"After the perfume is made, it must be the first one to give the small picture screen."

Li Yuan naturally agreed to the request put forward by the painting screen. Perfume, a luxury item of the upper class, naturally needs to be promoted by the upper class. And in the Tang Dynasty, who else could the top-level noblewoman have besides the harem concubines?

Of course, as his woman, perfume must be the first enjoyment.

Having said this, Li Yuan also began to think in his mind, how to make perfume?

To make a perfume, the first step is to extract ethanol, which is to distill the drink. And the invention of distilled spirits, that was still in the Song Dynasty.

How did the Song Dynasty make distilled spirits at that time?

He wandered a few steps, suddenly slapped his thigh, and suddenly had a lot of time in his mind, hugged the painting screen tightly, kissed it a few times, and then asked: "Painting screen, do you know what is used to steam rice in the dining room....... Forget it, Poor Dao will go to the dining room to find out if there are any suitable utensils for distillation. ”

He couldn't remember exactly how the Song Dynasty made distilled spirits, but ...... I vaguely remember that the utensils used to distill liquor in the Song Dynasty were available as early as the pre-Qin period, but that utensils seem to have been used for cooking in the kitchen in the Tang Dynasty.

It's just that the word is too difficult to write, and he forgets it all after a long time.

After saying that, Li Yuan hurriedly put on his boots in front of the palace and walked towards the dining room of the Dao Palace with the palace maid. On the side of the red-faced painting screen, she took two sips, she was thinking about what the Emperor was asking, but in a blink of an eye, the Emperor disappeared.

The dining room is located in the southeast direction of the Taiyi Road Palace, starting from the entrance of the sleeping palace, first three hundred steps to the left, and then one hundred and fifty steps to the right, and then to the dining room.

Li Yuan often beats himself in the dining room on weekdays, making some novel stir-fried dishes that were not available in the Tang Dynasty, so he is relatively familiar with the inside of the dining room.

As a royal dining room, it is really not small, it is the size of two large tiled houses of a farmer's family. And the ingredients in it are also varied, such as the Yellow River carp caught from the Yellow River, which is worth a thousand gold, and the delicacies in the mountains and forests are also indispensable, such as bear paws, deer antlers, ginseng, and sometimes a variety of fresh marine fish from seaside states and counties......

As for the cooking utensils inside, they are also varied. Don't look at the Tang Dynasty's cooking method is relatively simple, it is nothing more than steaming or boiling, but just for cooking, there are various utensils such as dings, bells, and pots for cooking.

It was undoubtedly too difficult for him to tell alone.

Therefore, as soon as the emperor entered, he summoned all the cooks and asked what utensils were used to steam rice.

Among the dozen or so cooks, one of them was clever, and when he heard the emperor's general description of the 'distillation process', he said: "What Daojun said is that when steaming, a large amount of steamed dew is produced, which should be the retort used to steam rice. ”

"Retort?" Li Yuan frowned, he was a little confused just by mentioning this word.

After thinking about it, experiments are the last word to test everything, so he ordered the cook who spoke up to lead him to have a look.

After a while, Li Yuan saw what the chef said.

The retort, shaped slightly like a wooden barrel, has drawers and no bottom, and at its bottom, there are tiny holes that can be used to ooze steam. Roughly equivalent to a modern "steamer".

In front of the emperor's eyes, there are two pieces, one is pottery, and the other is made of copper, which looks much more precise than pottery.

"Daojun, these two retorts, the pottery retort is used to cook for the palace maids and eunuchs in the court, and the other copper retort is used to cook and eat for the nobles." The cook pointed to the two retorts and said.

Li Yuan nodded, walked over to the two retorts, and began to observe them carefully.

The copper retort is about the same size as the rice cooker of later generations. It is composed of two parts, the lower part is a round steam pot, the upper part is a cooler and open mouth like a wooden barrel, and the bottom is a hemispherical dome bottom.

The pottery retort is slightly rougher than the copper one, and the gap between the upper and lower joints is larger.

As long as a top cover, pipes and cooling device are added to the retort to allow the steam to condense and flow out, this is the still that the Emperor wants.

At this moment, the painting screen dragged a pale pink dress, panted over, and said, "What Daojun is looking for...... Is that what it looks like? ”

Her expression was very dissatisfied, because she was in a hurry, there was a layer of fine sweat on her forehead, and her face was flushed, but looking at her eyebrows, she knew that she was not in a good mood at the moment.

"Don't underestimate this retort, the wealth it has created is beyond your imagination......" Li Yuan's eyes could not hide the excitement.

With a still, it is possible to distill shochu. Or continue to purify ethanol, that is, alcohol, which can be used to suppress wound infection, which is also a great advance in medicine.

Of course, medical alcohol is only a small aspect, and when alcohol and spices are mixed, perfumes can be made. And the profit of perfume is unimaginable.

The concubines in the palace, the noblewomen in Chang'an, and even the entire Tang Dynasty will be fascinated by this. How much rouge Datang consumes every year means how much perfume will be consumed.

And the production of perfume is almost a monopoly!

What an asset!

Of course, the benefits of distillers are not limited to soju, or liquor. In the GDP of Guizhou Province in later generations, Moutai occupied almost eighty percent of the share.

A wine company, the economy is comparable to a province!

It's just that Emperor Taishang knew according to the historical trend of later generations that in the early years of Zhenguan, natural disasters continued, and next year there would be a major drought in Guanzhong, and the grain production would be greatly reduced.

At this time, selling shochu was a conscience-losing business.

Since soju can't be made, the emperor can only focus on perfume.

"Si Zhong, how much wine is stored on our Cuihua Mountain?" Li Yuan said to the cook who stood up before.

Si Zhong was a little short and fat, and when he spoke, the fat on his cheeks shook and shook, and he said slightly: "Daojun, there are about fifty cans of rice wine and eight cans of phoenix wine on our Cuihua Mountain. ”

In ancient times, liquor was made with a mixture of sake and lees, and it was not until the Zhou Dynasty that there was a so-called "sake".

Sake was first associated with sacrifices, when people used to tie a handful of white thatch to the mouth of a kind of wine container, and pour the mash on the thatch, so that the juice seeped down, to symbolize being drunk by the gods. This is probably the earliest method used to separate wine juice from lees.

The ancients were very afraid and reverent of their ancestors, ghosts and gods, and it was credible to pray for blessings and worship ancestors. At that time, people did not have the conditions to universally remove the lees and only take the juice, which proved that the sake that was removed from the lees - "frustration" to summon spirits.

Regardless of whether the wine is soaked, or the wine is pressed, the alcohol content will not be very high.

In the previous life of Emperor Taishang, the conditions in the countryside were already very good, and some people would make a little home-brewed wine at home to entertain guests during the New Year, and his family was no exception.

So when I was helping my father, I was also exposed to it. When the grain raw material is fermented, the yeast is inhibited by alcohol and stops multipliing, and the fermentation stops. Modern rice wine series are all obtained by pressing the original liquor, and the alcohol content of this method will not exceed 20 degrees.

This wine is difficult to drink intoxicating.

The phoenix wine mentioned by Si Zhong first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty and is also a tribute wine in the past. The Xifeng wine of the later generation of Ganshan is under this signboard.

Rice wine is cloudy wine, and the trough and the wine are not separated, while Feng wine is sake.