Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 131 - 51: Rendering Oil (Part 3)
The small glass bottles and jars needn't be considered; combined, they can't hold much.
All the large wooden barrels have been put to use.
Some are used for transporting stone and white clay, some hold drinking water, and others contain fresh seal meat and seal hearts, livers, and lungs, leaving no room for oil.
As for the small barrels on the ship for storing pickled meat and cheese, Chen Zhou was worried they couldn't be thoroughly disinfected, which would contaminate the Seal Oil.
Wooden barrels are different from metal, ceramic, and glass; when they are used for storing pickled or fermented foods for a long time, the wood becomes imbued with the flavor. Even if you chisel away a layer of the inner wall, you cannot entirely eliminate the pervasive mold.
While wine barrels could still be used reluctantly, these small barrels pose a huge risk that Chen Zhou dared not take.
After checking around, his attention shifted from the ship's supplies to the mystery rewards.
Modern packaging gave him a new idea—plastic bags.
The edible soil has two layers of outer packaging; the outermost layer is a semi-transparent nylon bag, labeled with the packaging weight, and inside is a vacuum-sealed plastic bag.
He just needs to cut open the plastic packaging and transfer the soil inside to another place, giving him a container of one hundred seventy to eighty pounds from thin air.
The introduction of edible soil stated that all soil had been washed, screened, and disinfected at high temperatures.
If the seller wasn't falsely advertising, these vacuum-sealed bags might be even cleaner than glass containers boiled in water.
Aside from the outer packaging of edible soil, during the inventory of mystery rewards, Chen Zhou thought of something that might be made into a frying pan—the base seal of the Wang Lingguan copper statue.
In the process of watching treasure appraisal videos, he often noticed the dark hollow exposed at the bottom of antique copper statues.
Experts explain that the hollow abdomen of ancient Buddha statues was for saving materials and also convenient for hiding precious scriptures or relics and other valuables within.
If the statue was intact, the bottom would usually be covered with a thin sheet of copper.
The base sealing techniques varied, including inlaying, wrapping, or adhesion with resin or asphalt, but they were mostly not tightly sealed. If you were willing to damage the statue's integrity, you could always pry them open.
The sealing techniques for modern copper statues are different from ancient ones.
But the Wang Lingguan statue is essentially a hollow copper statue, and the sealing technique at most advanced from inlaying to welding. The thin copper plate is always installed there; using a chisel and hammer to break the welds can certainly remove it.
The thin copper plate is soft, very ductile, and good at conducting heat.
To turn it into a concave frying pan, one could slowly hammer it to create a curve.
If worried about damaging the copper plate, bending out a small lip at the edge allows it to be used as a flat-bottom frying pan.
Although unable to flip food in it, it can still perfectly execute some home-style stir-fries or fry a small fish.
As for the economic loss caused by damaging the copper statue, Chen Zhou only felt like giving it the middle finger.
As long as he could eat stir-fried dishes or fried meat, he wouldn't mind smashing the whole statue to pieces and melting it into copper liquid.
With 28 years of time, he'd better care for his taste buds and stomach before worrying about money!
Of course, a pure copper frying pan is only suitable for short-term boiling or cooking; prolonged high-temperature stir-frying easily results in oxidized toxic copper oxide, especially when frying meat in oil, which accelerates the reaction.
Whether the frying pan can be used depends on the conscience of the manufacturer. If the base of the copper statue is truly made of pure copper, then he'd be limited to just a few small stir-fries to barely satisfy his craving.
