the night before.
This morning, she woke up early to bake the bread.
She mixed the sifted fine flour, egg, yeast, sugar, and water, kneaded it into dough with some soybean oil, and continued until the dough could be pulled into a thin membrane.
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