I transmigrated into the body of a “powder sifter” dismissed by the Imperial Kitchen in Lin’an Prefecture, Southern Song. That year, famine was beginning to take hold and prices were soaring. My first assignment was to turn moldy old rice and greasy pork offal into military rations that officials at the Privy Council could stomach.
While everyone else was studying knife skills and cooking temperatures, I set my sights on “rendering fat” and “dehydrating vegetables.” When I served up golden, crispy youtiao and pork-fat rice fragrant with aroma, I completely overturned the culinary conventions of the entire Song dynasty.
This isn’t cooking. It’s a life-or-death struggle over how to make the most of food supplies. When Jin spies try to steal my “secret recipe,” they discover that my real killer move is hidden in the cookbook: an improved method for making gunpowder.
