From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 51: Boiling Oil
Early morning on December 1th.

Chen Zhou woke up early before the sun rose.

The excessive sleep he got yesterday prevented him from getting a full eight hours of sleep.

Although he didn't want to face it, the most headache-inducing thing still happened - his biological clock was disrupted.

Normally, he would get up about two hours later and start his day's work.

Now, because he worked late the day before yesterday and slept soundly yesterday, he was unable to sleep when he should sleep, or work when he should work.

Based on his previous experience of staying up late, Chen Zhou estimated that he would feel sleepy around four or five o'clock this afternoon.

If he wants to correct his sleep and rest habits, he cannot sleep in the afternoon no matter how sleepy he is. He must wait until his normal rest time before going to sleep.

That way you might wake up a little later tomorrow, but you'll be back to normal the day after tomorrow.

If you follow your instincts and sleep when you feel sleepy, it will be difficult to adjust your schedule back to normal, and you might still be in a mess after two or three weeks.

……

After eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, Chen Zhou checked Ti Zi's injuries as usual.

When the lid of the box was opened, the sudden bright light caused Grape's pupils to contract, changing from a round shape to a thin needle.

It opened its beautiful light green eyes and stared quietly at the dried fish in Chen Zhou's hand, looking very eager to eat it.

But out of the caution of a wild animal or the reserved nature of a cat, it did not ask for it or stretch out its claws to reach for it.

Holding the dried fish in one hand, Chen Zhou tentatively reached out his other hand to touch Ti Zi's head.

Meow~
The close contact with the strange animal made Tizi extremely uncomfortable. It let out a sharp cry as if it had been electrocuted and shrank into the other side of the wooden box.

Seeing that Tizi was still highly alert towards people, Chen Zhou couldn't tame it by force. He could only leave the dried fish behind, close the lid of the box again, and leave.

Compared with the sensitive Grape, the little chinchilla seems too heartless.

Since being caught in the cave, it only showed some discomfort on the first day, and even scratched the wooden box in an attempt to escape.

Soon after, it fell under the attack of abundant food. All it did every day was eat and sleep. Now its size has begun to develop into a small gray one.

Every day when Chen Zhou cleans the feces in the nest for Tizi and the little chinchilla, he always sighs - this little thing poops more than a cat.

After watching videos online of chinchillas bathing in soil, Chen Zhou had always wanted to get some dry, fine soil, put it in a bowl and give it to the chinchillas to try.

But during this period he was busy dealing with various tasks and had no time to cultivate feelings with Totoro.

Chen Zhou was worried that the chinchilla would "run away" and not take a bath after being let out, and would be determined to escape, so he never dared to try.

When one day the chinchilla can become as easy to summon and dismiss as Lai Fu, he might appreciate the cuteness of the chinchilla taking a bath.

……

On the 29th, Chen Zhou started moving seal meat in the early morning and completed the task by dusk.

After carrying stones from the cliff to the mountain all day long, I have long been accustomed to the feeling of a full wooden barrel, so carrying hundreds of pounds of bones and flesh is no problem at all.

If the distance wasn't far, he would have moved it long ago.

During the second half of the moving work, as he had expected, the fatigue caused by lack of sleep disturbed his spirit.

But there is wind in the mountains and insects and birds chirping in the forest.

The natural environment drove away his sleepiness.

Moreover, the road was rough, and a little fatigue would not make him extremely thirsty for sleep.

Just endure it.

On the last trip, Chen Zhou untied Lai Fu and brought the dog, who longed for freedom, back to the cave.

At dinner, he roasted some seal meat for Lai Fu, Xiao Hui Hui and Grape.

Lai Fu and Xiao Huihui trust Chen Zhou unconditionally and eat whatever is given to them.

Tizi was still wary. As long as someone was watching him, he would not touch the roasted seal meat even if it was placed next to him.

When the wooden box is closed and the environment is dark, it will feel a little safe and then take the initiative to eat.

After the meal, Chen Zhou wanted to hold on a little longer, so he cut a few pieces of seal fat and boiled some seal oil while the fire was still on and the big iron kettle was still hot.

I came out of the cave and looked at the sky. I felt that it was almost time and sleeping too late would do more harm than good.

After cleaning up the dishes, he took Lai Fu to the field and tied him up, then went back to the house to sleep.

……

1 month 30 day.

Chen Zhou woke up at a familiar time and was happy that his daily routine had returned to normal when he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to mark the calendar for the past three days.

So he got out of bed without even putting on his clothes, took out the pineapple wedge and the dagger, and sitting on the edge of the bed, he added the three marks.

Looking at the dense marks on the wood block and counting carefully, 122 days, no more, no less, Chen Zhou breathed a sigh of relief.

Just like doing daily tasks, he completed tasks such as feeding pets, tending farmland, feeding sheep, etc. He started today's important work - boiling seal oil.

Chen Zhou knew very little about creatures like seals.

He also had no idea what skills and unique steps were required to make seal oil.

In his hometown, he had only seen the detailed process of boiling lard and mutton fat, and he thought that there was not much difference between seals and pigs and sheep. He heated up a large iron kettle, took out seal meat, salt, and cold boiled water, and prepared to make his first attempt.

Because the big seal had been skinned, the skin and meat of the baby seal were still connected together, so all he took was the meat of the baby seal.

While boiling the oil, he could also peel off the fur from the small seal pieces for tanning.

The entire skin of a large seal is used to make carpets, and the skin of a small seal is used to make handkerchiefs or rags.

You can also sew the skins of baby seals into a sealskin tapestry and place it next to the big seal to reunite the couple.

After three days, the fat on the surface of the seal meat has solidified, and a lot of moisture has been lost, making it look a little shrunk.

Smell it, it doesn’t stink.

Chen Zhou carefully peeled off the fur on the meat, then trimmed the lean meat under the fat layer, washed the whole piece of fat, cut it into small pieces and put it into the pot.

While putting the fat into the pot, he added two cups of cold boiled water into the pot.

Using a gas stove to boil lard can control the heat, and usually there is no need to add water, so the oil will boil faster.

But Chen Zhou's wood stove cannot quickly adjust the fire to high or low, so he can only sacrifice some speed to avoid the oil becoming burnt or black, which would not look good.

The firewood was dry and the fire was strong, and the water in the iron kettle boiled quickly.

Use a long-handled iron spoon to constantly turn over the fat pieces in the water, and press them tightly against the bottom of the pot from time to time to allow the oil to release as quickly as possible.

When the water in the pot disappeared, leaving only fat chunks and yellowish seal oil, Chen Zhou scooped up a spoonful of salt and put it in the oil, stirring it evenly.

Adding salt can extend the shelf life of oils and fats, making them more shelf-stable - at least that's the case with lard.

After boiling for a while, Chen Zhou estimated that the time was about right, so he poured the hot oil in the pot into the glass container that had been prepared long ago.

Then continue cutting the meat and start the next round of cooking.

……

The weather was clear and Chen Zhou, who was standing by the campfire, was sweating all over. He had no choice but to take off his shirt and let the gentle mountain breeze cool him down.

But as the temperature rose, even the wind was warm, and it made him feel even hotter instead of cool. While fanning himself with his wide-brimmed hat, Chen Zhou stared at the seal oil being boiled in the iron can. Every ten minutes or so, he had to gulp down a large cup of cold boiled water, otherwise he really couldn't bear it.

Boiling oil consumes a lot of fuel. In less than two hours, the firewood stored in the cave was burned out.

After pouring out the boiled oil, Chen Zhou went down the slope to chop firewood.

After a busy day, the two large glass containers were filled, and some oil was left, which Chen Zhou poured into an empty wine bottle.

There are still a few of Robinson's candied fruit jars left in the cave. When these glass jars are full, he can only pour the seal oil into the wine barrel.

However, the wine barrels are too large and closed inside, making them difficult to disinfect, which will definitely affect the storage of seal oil.

The only way to solve this problem is to make usable pottery pots as soon as possible.

There is a lot of white soil left on the mountain for building walls. Chen Zhou plans to try making a few pottery jars with it. If that doesn't work, there is still a box of colorful edible soil. He can always find a material that can be used to make pottery.

What's more, he also has the pottery-making experience taught by the elder brother on the forum. Just flipping through his notes is better than Robinson's years of study.

……

By the evening, the seal oil that was first put into the glass container had cooled down.

The surface of the grease was very clean, presenting a noble golden color. Chen Zhou found an oil lamp that had run out of oil and poured some seal oil into it.

After the wick was completely soaked in seal oil, he lit the oil lamp.

Seal oil was used as lamp oil, which was actually brighter than previous lamp oils, and it emitted very little black smoke, with a stable light and excellent quality.

Chen Zhou didn't know that seal oil and whale oil were usually added to eternal lamps in ancient times, and only royal nobles and wealthy merchants could afford them.

Compared to other natural animal fats, seal oil burns much longer and produces more heat.

In the cold Arctic, traditional Inuit people use seal oil lamps for lighting and for heating.

In addition to its excellent lighting and heating functions, seal oil is also an expensive health product in modern times, its price is several times that of deep-sea fish oil.

According to the merchants, seal oil does not contain cholesterol and is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E. Long-term consumption helps prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and is suitable for diabetics and people with skin diseases.

Of course, it is hard to say whether the specific effect can be consistent with the publicity effect.

Call ~
Blowing out the oil lamp, Chen Zhou was very satisfied with the performance of the seal oil.

Now that he had both the oil and the meat, he was increasingly tempted to fry some meat in seal oil to try it out.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a suitable wok, so this idea cannot be put into practice for the time being.

……

A peaceful night passed.

It was January 1st and Chen Zhou continued to work hard.

However, before starting to boil the oil, he first prepared a wine barrel that was large enough.

This barrel was originally used to store rum, and most of the liquor in it had been drunk by the sailor. He took a lot of effort to open the lid of the barrel and pour out the liquor.

Then he used a piece of cloth that had been washed in hot water to wipe off the remaining wine stains on the inner wall. After rinsing it, he heated the fish bladder glue and sealed it again.

The capacity of this large wine barrel is greater than the two glass containers combined. It can easily hold 50 kilograms of wine, which is enough to hold the oil produced in the next few days.

But there was just too much seal oil.

There are more than 300 kilograms of subcutaneous fat. After removing the fur and some minced meat from the baby seal, at least 250 kilograms will be left.

Calculated based on a relatively low oil yield of 60%, these fats can produce at least 150 kilograms of seal oil.

There is only one large barrel like this, and the rest are still full of wine.

It was really difficult for Chen Zhou to choose between wine and seal oil.

Wine was useful, and seal oil was also useful, and he couldn't accept pouring out either one.

Chen Zhou racked his brains to find a suitable container.

I took out the notebook I used when I was transporting supplies and looked for any overlooked containers among the densely packed supplies.

Don’t worry about small glass bottles and glass jars, as they can only hold a few kilograms together.

All the large wooden barrels were used.

Part of it was used to transport stones and clay, part of it was filled with drinking water, and part of it was filled with fresh seal meat and seal hearts, livers and lungs. There was no room left to store oil.

As for the small barrels on the ship that stored pickled meat, pickled vegetables and cheese, Chen Zhou was worried that they could not be thoroughly disinfected and would contaminate the seal oil.

After all, wooden barrels are different from metal, ceramics and glass. If they are used to store pickled or fermented foods for a long time, the wood that holds them together will have been pickled. Even if you use a chisel to dig out a layer of the inner wall, you cannot kill all the mold that is everywhere in it.

The wine barrels can still be used, but these small barrels have huge hidden dangers, so Chen Zhou doesn't dare to take the risk.

After taking inventory, his attention shifted from the supplies on the ship to the mysterious reward.

Modern packaging brought him a new idea - plastic bags.

Edible soil has two layers of outer packaging. The outermost layer is a translucent nylon bag with the packaging weight printed on it, and there is another layer of vacuum plastic bag packaging inside.

Just by cutting open the plastic packaging and moving the soil inside the bag to another place, he can create an extra container weighing 170 to 180 kilograms out of thin air.

The introduction of edible soil states that all soils have been washed, screened, and sterilized at high temperature.

If the merchants are not making false claims, these vacuum-packed bags may be cleaner than glassware sterilized by boiling water.

In addition to the outer packaging of edible soil, while counting the mysterious rewards one by one, Chen Zhou also thought of something that had a chance of being made into a wok - the bottom seal of the bronze statue of Wang Lingguan.

While watching treasure appraisal videos, he often noticed the dark holes at the bottom of antique bronze statues.

According to experts, the abdomen of ancient Buddha statues is hollow, on the one hand because it saves materials, and on the other hand it is convenient to hide precious scriptures or relics, and other valuables in the Buddha's abdomen.

If the statue is intact, the base is usually covered with a thin sheet of copper.

There are various techniques for sealing the back, which may be inlaid, wrapped, or bonded with gum or asphalt, but most of them are not sealed tightly. As long as you are willing to destroy the integrity of the statue, you can always pry it open.

Although the modern bronze statue backing technology is different from the ancient technology.

But the statue of Wang Lingguan is essentially a hollow bronze statue. The bottom sealing process has at most improved from inlaying to welding. The thin copper plate is always installed there. It can definitely be removed by destroying the welding points with a chisel and a hammer.

Thin copper plates are soft, tough and have good thermal conductivity.

If you want to make it into a concave wok, just use a hammer to slowly hit it to create an arc.

If you are worried about damaging the copper plate, you can slightly bend the edge of the copper plate and use it as a frying pan.

Although I can't flip the wok, I can do some home-cooked dishes and fry a small fish.

As for how much economic loss would be caused by destroying the bronze statue, Chen Zhou just wanted to give it a middle finger.

As long as he could eat fried vegetables and meat, he wouldn't mind even if the entire statue was smashed into pieces and melted into copper liquid.

After 28 years, before you feel bad about the money, you should be nicer to your taste buds and stomach first!

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　　The double update will be completed on 3/15.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)