In the castle hall
"Lord Ed, is this the stuff for making another kind of bread? Why do you stir it in there with a stick every day? Is it ready today?"
Carly stared at the dough in the large jar, wondering what Lord Eddard had been doing for days.
"Carly, I'm still studying it slowly, don't rush me."
Actually, Ed didn't know much about it; he only had a smattering of knowledge. He used to eat mostly noodles, so making bread was a bit of a challenge for him.
The castle's pastry chef certainly didn't know that flour needed to be fermented, just as he hadn't known before.
The spontaneous lunch he used to make was so delicious that the steamed buns were big enough to kill a dog. Later, as he grew older, he learned that flour needed to be fermented, and he also learned about something called old-fashioned steamed buns.
Where there's no yeast, this is the only way he can try to see if it will work. Everyone wants to eat something tastier, right?
So Ed decided to bake bread anyway, but this bread was definitely very different from the previous bread.
Ed looked at the dough in the jar. It had expanded a bit since yesterday, but there weren't many air pockets inside. It seemed it still needed some time.
Let's check back in a couple of days! He decided to call the castle's pastry chef over to explain the knowledge of fermentation. He believed they should have also discovered some problems: why is the bread sometimes a little soft?
The next morning, the dough in the bowl had expanded considerably after fermentation, with some of it overflowing the edge of the bowl. Everyone looked at the chubby white dough with curiosity.
Carly couldn't resist reaching out and gently patting the basin. "Ah! It's so soft!"
The soft dough trembled gently, and the palm of the hand sank slightly upon contact.
Cage, the castle's pastry chef, watched in amazement as Carly transformed the dough in the bowl.
He was very familiar with this thing; he dealt with it every day. But today, this thing was completely unfamiliar to him.
It's a dough that's both familiar and strange.
Ed, as the castle's pastry chef, certainly knew Cage, even though he now primarily worked at the Peace Hotel.
"How about it, Cage? Try making some bread with this dough. It's my latest invention."
"Yes, my lord, I'd also like to see what's so special about the bread made from this dough."
The castle kitchen also has an oven, and Cage, being a professional, soon had freshly made bread in front of everyone.
Carly eagerly picked up a piece of bread, and she could feel the difference as soon as she touched it. The difference was even more pronounced when she tasted it; she forgot to chew and swallowed it whole.
Adelaide watched Carly take a bite and then remain silent, assuming that the bread wasn't very good.
"Carly, is the bread delicious?" Adelaide asked Carly.
"Hmm...it's very good, you'll see once you try it." Carly finished the remaining bread in her hand in a few bites.
But pastry chef Cage had already noticed the difference in the bread. He noticed it as soon as he picked it up, but he didn't know why.
In his previous work, he had also noticed that sometimes bread would be a little soft, but he didn't know how the softness or hardness of bread came about.
"My lord, why does the bread look different than before?"
Ed couldn't explain the principles of fermentation to him; that would be too much of a hassle. He pointed to the dough in the jar and said to Cage:
"Add this dough to the flour for tomorrow's bread, knead the dough tonight, and make the bread the next day. Don't use up this starter dough; do this every day and add it to the new dough."
Cage wanted to ask something more, but he didn't know what to ask; the freshly made bread was already there.
Ed wanted to explain to him, but it was too difficult for him to understand.
"Cage, just follow this method. Observe it gradually in the future. If the dough has a smell the next day, don't use it anymore. Also, the temperature will affect the dough. You need to discover how much old dough to add each time."
"Yes, my lord." Cage picked up the new bread from the table. The bread sank in the instant his fingers touched it.
After taking a bite, he realized he couldn't eat the bread he used to make anymore.
Ed looked at Cage and decided to give the pastry chef some time to think. Like Roderick, the territory was basically fed, and now it needed some delicious food.
"Cage, as a pastry chef, have you ever thought about how to cook this bread in other ways besides baking it? For example, steaming it with the steam from boiling water."
"Steam it with the steam from boiling water?"