The Mountain of Ice and Fire

The kitchen was very large.

The kitchens of nobles were all very large.

The kitchens of ordinary nobles usually had the capacity to serve meals to more than three hundred people.

Normally, not many guests came to Clegane Keep, and Clegane Keep rarely received other nobles. The number of cooks indicated that this was a place that did not welcome guests, and it also showed that Gregor Clegane's popularity was extremely poor.

But Gregor's kitchen was still very large, with the ability to easily serve meals to two hundred people.

Following Gregor into the kitchen, Lady Allen appeared calm on the surface, but was uneasy in her heart.

She and her husband, Allen, had never worked in a kitchen before.

If Lord Gregor liked to do things between men and women in the kitchen, she could only accept it.

Her husband's two younger brothers had already been assigned to the mining team, her seven-year-old son, Andy Sharlot, had become a scholar's apprentice, and her elderly parents and other family members had become servants of Clegane Keep. Some were assigned to the horse-breeding stewards, some to the service stewards, some were helpers to the cooks, some were in charge of the chicken coop, and some were in charge of the livestock pen, while she herself seemed to belong to Lord Gregor.

Lady Allen was only worried that her body could not withstand Gregor's energy. This was a huge body that made women afraid. Rumor had it that his first two wives had been tortured to death by him.

Gregor saw Lady Allen's nervousness and her attempt to hide her fear.

The woman smiled, but was actually very scared.

This was a somewhat attractive mature woman.

But Gregor did not intend to push this woman down just like that.

Even the king was not safe, and had poison testers by his side. When the food was served, someone would specifically try each dish first, and only if it was safe would the king eat it. The delicacies and wines sent by ministers and foreigners also had special poison testers to sample them first.

Rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrows because they need the grass to protect their burrows from predators.

To live a safer and longer life in this world, the people around you must be good to them, and make them grateful and loyal, just like Polliver.

"Madam, open this lid," Gregor said, pointing to a wooden lid.

"Yes, my lord!"

Lady Allen opened the lid, and what she saw was a jar full of salt.

Yellow salt!

Lady Allen was very familiar with this salt. This was mineral salt mined from the mountains. Everyone ate this salt. Lady Allen's family also ate this salt. The lady's husband was a knight, and their life was considered wealthy among the locals.

"Open the lid next to it."

"Yes, my lord."

Next to the salt jar was another large-bellied earthenware jar, covered with the same wooden lid.

Lady Allen lifted the lid, and she saw a jar full of snow white.

"What is this, my lord?"

In the light of the red candles as thick as a child's arm on the wall, this snow white also had a faint reflection.

"Salt!"

"Salt?" Lady Allen said in surprise.

"Salt! Snow Salt! Named by Duke Tywin."

"My lord, I have never seen snow salt."

"Taste it!"

"Yes, my lord!"

The salt was very salty and had a bitter taste when eaten raw.

Lady Allen stretched out her finger and lightly dipped it in the snow salt, then put it on the tip of her tongue and licked it.

The salt was indeed very salty, but it had no bitter taste.

Lady Allen suddenly remembered that the dishes and soup she had eaten tonight had no bitter or astringent taste of salt. Because she had been nervous and afraid of the Mountain, she had ignored the different taste of the food tonight.

Salt: the king of all flavors, the head of all flavors.

"Madam, would you be willing to help me with a favor?"

"...As you wish, my lord..."

"I would like to ask you to be the steward of my kitchen, responsible for producing snow salt for us Cleganes to eat. I will also gradually send some to the great nobles of the Westerlands."

Lady Allen felt that she had some difficulty breathing. The legendary Mountain was suddenly using honorifics to speak to her.

"...As you wish, my lord..."

"Good, I will teach you how to turn this yellow, bitter, and astringent salt into our snow salt. This technique is very simple, but I need you to swear to keep it a secret."

"...I swear in the name of the Sharlot family's honor and the Seven Gods..." Lady Allen raised her right hand and said falteringly.

Gregor watched Lady Allen finish her oath.

This was a ritual, and also a rule that people in this world commonly followed. The Faith of the Seven was very useful.

"Madam, let's make some snow salt now."

"Yes, my lord."

Looking at Gregor's desireless eyes, Lady Allen's nervousness and fear gradually relaxed. When she and Gregor walked into the kitchen alone, her whole body was as tense as a bow.

So, Gregor added half a pot of water to a large pot, then poured in half a ladle of salt, and began to stir.

"Madam, light the fire!"

Lady Allen lit the fire.

Gregor put the yellow salt in a basin, and from time to time added some salt to the pot, and then added some water. As the temperature in the pot rose, all the salt in the pot melted into the water.

"When the salt added to the water no longer melts into the water, stop adding salt."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Bring the salt water to a boil."

"Yes, my lord."

"After the salt has completely melted into the water, madam, what do you see in the pot?" Gregor held the candle as thick as a child's arm in front of the pot. He scooped the bottom of the pot with a spatula in his other hand, and then brought the spatula to Lady Allen.

Lady Allen saw some small black and brown particles.

"I see the dregs of the salt, my lord!"

"Yes, continue to boil it over high heat."

"Yes, my lord."

Lady Allen's fear of the Mountain gradually faded imperceptibly. She developed a strong interest in producing snow salt.

"Madam, come over here."

Lady Allen put the firewood into the stove and followed Gregor to a cross.

Lady Allen saw this cross for the first time.

The cross was made of wood, and a rope hung down from a horizontal beam above, tying the cross. The cross was a flexible wooden frame that could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees. Lady Allen tried it and saw that a large iron nail passed through a small hole to string together two wooden strips of the same length.

Gregor opened a large lid next to him and took out cloths from the jar, one by one, as well as smooth silk. When unfolded, the four corners of the cloth were tied to the four corners of the cross.

"In a while, let the boiling water cool down a bit, then put the boiling water into a wooden bucket, carry it over, pour it into this filter, the salt water will flow into the wooden bucket below, and the dregs will remain on the cloth. This way, there will be no small dregs particles in the salt."

"What a clever method!" Lady Allen's voice was both surprised and delighted.

"After the salt water is boiled, it can also remove the bitter taste in the salt. But to completely remove the bitter taste and astringency, it needs to be filtered and boiled repeatedly."

"Then how many times does it need to be done?"

"You can try to do it and see how many times it takes to achieve the best results. You can also make several cross-filtration frames and choose more detailed and dense cloths to filter. You can also experiment with the number of layers of filtration to see which number of layers is best."

"Yes, my lord."

"Pour the filtered salt water into the pot and continue to boil it until the water is gone, and the salt will return. But be careful, if the fire is too strong, the salt at the bottom of the pot will become焦糊, causing waste."

"I remember it, my lord." Lady Allen's voice was very excited, "We can sell snow salt in the Seven Kingdoms, my lord."

"Snow salt is not for sale!"

"Yes, my lord."

An hour later, Gregor and Lady Allen walked out of the kitchen, talking and laughing. Lady Allen's face had a rosy color. She followed Gregor into Gregor's room. What was coming would come.

Gregor needed her to manage the kitchen, buy and sell rice and vegetables, arrange and recruit more servants, and needed her to boil snow salt. She had a solid feeling about the safety of her family's life.

If she tried her best to satisfy Lord Mountain again tonight and deliberately please him, her child Andy would be able to grow up healthy under Scholar Halys's care without any accidents. Her psychology changed from fear and trepidation to catering and ingratiating.

Looking at Lady Allen's eyes, Gregor knew that as long as he gave her more 'kindness', her catering and ingratiation would turn into gratitude. Gratitude would go a step further and turn into gratefulness, and then he would ask Scholar Halys to take her to the chapel to add a ritual: a sworn oath of allegiance to the Faith of the Seven to Gregor personally, and she would become a loyal fan, a loyal mistress.

It was popular for nobles in the Seven Kingdoms to keep mistresses, with no limit to the number.