I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 45 Black Bread and Kvass

Surprises come one after another.

Before the bread was fermented, Luc was surprised to find that the cheese had fermented first!
Luc held the triangular cheese in his hand, broke off a piece and put it in his mouth. Instantly, a sour taste and the fishy smell of original goat milk spread throughout his mouth.

Luc frowned. After all, the cooking method was rather crude and it didn't taste very good.

He broke off another piece and handed it to Ryan who was looking at it eagerly. Who would have thought that as soon as this guy put it in his mouth, he immediately showed an intoxicated expression, as if it was some kind of delicacy.

Seeing Ryan smacking his lips and still not satisfied, Luke stuffed the rest of the cheese into Ryan's hands. There was still a lot of cheese made from goat's milk in the barrel, so he didn't need a piece.

Besides, cheese is made to be eaten by people.

But Ryan refused to eat it after taking it, and insisted on saving it for dinner in the evening.

This guy is quite frugal.

After a simple lunch, regardless of the midday sun, the two went to the oven and took out the bread prototypes from it.

"It's almost fermented, Ryan, let's officially bake the bread!"

"it is good!"

Ryan scooped up the charcoal and threw it into the barbecue stove. He used straw to light a flame and threw it in. The heat wave instantly covered his face.

The heat slowly rose along the oven stove. Luc touched the hearth with his hand and felt the wall of the hearth turn from cold to hot before he stopped Ryan and placed the twenty-five pieces of bread into the hearth one by one.

Then he closed the stone door, polished the surrounding area with clay, and asked Ryan to add charcoal again.

The high temperature of the charcoal soon made the entire oven scorching hot. Even without close contact, you could still feel the burning sensation just by standing in front of it.

Ryan controlled the heat, ignoring the sweat soaking through his clothes, and continued roasting for about an hour before he stopped shoveling.
"Master, it's almost time!"

Luc, who had been waiting inside, heard the noise and rushed out. He grabbed a shovel and pried the stone door open. Scorching heat instantly erupted from the furnace. Luc turned his head to avoid it, peering inside in the sunlight. Within his eyes, he saw the brown dough had transformed into dark, oval-shaped loaves.
The crust of the black bread, which was specially salted, was crispy and the aroma of wheat continued to spread out. With the rich aroma, Luc used a spatula to scoop out the hot bread one by one, turned around and placed it on a wooden rack beside him that had been waiting for a long time.

If the mature bread is left in the oven for too long it will melt. Wait until it cools down and then you can eat it!
Twenty-five loaves of brown bread were neatly placed on a long wooden rack, extending two feet from left to right. Ryan pressed each one with his fingers like an officer inspecting soldiers. The brown bread without any impurities was much softer than he had imagined. Although he quickly retracted his fingers each time because they were burned, he was very happy.

Traditional black bread is not just food. In the cold winter, black bread that is not fermented well because of too many impurities will be frozen extremely hard. It needs to be smashed before each meal and then soaked in hot water for several hours before it can be eaten with soup.

It can be used as a weapon!

It is said that someone once killed an invading thief with black bread in winter.
Luc also glanced at the bread with a look of satisfaction. Everything here was basically created by him. From chewing fish to eating bread, it took him more than half a year!
"I have bread, I have cheese, I have lamb chops, I have fruit, but I still feel like something is missing."

Luc rubbed his chin and counted the existing food in the warehouse.

"Beer, sir, we need beer!"

Beer appeared very early and spread widely, especially among the Germanic people.

Most of them don't have river water as clear as the one in front of Luc, but even if they do, they still throw feces, garbage and all kinds of waste into the river.

So beer naturally became the most common drink among the common people. As for wine, well, that was reserved for the nobility.

Luc looked around and realized that beer making was not easy and could not be done in a short time. Maybe he could consider building a brewery in the future.

"Oh, kvass!"

"Kvass?"

Ryan scratched his head; he was unfamiliar with this term.

It's no wonder Ryan didn't know that kvass was a popular drink in Eastern Europe and only spread to Western Europe hundreds of years later.

To get his kvass faster, Luc didn't bother to rest. After the rye bread cooled, he cut it in half with a knife. Although whole rye bread is supposed to be very soft, it's still relatively soft. It felt like cutting through a ligament when he cut it, so it would be very chewy when he ate it later.
The black bread was cut into very small pieces. There was no need to start the oven for half a loaf of black bread. Luc baked them into rusks in pottery, then poured boiling water into them and mashed them. After leaving them for an hour, he used a sheep bladder to filter out impurities, and then continued to wait for fermentation. When it was almost done, he poured the water into new pottery. This was kvass, which was very simple and convenient. Of course, it would taste better if there was sugar and grapes.

The remaining bread crumbs can be stored in a cool place and can serve as yeast for the next kvass.

In the evening, Luc brought the lamb chops fried on the thin stone slab into the hinge of the wooden house. Two large pieces of sliced ​​black bread with cheese were placed in the middle, and the vegetable sauce made with parsnips was placed behind. The two of them sat on both sides of the hinge, and the grease lamp on the wall made a crackling sound.

Luc raised a large glass of kvass and clinked glasses with Ryan, who was also holding a ceramic bowl.
“Celebrate the harvest!”

“Praise God!”

The two of them tilted their heads back and gulped down the kvass, which had a sour, grainy, and slightly alcoholic taste.

Luc wasn't used to the taste of kvass, but it was better than having no drink at all.

"Ah~"

Ryan exhaled a string of bubbles comfortably. The kvass was very suitable for his taste.

"I'm welcome, sir!"

Ryan, who had been unable to contain himself for a long time, grabbed a piece of whole wheat bread after getting Luke's promise, spread it with sweet vegetable sauce and fragrant cheese, stuffed it into his mouth, tore off a piece, then forked into the juicy lamb chops, drank a mouthful of sour kvass, and gobbled it all up.

Luc ate ​​less roughly, but not slowly at all.

As the two men were happily eating bread in the wooden house, they didn't know that farther up the hillside where they had caught the goat, a figure riding a warhorse slowly emerged in the moonlight.

The sound of horse hooves was particularly clear in the night, and a puff of hot air came out of the nostrils of the brown warhorse.

On a slightly hunched warhorse, a man shrouded in darkness, whose features could not be seen, looked into the distance, a thin mist wet the ends of his hair. He took out half a bag of dried peas from the left saddle and put it in his mouth to chew, then grabbed a handful of oats from the cloth bag on the right, bent down and stuffed it into the horse's mouth.

The man and the horse filled their stomachs with the meager food in the dark.

"Where is this?"

The man murmured softly in ancient Highland language. The man who had wandered thousands of miles from Upper Lorraine frowned, then tightened his grip on his horse and slowly walked towards the mountain.

(End of this chapter)