"Wait, this is salt?"

As a result, when Xiao Luo put salt on him first, the small spoonful of snow-white powder made him stunned.

Their Cui family controls the salt industry, so the last time he traded he also used pickles, because the cost of that thing was extremely low for their family.

But the salt they sent to the palace to the emperor was not so white and immaculate.

In ancient China, whether it was sea salt, lake salt, or well salt, it was generally made of brine as raw materials, or boiled by firewood, or exposed to the wind and sun, and salt could be obtained after the water evaporated.

However, no matter which way of salt production, there will inevitably be some impurities, and there is no such snow-white and flawless salt particles.

As for the civilians and even the Tang Army, they used more things like vinegar cloth and salt cloth, that is, cloth cooked with salt and vinegar or cloth cooked with salt alone.

In this way, it is easier to carry and store, and secondly, because such a cloth absorbs salt, and when the dish is thrown into the pot when cooking, it has a salty taste, and there are not so many impurities such as sand.

"My family's salt, that's it!" Although Xiao Luo was also surprised before, but now there is only pride left, and her son-in-law's things are naturally the best.

After saying that, he put the salt and took the small bottle of MSG.

"This is MSG?" It was also a small snow-white particle, but Cui Zhongqing still saw the difference.

This is called monosodium glutamate, and if you look closely, it is a long prism, and if you look at it salt, it is a small square crystal.

stopped Xiaoluo's hand to put MSG and took a sip of the soup in front of him first.

This time it tasted not much different from the vegetable soup he usually drank, in addition to the fragrance of the dish, it also had a salty taste.

The purpose of this is to compare the difference between MSG and MSG, and by now, he also knows that Tang Ping invited himself over today mostly for this thing called MSG.

Xiao Luo carefully put MSG into the soup.

Cui Zhongqing picked up the spoon and took a sip again, and the taste was really different.

"This is~" Cui Zhongqing took another sip, smashed his mouth, and finally asked suspiciously: "This taste is very similar to the soup made by kombu!" ”

Tang Ping nodded: "That's right!" ”

Because Cui Zhongqing's family is in the salt business, he has also been to the sea salt production area.

Locals often use a plant called kombu, which is what we call kelp, to make soup.

The umami taste of the kombu soup is very similar to the taste of the soup with MSG he is drinking now.

Of course, the kelp said in the Tang Dynasty is actually from the Pterophyta family, while our modern kelp is from the kelp family, which is slightly different, but the two belong to the same kelp order, so I won't study it in detail here.

The kelp is originally rich in monosodium glutamate, and Japan has used kelp to refine monosodium glutamate, and the main ingredient of monosodium glutamate and chicken essence is monosodium glutamate.

Although he ate this taste, Cui Zhongqing didn't know how this MSG was made, just now he saw Xiao Luo's small teaspoon on a small amount of MSG, and put it into the soup to make this bowl of soup so delicious.

"What do you think Er Gongzi Cui thinks if I take this thing out and sell it?"

Cui Zhongqing looked at the vegetable soup in front of him, and then thought about this taste. It's not that he is boasting, and there are almost no rich merchants in Chang'an City who have drunk kombu soup, so it is difficult to refuse such umami in the first contact.

As long as the price is not outrageously high, it is difficult for those powerful people who are extremely particular about food and clothing to refuse such things.

So he told the truth: "It should be able to sell for a good price." ”

"Then I don't know if the second son of Cui can help? Help me advertise? "The reason why Tang Ping found Cui Zhongqing and didn't find the more familiar Li Jing was because their Cui family was in the salt business, and they were also professional counterparts.

"What's in it for me to do that?" Cui Zhongqing asked with a smile.

"What benefits do you want?"

Cui Zhongqing took the small salt shaker just now, and said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "Can Little Brother Tang tell me how to purify such pure salt grains?" ”

"Uh......" Tang Ping scratched his head, knowing that he would ask this question, but he really couldn't teach this thing.

Don't look at the ease of those time-traveling novels, you can purify the ancient coarse salt in a few clicks.

After careful investigation, he found that it was unlikely at all.

Because the salt made by the salt-making process at this time actually contains calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and sodium sulfate.

Although the composition of these impurities in the salt is not good, it cannot be removed by heating, concentrating, cooling and crystallization alone.

To get rid of these things, at least barium chloride, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and hydrochloric acid are needed.

It's not that these things don't exist in this era, but to get them, you have to ensure the amount and response of each step, to be honest, just rely on his 2G network, even if he knows about it, he may not be able to get it.

So he said honestly: "I really can't teach you this purification method, and I can't teach you, but if you can help me open up the sales of monosodium glutamate, such refined salt, I can sell 100 catties to you every month, and I will no longer sell it to others except you." ”

"100 pounds? Deal! Cui Zhongqing thought about it and nodded in agreement.

He didn't really think that Tang Ping would hand over this snowflake salt purification technology to himself, to put it mildly, with such a technology, who wouldn't hide it?

If their Cui family has such a technology, it is definitely the most core secret, and it is impossible to exchange it no matter what it is.

Now it's very good to be able to exchange for 100 catties per month.

"How much does it cost?"

"How about five times the most expensive salt sold by your Cui family?"

This price directly made Cui Zhongqing stunned.

Now Datang's rice bucket is 10 yuan and 12 catties. The price of salt is 20 times that of rice, and a bucket of salt is about 200 yuan, and then a pound is only 17 yuan.

And the best salt is of course more than that, about 40 yuan.

And five times the price is only 200 dollars.

The most important thing is that Tang Ping promised that this salt would not be sold to others again.

In fact, according to Cui Zhongqing's thoughts, such good salt is estimated to be difficult to refine, and one hundred catties a month is not a small amount for Tang Ping.

So 200 yuan a pound is really not expensive for the Cui family, according to the principle of strange goods, these salts are sold to the powerful royal families of various countries, and the profit is not more than ten times?

And such a scarce luxury is sometimes not just about making money.

This is also the reason why Wangshulou was willing to spend a full 1,400 catties of grain to buy a bottle of wine at that time.

So Cui Zhongqing felt that this price was too conscientious.

"Zhongqing thanked Brother Tang here!" In Cui Zhongqing's opinion, this is even if Tang Ping has sold him face, so his title has changed from Little Brother Tang to Brother Tang, which seems closer.