“If you’re too slow, there won’t be as much oil in the end. You shouldn’t think too much, you have to quickly pour it out and wrap it up, so that part of the hot steam inside doesn’t disappear.”
Before Xua Yan could say anything, Xue Darong hit him several times in anger. “Didn’t you tell us to wrap it slowly? You even said what’s the rush and that we shouldn’t be so tired!”
Qian Caiyu also cursed out loud.
Even his wife couldn’t help but a whisper, “No wonder the oil that was squeezed out was not only of poor quality but also not much…”
Xua Yan really wanted to cry and was a little embarrassed.
Jiang Yue walked forward without any expression.
In front of him was the place where the oil was really extracted.
If he wanted to extract oil, he naturally had to use a press.
The press was made of wood as thick as two arms.
The middle of the wood was dug out to put the wrapped ground seeds. A small hole would be chiseled at the bottom, and the oil would flow out from this small hole.
Jiang Yue stood on her tiptoes and squatted down to take a closer look. She found that there was nothing wrong with the press.
There was no problem with the hammer either. As long as he used force to press the seeds, the oil would flow out. He just had to use something to connect the bottom. As long as he had enough strength to move the hammer, there was nothing else to pay attention to.
The oil that had been squeezed out of the wrap would be dry.
If it were rapeseed, the oil inside would not be completely squeezed out in one press. The dry cake had to be crushed, steamed, wrapped, and squeezed again to get a second load.
Xua Yan had seen this in the town’s oil mill and knew this step.
Jiang Yue didn’t say anything about that. Instead, she said, “My Grandfather told me about the ingredients used in this oil press. It’s the same as what you’re using here. There must be some problems with the operation during the oil press that went unnoticed, which is why this happened. Can you tell me what’s the difference in your skills?”
“Apart from the little oil extracted. The main thing is that it has a strange smell and is sour.” Qian Caiyu was a straightforward person and answered for her eldest son first.
Jiang Yue nodded, feeling more confident.
That would be a sour defeat.
However, they would not be able to understand this sourness even if they were told how profound it was.
Jiang Yue did not explain in a way that they could not understand. She tried to make it as simple as possible, “I heard from my Grandfather that the oil from deep-frying has to be filtered many times to make sure that there are no sediments. The oil has sediments that will easily turn sour and have a strange smell.”
In fact, this was because there was something in the precipitation that accelerated the oxidation and sourness of oil.
Xua Yan and the others did not know about this. They would listen to whatever Jiang Yue said and think about what they did at that time.
When they thought about it, their faces turned bitter. “It has been filtered many times, but there was still some precipitation. So that’s how it is…”
“Is there any more?” Xue Darong immediately asked. At first, he was worried that Jiang Yue would not be of much help since she was just a child.
He had come to take a look with this tiny bit of hope. However, the more Jiang Yue said, the more he felt that it made sense. After all, even his family did not do that back then, so he naturally believed Jiang Yue’s words.
Xua Yan, Xua Yan’s wife, and Qian Caiyu were all looking at her with anticipation.
They had completely believed her words.
“Also, seal the oil well,” Jiang Yue said. “Don’t put it in a place where the temperature is too high. It’s best to store it in a cool, dry place without any light.”