In the evening, my father came back, and the bag was carrying the soda stone, Glauber's salt, lime and other items that Zhang Chao asked him to buy. When he entered the door, my father was surprised to hear the broken cave that had changed a lot.

The dilapidated cave dwelling was put on a fire and changed the new stove. Zhang Chao also followed his Zhang family to order the old cave inside and out. Several simple beds, tables and cabinets were scrubbed and re-set, and the house was filled with loess. Even the walls and roofs of the cave were cleaned, spider silk webs and ash were swept, the old windows were repaired, and new reed curtains were replaced. After doing this, the broken cave dwelling looked a little brighter and well organized.

My father walked in the yard several times, smiling satisfied.

"You've put on the kang."

Zhang Chao smiled and talked about the things that happened today. When his father heard that Zhang Chao had accepted Ke Shan Ke Wu as his apprentice, he also set up a Zhang family class to specialize in changing the kang in the future, he nodded with praise. "Mengmaru is a shrewd man and a rule-persuading person. He is also for your own good."

"This kang stove is really useful?" My father turned around the new kang stove several times, and finally asked with some concern. The cowhide has been blown out, and the Zhang family team has been set up. If you find it useless in the end, it will be embarrassing.

"You'll know in three days."

The kang cannot sleep immediately, and the stove still needs to be dry.

Therefore, the meal was eaten at night by Zhang Chao's two apprentices. Now Zhang Chao's family is no longer a couple. The two soldiers sent by the two military palaces and the two Bai Zhi and Zhiyi sent from the county. These four people are now in the Zhang family, so they are also in the Zhang family.

Ke Shan and Ke Wu knew that their father's house could not be opened today, so they each delivered the prepared steamed cakes.

The steamed cakes sent by the two families were actually yellow steamed buns, made of millet and red date paste, and the filling was filled with red date paste. The amount was quite sufficient, but Zhang Chao still felt very sour when he tasted it.

After eating two, Zhang Chao lost his appetite.

While the sky was still bright, Zhang Chao took alale, Glauber's salt, and lime to prepare to extract alkali.

Glauber's salt is called decahydrate sulfuric acid sodium, soda stone is also natural alkali, hydrogen carbonate sodium, and lime is mainly calcium oxide. Glauber's salt can make soda ash and sulfuric acid, and soda stone can also make soda ash.

If these things were used in later generations, it was very convenient to extract alkali. There were many methods and were efficient and energy-efficient. However, in Datang, many materials did not exist, so it would be more troublesome. However, Zhang Chao didn't need much and did not require so much purity. Therefore, if it was more complicated, he could still get the desired alkali.

The two men and two young men in the village saw Zhang Chao putting many medicinal herbs in the yard, and they even started to set up clay pots to make a fire. Although they were curious, they didn't get over, but instead got farther away.

My father came over and looked at him a few times, and felt that Zhang Chao seemed to be burning elixirs like a Taoist. After asking a few questions, Zhang Chao said that it was not a pill, but just a medicine to make the seasoning for pasta. After using it, the pasta will not be sour and will be fluffy and delicious. He was a little unbelievable, but he just shook his head and went aside.

He has already gone to the county to hire a Feng Shui master today, and he will see Feng Shui tomorrow. After reading Feng Shui, he has to officially prepare to start building a cave. There will be many things to build a cave, and he has to consider a lot.

Without anyone disturbing him, Zhang Chao started his own experiment seriously. This is an experiment that uses multiple chemical reactions and finally extracts what he needs through one program after another.

Alkali stone, which is the natural alkali block in the salt water lake, is sold in pharmacies. Glauber's salt is sold in the same way as lime pharmacies. It seems that various chemicals are either used as medicine or alchemy these days, so it is difficult to buy in other places, but doctors and alchemy Taoists will definitely have various chemical materials in their hands.

The materia meridian of the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen, wrote about lysate in Muli. By the Ming Dynasty, smart people had already discovered that when refining lysate, they could obtain alkali, which was used to wash laundry and make pasta, making a lot of money. However, at present, there are only two functions of lysate, one is used as medicinal materials in some prescriptions, and the other is used by Taoists to refine alchemy.

Natural alkali is the most convenient to process caustic soda. First, turn the alkali stone into lye, then add a certain amount of lime, and finally after multiple processes, it eventually becomes caustic soda.

However, what Zhang Chao needs is edible alkali for making pasta, rather than this extremely corrosive caustic soda.

But Zhang Chao still first refined and synthesized a small part of caustic soda, just because caustic soda is best synthesized, and caustic soda is still very useful, such as making soap and papermaking, but this kind of thing is needed. Zhang Chao carefully checked the caustic soda he made. The quality was not so good and the purity was not high, but it was definitely caustic soda. Once this thing was available, you could make soap in the future.

However, Zhang Chao is not in a hurry to make soap. The caustic soda was successfully refined just now, so that he knew that the little chemical knowledge he remembered in his mind was still useful. The caustic soda was successfully refined, which means that the method of making soda and baking soda and even the method of making sulfuric acid was feasible.

It's just a bit more complicated.

Zhang Chao was enthusiastic about fighting, and then he devoted himself to refining.

While thinking about building a house, my father looked into the yard from time to time. Seeing Zhang Chao struggling there without hesitation, he could only smile bitterly.

After a long time of struggle and after several failures that were close to success, Zhang Chao finally extracted soda ash and sulfuric acid. Finally, he struck while the iron was hot and used soda ash to process baking soda.

Soda ash is also called carbonate, while baking soda is hydrogen carbonate. Soda ash, like caustic soda, cannot be eaten directly, but after processing into baking soda, it can become a food additive.

It is very easy to make baking soda with soda. You can get it by directly applying the soda ash solution to carbon dioxide.

"Sanlang, it's getting late, don't mess with it." The father couldn't help but come over and shout.

"Done, dad." Zhang Chao said to dad with a smile. In front of him, there were already several finished products from him, caustic soda, soda ash, baking soda, and sulfuric acid.

There are not many types of each, but at least it is successful.

My father looked at the bowls in front of Zhang Chao, which contained powder and liquid, and could smell the pungent smell from a distance.

"That's it?"

"Yeah, it's done."

"This thing can be used to make noodles, why do I smell it pungent?"

"Only this dough alkali is used in these four for noodles, and the rest are not." Zhang Chao pointed the baking soda to his father. For convenience, he directly called baking soda a dough alkali.

Seeing his father still be skeptical, Zhang Chao planned to speak with facts.

"Dad, I'll use this to make some steamed cakes now, and you'll know if it's useful at that time."

Zhang Chao planned to make the yellow buns he had eaten tonight. He had eaten less just now, so there were a few left in the basket. Then, we will compare them together and make a judgment.

"Come on the noodles."

My father brought the ground milled noodles, which are also called yellow rice or millet, which are larger than millet.

"Dad, get some more yellow rice noodles."

Milled noodles are also divided into glutinous and japonica, one soft and the other hard. People are used to refer to hard rice as millet rice. This rice is not sticky and is suitable for steaming cakes. Soft ones are used to refer to rhubarb rice, which is suitable for making pastries.

Zhang Chao wanted to make yellow steamed buns, and he did not intend to use all the rice noodles like the villagers in Zhangjiagou. Instead, he used mixed rice noodles, seven combinations, and three combinations of raw yellow rice noodles.

Add water to mix the flour evenly after mixing it with 7 to 3.

After the dough was well made, Zhang Chao put him into a large bowl and covered it with a damp cloth.

"Wait for him to send him an hour."

Making pasta and other fermentation is impossible, and it is impossible to hurry.

Zhang Chao and his father sat in the room to set up a fire, and several people roasted the fire together and chatted together. They were talking about building a new cave, which cellar makers should be hired, which villagers should be hired to help, what materials should be bought, and what kind of vegetables should be bought, and so on. There are many things to do.

Before I knew it, an hour had passed.

At this time, it was completely dark and the village began to quiet. Most villagers rested at sunset. They were reluctant to light the lamps and consume oil at night. They either burned the fire and roasted it, or had to go to bed early.

My father lit the oil lamp. Although the soybean oil used for the oil lamp is not cheap. In the past few days, it costs about 100 yuan per pound. Nowadays, the food is expensive, soybean oil is also expensive, and it costs hundreds of yuan per pound. For a night, it costs at least one or two oil, which costs dozens of yuan.

The noodles have fermented, and now you need to start adding the starter to ferment it again.

Zhang Chao mixed the melted old noodle leaves with the dough evenly.

Unfortunately, there is no sugar.

In this era, the sucrose was only the most basic refining technology for Indians. Such sucrose was extremely expensive and extremely rare. In the Tang Dynasty, people who wanted to eat sweet food, most of them could only eat honey.

Either you eat maltose, the maltose of Datang even has a special name, called 光. The dessert 光, that is, the drink of 光, is sweet 光, which comes from this.

My father had no honey or maltose, nor sugar at home, so Zhang Chao had to give up.

After adding the melted old noodle root, Zhang Chao added a little bit of noodle alkali, which is the biggest difference between his yellow buns and Datang steamed cakes.

Add warm water and mix the dough into moderately hardness. Zhang Chao put the dough into a large bowl and cover it again. This time, it will take four hours to ferment.

"Okay, when the day dawns tomorrow, the noodles will be ready."

"That's good?" Dad and the others were surprised. There was no difference between ordinary steamed cakes.

"Do you have red beans and red dates at home? If so, I will make some red bean paste cake filling and put it in the steamed cake tomorrow."

Ke Xiaoba hurriedly said, "I have it at home, I have it at home, I'll get it."

Before Zhang Chao could reply, he ran out.

After a while, Ke Xiaoba had already run back and indeed took the red beans and red dates. Zhang Chao washed and steamed the red beans and red dates and then made them into red bean filling. After that, everyone was watching him.

"Now everyone goes to have a nap. If you have it tomorrow morning, you will make steamed cakes with red beans and dates."

After a simple wash, Zhang Chao fell asleep.

Before dawn, Zhang Chao was woken up.

When I opened my eyes, my dad and the other four were all wearing clothes and standing beside his bed.

"Sanlang, the face is ready."

Zhang Chao looked at them with red eyes, and probably they didn't sleep well last night.
Chapter completed!