C324: Making Tofu

Letasreit’s goal has shifted to teaching youth about the goodness of beans, while her plan to restore the Human Kingdom was utterly discarded.

Guess we’re focusing on beans now.

“Help me, Saint!”
“Please help us, Master.”

All right, all right.

I, too, was asked to partake in their bean movement.

The students who came here to study are mostly in their teens. In short, they’re young and lively.
It’s only natural they’d be more interested in meat, sugary sweets, and alcohol, which suit their taste better.

…Wait. Alcohol?
Never mind.

Can beans rise to the youth’s stardom against such formidable rivals?

“This is going to require some serious brainstorming…”

The first idea that comes to mind is to process the beans in some way.
Meat and sweets are processed to the point where they’re indistinguishable from their original counterparts, so why not process the beans to make things even?

“What can be produced by processing beans, though…”

Tofu hamburger?
But hamburgers are, in essence, just meat and nothing else.
Tofu hamburger leans more on the healthier side of the spectrum, which does not seem to fit the teens’ palate.

“What else then?”

Wait.
We already have the answer with us.

“Tofu.”

Just remove the hamburger part.

Tofu is one of the most popular forms of processed soybean.
We’ve already made miso and soy sauce, but surprisingly, not tofu.
Then again, the first two are condiments, while tofu is a food in itself.

Honestly, I’m not so sure if it’ll be popular among the teens, but whatever.

It’s time to try our hand at making tofu on this otherworldly farm.

“Master, what about natto?”

If we don’t come to any more conclusions, we’ll be forced to go with Horkosfon’s natto idea.
So… let’s get started!!!

“We’ll be making tofu now.”
“OHH.”

After a lengthy introduction, we are ready to make tofu.

Tofu is made from soybeans.
I think I learned how to make it from TV and manga in my world, so we should be fine.

We’re going to make the best tofu using Letasreit’s beloved soybeans that she grew.

First, we dump the soybeans into the water and set them aside.
After the beans have absorbed the water, we boil them.
Then, we mash them as is, wrap them in a cloth and wring the water out to separate them from the lees.

…Hm, so far, so good.

“Ohh! Saint’s profound wisdom is bursting!”
“There’s no telling what he’ll come up with!”

Letasreit and Horkosfon, who started the whole thing, observe in wonder.

I wonder if I should be the only one working when they were the ones who started this, but I guess I can’t ask too much of them when this is my first time making it too.

Well, now that I’ve gone through those steps and all…

“The extract is the soy milk, and the lees are tofu dregs.”

These are famous as foods in their own right.
We make the tofu from soy milk.
I have no use for the dregs, though. What to do…

“Woof!”
“Hm?”

Pochi appeared by my feet out of nowhere.
He’s a dog monster that lives with us.

“Huh? You want this?”
“Woof!”

I see.
I don’t know what to do with it anyway, so I’ll just give it to him.

Pochi wolfs down the dreg gleefully, eventually attracting his packmates, gathering around to gobble up the rest.
Even the yoschamos came.

Come to think of it, I remember dregs being used as fodder in my world.
I guess this means our farm animals will have a new menu item to eat.

“…So, this towfoo is made from this soup thing?” asks Letasreit.

The ‘soup’ she’s referring to is soy milk.

“Yes, this soy milk will harden to make tofu.”

…I believe.

“But it can be consumed as it is right now, you know? Soy milk is a highly nourishing beverage. It’s like milk. See?”
“Nutrition… is there anything good about drinking it?”

In this world where nutritional science isn’t well-developed, the idea of “good for your health” doesn’t make much sense.
To them, food is only meant to fill your belly.
And that it’s tasty.

“Well, soy milk has isoflavones and other nutrients…”
“Huh? What’s that, some kind of spell?”

I’m not surprised they think of it that way.

I heard the isoflavones contained in soybeans are similar to female hormones, so when they enter the body, they function similarly.

“So, if you drink a lot of soy milk…”

And ingest a lot of isoflavones…

“It’ll make your boobs…bigger?”

It’s the female hormones’ role to form a feminine body, after all.
It will make your chest and bum plumper.

Then, the moment I said that, a huge army formed around us.

“Eek! What’s going on?!”

When did so many of them appear?
I didn’t even sense them coming.

The crowd that surrounded us had an unusually high percentage of women.
Actually, scratch that. They’re all women.

“I have a question, Lord Saint!”
“What is it?”

I was asked by one of the women forming the encirclement.
She’s young. Probably one of the students.

“Is it true that elixir has the effect of making boobs bigger?!” she asks, pointing at the freshly made soy milk.

“Huh?”

That’s when I finally understood.
This group of women that suddenly appeared all have one thing in common: a flat chest.

Is it their regret and obsession that brought them here?!

“Lord Saint! I’ll have a sip of that wonder drug too!”
“If it makes my boobs bigger, then I’ll gladly have some!!!”
“I’ve had enough of my boyfriend sighing every time he sees my chest!”

They’re surging forward fervently!
Do they want to have big boobs that badly?!

“But you can’t. This soy milk is an important ingredient in the tofu we’re going to make!”

I can’t let it go to waste!

“Don’t be silly! Our dreams are just beyond our reach!!!”
“Once I get big boobs, I’ll even let you fondle them as thank you!”

No, thank you!!!
But this army of ladies surrounding me refuses to give up.

Beside them, Letasreit and Horkosfon, with reasonably-sized chests, remain silent.

“They’re just standing there?!”

Oh, well. Anyway, I decide to make tofu by solidifying soy milk.
But just when I was about to start, I thought, “How do I solidify soy milk to turn it into tofu?”

I got as far as making soy milk with the knowledge I gained from watching TV, but from there on, it was all a bit hazy.
How does soy milk harden into tofu? Does it set on its own if I leave it alone?

I don’t know.

But I also think it would be a waste of time to leave it as it is.
At any rate, I gave the soy milk to the girls as they wished.

Making otherworldly tofu: to be continued.