"Oh? Is there any problem eating this?"
The old Butler listened to Jasmine's strange question with a puzzled look, but he still patiently replied: "Ingesting a small amount won't be a problem; it's even good for the body. The previous Lord's health was not good; he was sickly all year round, so the alchemist mainly refined some physique-strengthening medicines for him from these things."
Although the research direction of every alchemist was different, most alchemists were equivalent to physicians who also healed the sick.
After all, in this era where magic had declined, alchemy had also withered. Many alchemists could not refine gold or the Philosopher's Stone, so to survive, they naturally had to learn some other medical skills to make a living.
"Even these Pebble Beetle Shells and Sulfur, if you want to eat them, you can taste a small amount. I heard they have a special pungent and spicy taste." The old Butler had followed the Lord to many places in his youth and made friends with a few wandering alchemists, so he knew a little bit about alchemy. Seeing Jasmine's interest, he even picked up those glass jars and enthusiastically explained the effect of each of those alchemy products to Jasmine.
Jasmine looked at the Pebble Beetle, hard as a black rock, and the golden Sulfur emitting a pungent smell, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
No matter how harmless or nutritious the old Butler said those things were, she would not be foolish enough to put them in her mouth to taste.
She just needed to confirm that the jar of Cooked Gypsum was safe to use.
Having been in this world for so long, even when she was in the Royal Capital, Jasmine hadn't eaten a single decent meal that suited her taste; it was all bland or overly salty food. Now she was eager to order someone to make soft, smooth tofu for her.
There was an old stone mill in the castle. People here rarely used wheat directly to cook wheat rice because the bran was hard and not easy to digest. Cooked wheat rice was also mushy and difficult to preserve, so it couldn't be used as convenient dry rations when going out.
Therefore, people usually ground wheat into flour, then baked it into bread. As long as it was stored well in a dry place, baking bread once meant they wouldn't need to light a fire again for ten days or half a month.
Bread was also one of the indispensable staple foods of this world; even on the luxurious dining table of the King, the presence of delicious white bread could not be missing.
Making tofu required soaking the beans to expand first, so it wouldn't be ready for lunch today. Jasmine could only tell the old Butler to divide half the beans in the bag and soak them in a basin of well water first, planning to take them to be ground in the evening when the beans were soft.
The remaining half of the beans, along with the entire strip of chopped pig bones, were thrown into a large, pitch-black clay pot, covered with water, and stewed slowly over a low fire.
Jasmine also rummaged through the kitchen and threw a few slices of dried ginger into the pot. Ginger could remove the gamey smell and enhance the flavor of the broth; this action was stared at by the old Butler with a pained expression, as if looking at a spendthrift throwing money out the window.
The old Butler knew very well that this pot of bone soup stewed with beans was prepared for the lowly slaves, and sliced ginger was one of the precious, expensive spices that only a noble Lord like Jasmine was entitled to enjoy. How could it be wasted on slaves to eat?
Although they had only interacted briefly for a day, the old Butler William somewhat understood the strange temperament of this newly appointed Lord. Her treatment of slaves seemed a bit different, excessively benevolent compared to the ordinary nobles he had met.
After all, no noble would immediately care about whether the slaves got to taste a bit of meat as soon as they obtained prey, instead of thinking about how much money the animal skin could sell for.
Because Black Dragon Castle was poor, the variety of accumulated spices was not large; they were all relatively cheap and common types like sliced ginger, dried onions, cinnamon... Pungent pepper was also available, but the quantity was very small, kept carefully in a locked box. Unless the Lord organized an important banquet to entertain distinguished guests, the female chef normally wouldn't dare to casually add even a single grain of pepper to the food.
Hearing the stories told by the elderly, there were fierce venomous snakes guarding the pepper trees; only skilled Druids of the Elf race could communicate with nature and harvest pepper berries from the trees safely.
The spices used in human territories were mostly traded at high prices from the mysterious Elf territories.
When Jasmine returned from the warehouse, the female chef and the Bull-headed Man had finished cutting up the entire wild boar. The meat was filtered out into bright red slabs. At this moment, they were cleaning the internal organs that emitted a strong stench, such as the pig intestines and stomach, which were considered waste.
"Wait, don't throw those intestines away." Jasmine saw they intended to gather them to bury and quickly spoke up to stop them. "Take all these pig intestines and wash them clean."
"My Lady, what is the use of washing these filthy pig intestines?" The old Butler, having just finished soaking the beans, ran back to continue serving Jasmine and couldn't help wrinkling his nose to ask.
The others were also puzzled, looking at each other blankly, but they didn't dare to take the initiative to speak to Jasmine. They could only silently prick up their ears to eavesdrop, their hands and feet pausing as well.
"Of course, they are for eating." Jasmine pointed at the pile of intestines, explaining vigorously to everyone. "Our territory still has so many people with empty stomachs, and food is scarce; how can we wastefully throw away food like this?"
The old Butler looked at the slimy pig intestines mixed with the pile of green waste in the tattered wooden basin, a wave of severe nausea churning in his stomach.
He had lived for decades and had experienced famine, but he had never heard anyone say this foul-smelling thing was edible.
Even starving slaves wouldn't set their sights on this type of intestine filled with waste; after all, putting dirty things into the mouth easily caused intestinal diseases, and getting sick here meant a painful death.
"My Lady, this thing really cannot be eaten; it is very toxic." The old Butler tried to persuade Jasmine to give up this unreliable idea. If she ate it and suffered from poisoning or something, how would he explain it to the Royal Family in the Capital?
One had to know that the Lord before him was not an ordinary noble; she was a genuine princess, a golden branch and jade leaf of the Kingdom of Winchester.
"I say it's fine, so it's fine. Rest assured, as long as it is washed clean and cooked thoroughly, there won't be any problem. I guarantee it." Pig intestines processed this way were far safer and more hygienic than the animal blood that some people drank raw in a barbaric manner after hunting prey.