kscans

Chapter 258 - That Evening's Dinner 3. The Other World's Dairy Products Situation

"Um... oh, I also mix it into herbal tea."

When he was a child in his past life, his mother used to make him chamomile tea, and he was sure it had milk in it. There was a chamomile-like herb here too, so this shouldn't be too unnatural...

"Oh... in herbal tea, you say..."

"Now that you mention it... that might not be so strange."

"You drink herbal tea, Yuri-kun?"

"Yes, well. There aren't any other suitable tea leaves near my house."

"""""Oh..."""""

In this era, flavored drinks were a luxury for the wealthy. The standard for commoners was to drink plain water or, if not that, ale. Drinking herbal tea with milk added was something that made one want to ask, 'What noble lord are you?' but then again, Yuri did have a family name. Old Man Audel came to this conclusion on his own. Incidentally, what Yuri usually drank was barley tea, sometimes sweetened in the Showa-era style.

Be that as it may, Yuri felt a strange sense of dissonance as he conversed with Adon's wife and the others. As he'd been listening, he realized there had been no mention of whipped cream or yogurt as uses for milk. Was it possible...?

(...Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen them before...)

Yuri secretly began to suspect that dairy products were not very widespread. He remembered reading that something like whipped cream had existed as early as the sixteenth century, but was it different in this world? No, it might exist, but only for the royal court or the nobility, a luxury not permitted to the common people. If so, letting something unnecessary slip here could be a matter of life and death.

And so Yuri harbored this premature concern, but in truth, it was simply that their spread, at least in the Rivairein Kingdom, was slow.

It was the same with yogurt. While it had been used in various parts of the world since ancient times in his past life, its production was surprisingly limited to certain regions. Perhaps it was correlated with the spread of dairy farming culture. In any case, here in Rivairein, the existence of yogurt was not yet generally known. For Yuri's part, there were aspects of the yogurt-making process that were difficult to teach. Since that process was left up to lactic acid bacteria and a bit of luck, he couldn't guarantee it would turn out well. At the very least, it would be safer to make a test batch on the Salt-Sour Mountain and bring the finished product.

And so, the policy to keep yogurt a secret for the time being was decided.

As for whipped cream, the ever-cautious Yuri was convinced that a slip-up could cost him his life, so his feigned ignorance was masterful. It seemed even the discerning eye of the merchant Adon could not see through his life-or-death (laughs) performance.

Incidentally, there was another pressing reason why Yuri decided to remain silent, besides his reluctance to speak irresponsibly about things he hadn't tried.

(...If cream or yogurt were to spread and milk started being used for them, I might not be able to get my own share to drink...)

And so, the decision to conceal the information was made for this rather selfish reason.

Yuri Sarai. Including his previous life, his mental age was forty-nine. He had experienced his share of life's joys and sorrows, a man of the generation beyond confusion.