Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 495 - 443: Red Sausage Factory

There was no other way, Yu Xiaolian could only pray in her heart that the people in her food factory were good kids from poor families.

Steward Liu had purchased all the big fat pigs near Yangcheng a few days in advance, totaling one hundred and fifty heads.

Steward Liu also made arrangements with various mutton vendors to order sheep casings, which are much thinner than pig casings, making them the best choice for making red sausages.

Pigs of this era weren’t that big, the heaviest being just over two hundred pounds. Pork sold for twenty wen per catty at the market, but buying live pigs was much cheaper, costing only eight wen per catty. A pig cost around one or two taels at most, rarely exceeding two taels of silver coins.

Yu Xiaolian sometimes felt quite emotional, thinking that people in ancient times really had it tough, eating a meal with meat was a luxury.

Workers at the food factory, for instance, couldn’t earn enough in a day to buy even a catty of meat.

Of course, people of this time rarely bought meat by the catty. They generally bought just a few ounces to add some flavor to their meals.

Eating meat to satisfy one’s cravings was something only wealthy families could afford.

"Madam Su, do we settle wages daily or... Hey, don’t pull me, what’s wrong with asking? It’s not illegal!" Wang Dafen’s words were interrupted halfway by her sister-in-law pulling her back.

Just a month ago, she and her sister-in-law hadn’t separated households yet, but with the opportunity for women to earn money, their mother-in-law, who had been unwilling to discuss separation, immediately agreed to the idea. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

After all, one household one individual; by separating, they could earn a lot more and keep the money in their own hands, which was a great thing.

Wang Dafen couldn’t wait to earn her wages, as both she and her sister-in-law had lost their husbands and had a group of children to raise. Looking back, she thought it was right not to remarry for her children’s sake. If they had married into other families, their husbands would be the ones earning money, and there’d be nothing left for them.

Separated from the household, without having to listen to the mother-in-law and able to earn money for the family, this was such an enormous blessing that Wang Dafen had caught wind of it.

Like her younger sister Erfen’s family, where her brother-in-law worked at the cement factory while her sister stayed at home exhausting herself serving her in-laws, and any money her brother-in-law earned would go to the in-laws, Wang Dafen felt her current situation was much better than her sister’s.

Who would want to stay home serving the in-laws, managing the fields, with no income in sight yet plenty of work to do.

In the end, working to exhaustion, nobody would appreciate your efforts, and they’d curse you for being incapable, just good at devouring food.

"Oh, about wages, settling them daily would be too much hassle, so I’ve decided to settle them every half month. However, if there’s any difficulty at home, you can request an advance from Steward Liu," said Yu Xiaolian.

Yu Xiaolian couldn’t help but take another look at Wang Dafen, whose courage was commendable for daring to speak to her when everyone else kept their heads down, not daring to even glance her way.

"Madam Su, it’s not that we want our wages without working, but the situation at home is too difficult. For the better half of this year, we’ve been surviving on wild vegetables. The children haven’t eaten proper food for a long time. I was thinking of advancing some wages to buy some rice tonight for the kids to have a full meal," said Wang Dafen, encouraged by Yu Xiaolian’s lack of anger, "For lunch when you give out two steamed buns, could I not eat them? I’ll just have vegetable and egg soup and bring the buns home for my children, is that okay?"

"Okay!" Yu Xiaolian smiled, "But just drinking soup won’t fill you up, and you’ll have no energy to work when you’re hungry. So, you eat one bun at a time, you’ll have two left over by noon and evening, so the kids will have it saved for them, and you won’t go hungry either, alright?"

"Oh, I’ll follow Madam’s suggestion!" Wang Dafen grinned, her impression of Yu Xiaolian improved even further.

When establishing the food factory, Yu Xiaolian had already taught some of the rough-and-ready women in the house how to make red sausages by hand. Now, she just had to stand by and watch them do it, occasionally giving instructions.

The method for making red sausages is quite simple: select fresh meat, marinate it, stuff it, bake it, cook it, smoke it, and then it’s ready.

The seasonings are also quite simple. Besides the meat needing to be evenly fatty and lean, you only need starch, salt, MSG, pepper, garlic, and then sodium nitrate.

If it’s for home consumption, sodium nitrate is optional. But if it’s to be sold wholesale, sodium nitrate must be used, otherwise the hard-smoked sausages would spoil within a week.