I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 42 Cheese Oven Room

It will take some time to domesticate goats.

During this period, Luc would get Ryan up every morning and first have him do some running and other training, and then give him one-on-one sword skills instruction.

Ryan is talented. Every movement he made when holding the sword for the first time was very standard. Although Ryan had been on the battlefield, he was captured to make up the numbers. Giving him a pitchfork was considered merciful. In fact, there were many soldiers who only had a wooden stick. How could they be given such a core iron weapon as a dagger?

After daily teaching, in addition to taking care of the fields, the two of them always focus on building the new house.

The base of the new house is completed, and the next step is naturally to build the walls.

Luc's plan was for the walls to be wood on the exterior and red brick on the interior.

The benefits of doing this are that the house will be more stable and will not collapse easily. Secondly, the thermal insulation performance will be further improved.

Of course, it is not without disadvantages. The most obvious one is that the construction difficulty will be greatly increased.

The two men found some previously cut and treated antiseptic wooden boards and stacked them up in rows around the house, leaving a window on each of the west and south sides, and an extra door on the south side.

The gaps between the wooden boards were filled with mud. Although it was planned to be a two-story house, the two-story structure could not be seen from the outside, it was just that the wooden boards were built higher.

It took about three days for the outer wooden boards to be completed.

The next step of laying the red bricks inside was difficult. First of all, Luke and Ryan had no experience in laying red bricks, so they could only cross the river by feeling the stones.

Secondly, red bricks are very easy to bend when laid, so Luc used the method he remembered, taking the inner core of a rattan stick and stretching it to act as a horizontal line, barely ensuring the flatness of the red bricks.

The space between the bricks needed to be more finely plastered, so Ryan carved out a wooden trowel overnight. The two of them laid the bricks very slowly, one by one. With each higher layer, in order to make the red bricks and wooden boards closer together, they mixed the sawdust they had collected earlier with the soil and stuffed it between the two.

In addition to being a filling material, wood chips can also serve as another layer of protection to keep warm.

The red bricks were not laid as high as the wooden boards, but were stopped halfway.

In Luc's two-story design, the second floor is actually not lived in.

A ceiling is designed above the head, with a hollow center. A sturdy wooden ladder is built to connect to the first floor. The suspended wooden boards will be used to store some infrequently used or spare supplies. The first floor is the main living area.

The west side by the window will be where Luc's bed will be in the future. There is a door on the south side, a fireplace to the north, and Ryan's bed is on the east side.

It took a full half month to completely build the wall.

"Master, Master, I have good news for you!"

With the warm sun hanging high in the sky, Ryan pushed open the wooden house with big strides and said cheerfully to Luc who was fiddling with wild leeks:
"I've been allowed to touch the two goats!"

"Oh?"

Luc looked up and said in surprise: "This is indeed a good thing."

The goats have been handed over to Ryan for raising since they were caught. The difficulty in domesticating goats lies in getting them close to humans.

Wild goats are very wild and wary of humans, but Luc and his companions directly killed their mates and forcibly brought them back.

Especially Ryan, who captured two ewes alive with his own hands. He didn't expect that he would be able to touch a ewe in just half a month.

"As long as we can touch it, the day of milking isn't too far away. Work harder and get the goat milk here soon!"

One of the reasons why Luc raises goats is because of their milk!
The nutritional value of goat milk is self-evident, not to mention the food made from goat milk - cheese.

"Okay, I'll try my best!" Ryan nodded heavily and finished the leek porridge in one gulp.

For the next period of time, Ryan would go to the ewe pen whenever he had free time. In addition to constantly providing food, he would often play with the lambs.

Not long after, the ewe began to no longer reject Ryan. Not long after, one morning, without Luc's knowledge, Ryan actually squeezed out a bucket of goat milk!
This made Luc extremely puzzled.

But despite her doubts, when Ryan brought a full bottle of goat's milk in front of her, she had to admit that Ryan was really good at it.

Ryan carried a full bucket of goat milk and asked, "Master, what should we do next?"

Luc took a deep breath and said, "Let's get some sun for a day!"

The next day, Luc went to the goat milk shop with the leaky wooden barrel and sheep bladder that he had asked Ryan to make.

Yes, the leaky barrel and sheep bladder were made for this moment.

After drying for a day and a night, the milk has been briefly fermented, and the milk in the wooden barrel naturally forms two parts, one part becomes soft milk cubes, and the other part remains in liquid state.

Luc poured the liquid little by little into a pottery, and slowly cut the remaining milk blocks with a knife. Liquid still flowed out during the cutting process, and Luc poured out as much as it flowed out.

When the cutting is almost done, set the liquid aside and put the cut milk blocks into pottery and add charcoal underneath to steam.

Luke is now very glad that he was able to burn the charcoal in advance, as many technologies in the future will require high temperatures.

Stirring the milk over and over again with whitened branches, the heat from the charcoal increases the temperature over and over again. After cooking for a long time, the milk lumps gradually turn into milk residue, which then floats in the newly emerged liquid.

This step is also the second fermentation.

Luc carefully scooped out the milk residue with a spoon, put the leaking wooden barrel in place, and covered it with a sheep bladder.

After being dried, the bladder was soaked and modified by Luc, and it became soft and translucent.

The milk residue was continuously scooped into the bladder, and whey, that is, the liquid, continued to flow out from the porous wooden barrel below. After all the milk residue was transported into the bladder, Luc pressed the milk residue with his hands, and then found a clean stone to press it heavily on it.

That’s not all. After being compacted for about a day, the milk residue will be taken out and placed in the cheese mold that Ryan had carved in advance, and then continue to squeeze it. Finally, it will be put aside and wait for it to mature.

If you are more observant, you will find that the process of turning milk into cheese is actually the process of further turning milk into a firm solid, that is, the process of continuously squeezing out whey.

Having Ryan feed the goats some tenderer grass, Luc said leisurely, "Just wait. I estimate that by the time the grain is harvested, the cheese will be ready to eat."

Ryan licked the corner of his mouth. In his memory, cheese had always been a food that only prominent nobles could eat.

In the past, he didn't even dare to dream of eating cheese, but now following Master Luc, he has no worries about not having his own share. Not to mention cheese, even eating white bread one day is not impossible!

"Ryan, don't build a house starting tomorrow."

"Ah okay."

Ryan was lost in his fantasy when Luke suddenly interrupted him. He was stunned for a moment:
"Not building a house anymore? Then what are we going to do, sir?"

Luke turned his head and looked out the window. "The jointing season is coming, and our work will start to get busy. By the way, we also need to build an oven room."

"Oven room?"

"Yes, why, don't you want to eat bread?"

(End of this chapter)