The Overachieving Little Husband of the Top Scholar’s Household - Chapter 4: Extracting Starch

please check the end of this chapter for the measurement units

The modern sorghum candy sold on the market has undergone several improvements, with the main ingredient changed to sweet potato starch, making it unrelated to sorghum. However, the earliest sorghum candy was genuinely made with sorghum starch as its primary ingredient.

The Yu Dynasty currently does not have potatoes or sweet potatoes, but it already has corn, which happens to complete the traditional ingredients for sorghum candy.

The first step in making sorghum candy is extracting sorghum starch. Sorghum has a high starch content, reaching 65%–70%. Manually extracting it is not as precise as industrial production, but the yield can still be over half.

Yesterday, Qiu Huanian soaked the sorghum in alkaline plant ash water to make it easier to remove the outer husk and improve the starch extraction rate.

He took several round bamboo winnowing baskets, each over a meter in diameter, from the storage room, scooped the sorghum out of the basin, and rubbed it between his hands a few times. The husks automatically separated from the grains.

After rubbing about half of it, Jiujiu and Chunsheng woke up. The two children instinctively washed their hands and came over to learn from his example, helping to peel the sorghum husks together.

Since the task was not difficult, Qiu Huanian did not stop them. The three of them worked for half an hour and finished peeling the husks off all three dou of sorghum.

Qiu Huanian spread the mixture of husked grains and husks evenly on the winnowing baskets and placed them on racks in the courtyard where the morning sun shone. Then, he turned to prepare breakfast.

For breakfast, he boiled two ears of corn, and each person had a bowl of chicken soup with dried vegetables. Jiujiu and Chunsheng ate with great enthusiasm, and Qiu Huanian also found satisfaction in the meal.

After finishing breakfast and cleaning up the dishes, Jiujiu and Chunsheng carried small baskets and went out to pick wild vegetables. Qiu Huanian entrusted them to a neighbor who was also gathering wild vegetables, while he himself tried his hand at woodworking using the tools left behind by Du Baoyan.

Qiu Huanian had learned woodworking quickly for the sake of filming videos. He had once created a series called “Restoring Farming Tools from Different Dynasties,” where he personally recreated straight-beam plows, curved-beam plows, harrows, and hoes.

The Du family did not have any livestock capable of pulling large plows, so all their farming was done by hand. Qiu Huanian planned to combine his experience and recreate a single-person push plow often used in modern vegetable gardens. If successful, it would save a lot of effort during the spring planting.

However, without blueprints, he had overestimated himself. After struggling for half a day without making any progress, he settled for using scrap wood to make several detachable square molds, each holding about one liter, to use for making sorghum candy.

Lunch was the same as before—pickled vegetables, chicken, and mixed-grain rice. The weather was good today, and by the time they finished eating, the sorghum had nearly dried. Qiu Huanian and the two children worked together to sift out the now lighter husks and packed the husked grains into bags. Then, they shelled two dou of corn kernels and, with great effort, carried everything out of the house.

“Hua-ge’er, where are you headed?” Someone greeted Qiu Huanian on the road.

“I’m going to the clan leader’s house to grind some sorghum flour and cornmeal,” Qiu Huanian replied with a smile.

“You’re only bringing this little grain to the mill?” The woman who asked was puzzled.

Borrowing a stone mill and a mule required payment, so grinding only a small amount wasn’t cost-effective.

Although four dou of grain wasn’t much, it still weighed around thirty jin. Given Qiu Huanian’s current malnourished and weak body, he soon became too exhausted to carry it any further. He set the grain bags down on a roadside rock to rest and chatted idly with passing villagers.

“I’m grinding sorghum and corn to make candy for Jiujiu and Chunsheng.”

“I’ll just grind a little first. If it turns out well, I’ll make more later.”

“When the candy is ready, make sure to come by my house for a taste, sister-in-law.”

…

A short journey ended up taking Qiu Huanian more than ten minutes as he walked and chatted along the way, relaxed as if on an outing.

Madam Zhao had always been overbearing in the village, and everyone was happy to see her suffer a setback. Thanks to his bold display with the knife yesterday, Qiu Huanian had become quite famous in the village. The villagers were happy to exchange a few words with him.

As expected, by the time they went to bed tonight, the entire village would know that Hua-ge’er from Du Baoyan’s family was planning to make candy from sorghum and corn.

—Although most people probably thought he was either out of his mind or deliberately doing it to provoke Madam Zhao.

Qiu Huanian was indeed doing it on purpose. If he made others believe he would surely fail, then shocked them by succeeding, the news would spread even further. This was a strategy he had learned from his experience as a content creator.

Simply put, it was all about marketing and building hype.

The clan leader’s house was at the entrance of the village, consisting of over ten tile-roofed houses with courtyard walls built from blue bricks, looking quite impressive.

The stone mill was placed outside in the orchard. In the entire village, only the clan leader’s family and Du Baoquan’s family had stone mills and mules for grinding grain. Villagers who wanted to use them had to pay a fee.

Du Baoquan’s family was so domineering in the village because they had the means to back it up. Their family was now one of the wealthiest in Du Family Village. Their eldest daughter had married the manager of a fabric shop in the county, and their second son was studying at the county school. Given time, their whole family might move to the county.

Qiu Huanian set the grain bags down on a stone beside the clan leader’s courtyard gate and was just about to knock when the wooden door suddenly opened from the inside. Out walked a round-faced, big-eyed, and adorable teenage boy, about fifteen or sixteen years old.

The boy was completely unfamiliar. The original owner of Qiu Huanian’s body had probably never seen him before. However, noticing the red mole on the boy’s forehead, Qiu Huanian recognized that he was a ge’er.

This ge’er was not shy at all. Seeing Qiu Huanian and the grain beside him, he smiled and said, “Here to grind grain? Bad timing. My aunt’s mule is taking me back to town today, so it probably won’t be available.”

From his words, Qiu Huanian inferred that the boy was a nephew of one of the clan leader’s female relatives who had come to visit her family in Du Family Village from town.

Qiu Huanian was about to say that he would come back tomorrow, but the ge’er suddenly called out to him, “Wait a minute. You only brought this little grain? I doubt it would take more than two ke of time to grind. I might as well wait a bit so you don’t have to make another trip.”

He turned back into the courtyard and called out to the clan leader’s eldest grandson, Yun Cheng, telling him not to hitch up the mule just yet and to help Qiu Huanian grind the grain first.

Du Yuncheng was fourteen years old, a half-grown youth with a well-proportioned and upright appearance, looking very much like the clan leader.

Seeing Qiu Huanian, Yun Cheng greeted him with a polite “Sister-in-law” and adamantly refused to accept any payment.

“Normally, villagers spend an entire day grinding ten or more shi of grain and pay thirty wen. You’re only grinding this little bit—not even enough to fill a gap in my teeth. How could I charge you?”

Qiu Huanian had no choice but to put away his money pouch but promised to bring Yun Cheng a small bag of candy once it was made. While Yun Cheng did not say much, the ge’er beside them could not hold back his curiosity and started asking all sorts of questions.

As Yun Cheng led the mule to turn the stone mill, Qiu Huanian occasionally poured grain into the hole at the top while chatting with the unfamiliar ge’er.

Through their conversation, Qiu Huanian learned that his name was Meng Yuanling, the nephew of Yun Cheng’s mother, whose family ran a tofu shop in town and was quite well-off. His father and Yun Cheng’s mother were distant cousins, and since they lived nearby, their families were very close.

Meng Yuanling was the youngest in his family. He was adorable, lively, and always smiling, making him well-loved. His personality was much more outgoing than most ge’er, and he and Qiu Huanian hit it off immediately, almost like long-lost friends.

“So you’re the one—yesterday, the one who swung a firewood knife right at Madam Zhao’s face!” Meng Yuanling suddenly grabbed Qiu Huanian’s hand excitedly.

He had arrived in the village yesterday but had unfortunately missed the excitement at Qiu Huanian’s house. When he heard about it afterward, he deeply regretted not being there to cheer him on.

“I always knew Madam Zhao wasn’t a good person. Well done!”

“Ling Biaoge!” Yun Cheng reminded him helplessly to be more mindful of his words.

Meng Yuanling pursed his lips, clearly unconvinced.

“You don’t come to our village often, so you probably don’t know her well. Why do you say that?” Qiu Huanian asked casually.

Meng Yuanling glanced around to make sure no outsiders were present, then lowered his voice and said to Qiu Huanian, “I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else.”

“Last year, Zhao suddenly approached my aunt, wanting to propose a marriage between her second son and me—the one studying at the county school, Du Yunjing.”

“My parents saw that he was a scholar and were somewhat tempted. But half a month later, when my aunt went to ask again, Zhao said that a ge’er from a tofu-selling family like me was unworthy of her son. My aunt was so angry she nearly fought with her.”

Although Zhao was clearly at fault, Meng Yuanling was still an unmarried ge’er, and if word got out, it wouldn’t reflect well on his reputation. So neither family made a fuss about it.

But a grudge had been formed nonetheless. Meng Yuanling’s family harbored deep resentment toward Du Baoquan’s household, and the clan leader also began looking down on Madam Zhao, unwilling to give her any face.

Hearing this, Qiu Huanian felt that Meng Yuanling had truly suffered an undeserved injustice and patted his hand to comfort him.

But Meng Yuanling simply turned his head to the side and said directly, “She looks down on my family for selling tofu? Well, I look down on her son for being as weak as a chicken! We’re all from the same village—who’s really better than who? If he’s so capable, then why is he still just a mere scholar and not a provincial graduate by now?”

“Brother Ling, your voice is too loud,” Yun Cheng, who was leading the donkey in circles, reminded him once again.

“Ahem, ahem.” Meng Yuanling coughed a few times. “Let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about something fun.”

Under Qiu Huanian’s prompting, Meng Yuanling gave a general introduction to the town, including the number of streets, the types of shops, the prices of goods, and the best spots for small businesses.

After the grain was milled, Meng Yuanling had to return to town in the donkey cart. Before leaving, he was still full of enthusiasm and reluctant to part, arranging to meet Qiu Huanian at the tofu shop the next day with the finished candy.

As the sun gradually set, Qiu Huanian carried the finely ground corn and sorghum flour back home. Jiujiu and Chunsheng were already back, sitting on small stools in the courtyard sorting through the wild vegetables they had picked.

“Brother Hua! We picked a lot of tender bitter dragon sprouts under the ridge today, and we even found a handful of morel mushrooms!” As soon as he saw Qiu Huanian, Chunsheng immediately stood up, eager for praise.

Behind Du Family Village, there was a large stretch of gentle hillside. Every spring, wild vegetables grew in waves, and the village elders and children often went out together to pick them. The plants regrew quickly after harvesting, so there was never any competition over them.

“Chunsheng and Jiujiu are really amazing.” Qiu Huanian didn’t hold back his praise.

Bitter dragon sprouts looked like small celery plants. On their own, they had a slight bitterness, but when paired with porridge, they tasted sweet.

Since they had eaten chicken soup for both breakfast and lunch, dinner needed to be lighter. Qiu Huanian took a handful of rice and a handful of sorghum, cooking them into a mixed grain porridge. He blanched the bitter dragon sprouts, chopped them into sections, and mixed them with salt and vinegar, creating a simple yet satisfying meal.

As for the thumb-sized morel mushrooms, although they were delicious, there weren’t enough to make a full dish. He decided to set them aside for future soups.

After dinner, Jiujiu and Chunsheng took the initiative to wash the dishes and clean the pots, while Qiu Huanian got up to handle the milled grain from the afternoon.

He separated the sorghum flour and corn flour into large wooden basins, added clean water, and repeatedly rinsed them. The starchy water was poured into a bucket to settle. Once the water cleared, the white substance left at the bottom of the bucket was crude starch—the main ingredient for making sorghum candy.

The remaining material in the basin wasn’t wasted either. It was placed in a steamer for half an hour, turning into a porous, spongy form of gluten.

This type of gluten could be eaten as a staple food. Its texture was far better than black bread or hard pancakes, and it could even be sold.

Washing starch was physically demanding, and by the time Qiu Huanian finished processing everything, night had fully fallen. He stored the steamed gluten in the pantry, scooped out the wet starch, spread it out on round bamboo trays, and placed them by the window to air-dry naturally.

That night, with a clear goal and everything going smoothly, Qiu Huanian slept even better than the previous night. The next morning, at the first crow of the rooster, he woke up to find the starch on the trays completely dry.

Two dou of sorghum—about twenty-four jin—yielded twelve jin of sorghum starch, with an extraction rate of roughly 50%.

Rolling up his sleeves, Qiu Huanian officially began making sorghum candy.

Yesterday, he had promised Meng Yuanling that by noon, he would bring his homemade sugar to the tofu shop, where Meng Yuanling would help him find a market for it.

The measuring units mentioned in this chapter are:

斗 (dǒu) – A traditional Chinese unit of dry measure, often used for grains. The exact volume varies by historical period and region, but it is generally around 10 liters.

升 (shēng) – Another traditional Chinese unit of volume, equivalent to 1/10 of a 斗, roughly 1 liter.

斤 (jīn) – A unit of weight commonly used in China, equivalent to approximately 500 grams (0.5 kg or about 1.1 lbs).

石 (shí) – A large unit of dry measure, often used historically for grains. One 石 is typically 10 斗.

文 (wén) – A unit of currency in ancient China, referring to a single coin, typically made of copper.

The time measurements mentioned in this chapter are:

半個時辰 (bàn gè shíchén) – Half of a shíchén (时辰), which is an ancient Chinese time unit. One shíchén equals two modern hours, so half of it would be one hour.

十幾分鐘 (shí jǐ fēnzhōng) – “A little over ten minutes” (fēnzhōng 分钟 means “minutes”).

兩刻鐘 (liǎng kèzhōng) – Kèzhōng (刻钟) is an old Chinese time unit. One kè (刻) is 15 minutes, so liǎng kèzhōng means 30 minutes.