Highly Developed Bread (2)
Highly Developed Bread (2)
A free tasting session before the auction.
Piel had prepared two kinds of bread in total.
Ordinary white bread using strong flour (approximately 11-13%) with high gluten content.
Soft castella using cake flour (7-9%).
"Gentlemen, these flours may look the same at a glance, but the dishes they're suited for are different."
"Colonel Marshall-nim, does that mean you can't make ordinary white bread with cake flour?"
"You can make it, but there is a difference in taste.
Just as Rebecca-nim might be stronger than a Sword Imperial if she picks up a machete, but she is most powerful when she holds a bow and gun."
"Ooh, I understand!"
"Keep this in mind. The tasting is strictly one plate per person."
"Understood!"
The fire mages were all older than Piel and had more experience.
But in the military, rank is everything.
Besides, was he not the Chief of Staff in charge of all supplies in Ainshuvan, and the future husband of Hildea, Rebecca, and Luna (extremely subjective soldier opinion)?
"Let's go. To return the living supplies hoarded by incompetent and extravagant nobles to their proper place!"
"Yes!"
***
Piel's goal from the start was all general supplies except food.
Since the North was already 100% self-sufficient in food, there was no need to buy tasteless rye for a high price.
However, because no territory was willing to offer them up due to the shortage of surplus goods, he had no choice but to release modern flour and buy them that way.
'The difference between medieval flour here and modern flour is fundamentally on another level. Isn't the difference about as big as a rowboat versus an aircraft carrier?'
To begin with, the cultivated seeds are different.
Medieval flour has uneven protein content with lower overall amounts, and the grain kernels are small with thick husks.
After harvest, there is a lot of foreign matter and sand.
On the other hand, modern wheat has been selectively bred by use, such as high-protein and low-protein varieties, with a high protein content. The kernels are large and the husks are thin, giving high milling efficiency.
Thanks to machine sorting, it is uniform and clean with no foreign matter after harvest.
The milling technology is also different.
With medieval millstone milling, the flour particles become coarse and the heat from friction damages the protein.
Husks and sand inevitably get mixed in.
In contrast, modern methods use steel rollers for milling, resulting in fine and uniform flour particles. Thanks to cooled milling, there is no protein damage, so the nutritional content is high for the same volume.
Without any byproducts like husks mixing in, 100% pure white flour is produced.
The difference in baking techniques is also vast.
'Mages willingly rolling up their sleeves to bake bread is a Northern tradition.'
Mages are originally very prideful.
Just as a Wind Mage would not even lift their lord's palanquin, fire mages do not typically take on baking duties.
It is a tradition only possible in the North, where all resources and manpower are scarce.
Bread baked from poor-quality flour in a direct-fired stone oven turns out chewy like rice cake or hard as a stone.
It is permeated with the smell of yeast and musty grains, and its color is dark due to starch impurities and husk.
Also, it quickly becomes as hard as a rock after some time.
'But our Northern rice-... no, bread mages have gained an incredible amount of baking experience points.'
Piel, with his arms folded, watched the fire mages fiercely baking the bread with deep satisfaction.
***
The noble young ladies were originally more interested in something other than the tasting.
"Oh my, is that him?"
"I can tell at a glance."
"Wow, how can a person look like that?"
"He's just so beautiful...."
From a distance, the young ladies stole glances at Piel and squealed among themselves.
"But I heard he's the fiancé of Count Balckenhardt-nim...."
"Even a position as a mistress would be fine. If I could just be held by someone like that every day...."
"I wonder if he's looking for concubines?"
A handsome Grand Duke of the North.
Even a member of the 5-person Standing Inspectorate.
"The North may be a bit cold, but it's so safe that the elves are afraid and detour around it."
"My third oppa moved his family to the North? He said no one froze to death this winter. And that it's very peaceful and the territory is developing every moment."
"The elves have been quiet lately, but if they invade inland through the Western Sea again...."
Though Piel was unaware, he was popular among the noble young ladies of the capital.
The fiancé of the Sword Master Hildea?
For the young ladies, that was actually a good thing.
If they became a concubine or mistress, they could bask in the reflected glory of a Sword Master.
It would be a terrible thing for Hildea, but among the nobility, it is a recognized marriage business practice.
"Huh? What's that smell?"
"Th- the smell of delicious bread...."
Drawn forward as if entranced, sniffing the air, the young ladies could see it.
White bread with a thin golden-brown crust.
Yellow castella shaped like a sponge.
Both were placed on a plate together as a set.
"Is it alright if I try this?"
One young lady mustered the courage to ask.
Piel gave a gentle smile and offered the tasting.
"Of course. This is ordinary white bread baked in the Northern style, and that is called castella."
"Ca-castella?"
"You must be hearing it for the first time. Please try the white bread first, and then the castella."
The young ladies, as if spellbound, put the white bread into their mouths and chewed lightly.
In that instant, their eyes flew wide open.
'...!'
'I-it's so soft!'
'How can white bread be this soft?'
'There's no grain smell at all!'
It was fragrant and cozy.
The more they chewed, the more it melted gently in their mouths.
There was absolutely no grit of burnt wheat husk or grains of sand that hadn't been filtered out, which are normally mixed in.
No matter how diligently servants sift, you're bound to chew on one occasionally.
The young ladies devoured a slice of white bread in an instant and barely came to their senses.
'Wh-what did I just eat?'
'What on earth was the wheat bread we've been eating all this time?'
'So the reason the bread was pure white was because no wheat bran was mixed in at all!'
It was just white bread.
But the taste was truly shocking.
Piel softly addressed the young ladies who were still dazed from the aftertaste.
"Please try the castella as well."
"Ah, I understand. I'll eat it gratefully."
The young ladies picked up the castella with trembling hands.
It was amazingly soft as if their fingers would sink right in, yet it stayed bouncy without losing its shape.
'How can it be so pretty?'
'It's not bread, it's like a jewel.'
'Is it really okay to eat this?'
Unlike the white bread, beneath the golden-brown crust, it was entirely yellow.
Bringing it closer, a sweet, mellow scent wafted up subtly.
How could one bake bread so that it turned that yellow color? The young ladies were dying of curiosity.
Above all, the sweetly emanating fragrance....
"Wh-what makes this bread this color?"
"It's baked with eggs mixed into the flour."
"What? Just mixing in eggs wouldn't produce this color or scent!"
Not mixing eggs into bread dough is 'common sense.'
Because the smell of eggs added to the smell of flour makes the aroma turn strange.
Cooking the eggs separately and then placing them on the baked bread is the standard method.
"There is a way to harmonize the flavors."
But mixing eggs into bread is also 'common sense.'
Butter, cooking oil, milk, vanilla extract, and so on, and repeating a process of double boiling, whipping, and kneading....
He didn't explain such complicated modern recipes.
Piel has never seen vanilla in this world.
Even if they knew the recipe, they wouldn't be able to make a perfect castella.
"Please, have a bite."
"Ah...!"
The young ladies stared at the castella, which was like a jewel too beautiful to eat, with regretful eyes, before finally putting it into their mouths.
The moment they savored the sweet aroma spreading fully inside their mouths and bit into the soft bread.
"...!"
A shock of taste beyond imagination, incomparable to ordinary white bread, swept over their whole body.
It did not just melt softly on the tongue.
No, the very form of the bread evaporated as soon as it entered the mouth.
"I-isn't there any more?"
"I apologize. The tasting is limited to one plate per customer, as a rule."
"Please, just give me one more plate! I beg you! I-I'll give you this necklace!"
"I shall give you this bracelet!"
"Please let us taste just one more plate!"
The sight of the young ladies clinging on, as if about to burst into tears, caught the attention of the nobles who had been keeping their distance to maintain face.
Young noble girls are, as a rule, the most sensitive to fine food.
'Why are those young ladies acting like that?'
'Is it that delicious?'
'Should I try some too?'
'They said it's free tasting, anyway....'
And so, one by two, the nobles began to crowd over for a tasting.
They fell deeply into the crispy, soft, and never-boring taste of the ordinary white bread.
And their souls melted away from the sweet, addictive flavor of the castella that heavily lingered in the mouth, becoming more and more addictive the more one chewed.
"J-just one more plate! Please!"
"I shall buy all the bread here! How much will it be? How much will you sell it to me for?"
"Move aside! I'm buying all of this bread!"
"What, you bastard? What is your title that you dare to act so rudely?!"
"Is that a challenge to a duel? This marquis will gladly accept!"
Chaos erupted at the free tasting session.
It was just as Piel had expected.
***
I watched with deep satisfaction as the nobles fought each other for even one more plate.
It might be cruel, but I did not intend to give out a second plate.
Because that will make tomorrow's auction shine.
"Now, now, everyone. The auction for the two types of flour used to make this bread will be held tomorrow. For auction participation, we accept most general supplies, excluding precious metals, grains, and weapons/armor."
I pointed to the large poster listing the supplies we needed and continued.
"The items are listed there, so please check and participate in the flour auction."
The nobles scrambled to crowd around and see the poster.
"Linen cloth, sewing thread and needles, buttons, buckles.... We're short on stock of these too. Ahem, but for flour, it can't be helped."
"Hay and medicinal herbs. We don't have any use for them either, but to eat this bread again, as much as it takes...."
"Candles, lamps, and oil.... Damn it, I'll have to scrape our warehouse clean to participate."
Judging by the nobles' reactions, it was a success.
Tomorrow's auction will boom without any issues, and we will be able to secure the general supplies we need.
'Now it's done. No matter what happens to market prices on the continent, the North can rest easy.'
All the supplies I need have direct superior substitutes available through the supply system.
But due to budget constraints, I can't procure enough for all 900,000 territory residents.
'Someday, I could sweep away all medieval goods and decorate the territory with only supplies, right?'
Will that be possible from Marshal first? Or General? Lieutenant General?
Hildea, Rebecca, and Luna were also satisfied with the nobles' reactions.
Or rather, before that....
"Colonel Piel! Why haven't you let me taste this castella until now?"
"Piel, this castella is truly a masterpiece. How did you even think of making bread like this?"
"The greasy brioche buns used for the Marshall Burger are delicious too, but this plain white bread and sweet castella are also absolutely fantastic in taste!!"
I was feeling happy about the women's heated reactions, when a chill suddenly ran down my spine.
"L-Luna? You get sick if you eat wheat flour, remember?"
"It's fine! Even if I end up sick over a little thing like this, I must eat it! It's just too delicious! Kyaaah!"
In the end, Luna, who had eaten a huge amount of castella, got seriously ill.
I used antihistamines from the supplies to calm her acute allergic reaction.
It even went as far as anaphylactic shock, so I used epinephrine, but there was no improvement. So, it was ultimately resolved through a combination of Healing Grace and a Fentanyl emergency kit.
"Luna, you almost died."
"But it was so delicious that I just couldn't help it...."
"...."
"Colonel-nim... may I occasionally use a Marshall Kit for bread consumption purposes?"
Allergies related to food are so tragic.
Whether it's a gluten allergy, a shellfish allergy, a nut allergy, or a fruit allergy.
I also suddenly developed a shellfish allergy one day in my past life, so I understood Luna's desperate feelings.
I had to give up all the shrimp, blue crabs, snow crabs, lobsters, king crabs, and so on that I loved so much, all in a single day.
"Yes, Luna. You can do it as much as you want. If a person wants to eat something, they should eat to their heart's content."
"Kyaaah! Thank you!"
The gaunt Luna jumped with joy as if about to leap and threw herself into my arms.
When I patted her head, she suddenly scrambled away, her face turning red with embarrassment.
"S-sorry! Uwaaah! Uwaaaah!"
"No, it's fine."