Yaya and Xiao Yu were both very happy, although Xiao Yu knew the steps for making tofu, she understood that a skill passed down through generations couldn’t simply be matched by her own casual attempts. She treasured this rare opportunity.
"Then...," she asked, "Grandpa Wang, do you already have in mind an ideal candidate for an apprentice?"
Grandpa Wang pondered for a mont and nodded, "There is one, but I don’t know if they would be willing. At the west end of our village, there is a widow, a very kind person, with a hardworking and clever son, half-grown."
"And in Zhaojia Village, there’s an orphan whose father died on the battlefield and whose mother ran away. He was raised by his grandparents, too. He helped push carts before, so I have a deep impression of him. The kid is also very steady and sensible. If these two boys could co over, it would save a lot of worry."
Grandpa Wang was definitely a good judge of character, and Xiao Yu felt the choices were appropriate especially after hearing about their circumstances.
"Then why not just ask them? You can have the village chief co over and act as a diator to inquire on your behalf."
Grandpa Wang and Grandma Wang thought this was a reliable plan, "Let’s wait for the rain to stop, then we’ll take care of it. Now, let’s first teach the two of you."
The art of making tofu wasn’t actually that complicated. She had seen it on TV before and even made a simple version herself, but in ancient tis, without all the chemical ingredients and standard proportions, what mattered was this ancestral skill.
The sa ingredient could end up tasting very different when made by you compared to when it’s prepared with an heirloom recipe, highlighting the importance of the formula naturally.
At that ti, tofu was still very simple. At least among the common folk, tofu was just tofu blocks, without the modern endless, bizarre varieties.
For now, Xiao Yu had no intention of sharing these different thods with the elderly couple, mainly because she felt that they had been making tofu for most of their lives, and there was no need to show off in front of them. Besides, with their level of expertise, they had no problems living a comfortable life by making tofu.
Having too much money wasn’t necessarily a good thing, especially considering the state of their children. It was better to avoid unnecessary troubles.
At this ti, what they valued was safety and health. Everything else was unimportant.
So the elderly couple started with the simplest task of selecting soybeans and carefully taught them step by step.
Nobody expected that this seemingly simple tofu would turn out to be so complex.
"The soaking ti of the soybeans must be mastered well; they cannot be soaked for too long, or they will lose the essence needed to make tofu."
"If the plaster is undercooked, it is bad; if it is overcooked, not only can’t you make tofu, the soy milk will stink like chicken droppings."
"When pressing the milk, make sure no tofu residue gets into the soy milk."
"When boiling and curdling the milk, pour the fresh milk into the pot and bring to a boil without covering it, skimming the foam from the surface while cooking. The fire should be high but not too fierce to prevent the soy milk from boiling over."
...
Xiao Yu and Yaya learned step by step, repeatedly exclaiming over the difficulties of making tofu.
There is an old saying that the three hardest professions in the world are boating, ironing, and grinding tofu.
Boating: Traveling through wind and waves, constantly at risk of capsizing and losing your life.
Ironing: Enduring the heat day and night near the refining furnace is like living in hell.
Selling tofu: Sleeping at the third watch and rising at the fifth watch, doing the work of a donkey and earning barely enough small change to scrape by.
When you think about it, it was different from the tis of electrical appliances in later eras; everything was done by hand, such as grinding the soy milk, filtering the residue, and pressing out the water — all entirely manual labor.
One pound of tofu cost one or two cents to make and sold for six cents, so they worked themselves to death to earn four or five cents. It sounds like a lot, but that also included transportation and daily losses, so it really wasn’t much!
After a morning of work, Xiao Yu had gone from initially being enthusiastic to suddenly losing interest.
Fortunately, having made a batch with the elderly couple, she had mastered most of what she needed to know.
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