Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Ekansh Desai sat in front of Agni, the prince, and potentially the future emperor of the empire, restlessly perched on the edge of his seat. He didn't know what to do. While he was thankful that Mr. Srikanth had come to escort him, he couldn't help but question whether coming here had been the right decision.

Don't get him wrong, he was definitely tempted by the offers made by Mr. Srikanth about having to design manufacturing processes and create recipes for a new technological innovation that can preserve food for a long time. He was, and in a way still is, giddy with excitement that he would get to be involved in such a project.

However, ever since he entered the office, he had been second-guessing himself, and when His Highness walked into the room, his heart nearly flew out of his chest. He wanted to immediately greet the prince and follow the etiquette, but he made a fool of himself by completely ignoring the fact that he still had his credential documents on his lap, so when he got up, all the documents fell down and scattered all over the floor.

"..."

He wanted to kill himself then and there; he was so embarrassed that he did not raise his head and silently picked up the documents and sat back in the chair.

He knew he should probably greet the prince at some point, or at least say hello, but after the earlier blunder, no words came out. He was afraid that if he tried to speak now, his words would collapse in on themselves.

Thankfully, His Highness did not ask him anything or even talk to him; this was a good thing, wait, was it? He did not know; he was too afraid to look up, but he was curious to see what the reaction of His Highness was.

Only a minute later, he heard a sound of metal being cracked open. It was a unique sound; he hadn't heard a similar sound anywhere.

Out of nowhere, an aroma of a dal and vegetable stew impacted his nose, but it was odd, the scent did not smell right, did not smell appetising at all. 'Did it go bad?' he thought to himself, but then again, he wondered why His Highness would have such food in his office.

He finally raised his head and looked up at the table. He was surprised, the stew was actually in a metal container, but it looked like it was the metal container that was broken open.

He couldn't resist the curiosity anymore and picked up the tin can, and when he did, he immediately noticed its oddity of being so thin that its top part could be torn open by a simple pull of a tab. But what caught his attention more was the dal stew; it was cold, looked like it had been made yesterday, and its aroma wasn't very appetising either. However, at that moment, he suddenly remembered why he had been so excited to work in this factory. Could it be that this dish was preserved? Was it made weeks ago? His entire view of the stew shifted. Out of curiosity, he dipped his pinky finger into it and tasted it, but the next moment, his face immediately wrinkled.

"Bah!"

He unconsciously made a disgusted expression as he put down the stew on the table,

"How was it?"

Suddenly, a voice was heard,

There is one thing about Eakansh: if it is anything related to food, then all his awkwardness and nervousness no longer exist.

He immediately changed his whole personality and shook his head with disgust, "It's horrid, I wouldn't even feed my dogs this food, horrible, extremely horrible."

He said, staring right at Agni.

Ekansh immediately realised what he had done and immediately lowered his head, "So... sor.. sorry," was all he could say, 'Dammit, I did it again,' he cursed. His habit his got him into so much trouble with his fellow chefs, but he couldn't help it; he cannot lie. When he tasted the dal stew, it was very horrible, really very horrible.

As he was starting to feel a little sad that he just might have blown the opportunity to work for His Highness, he heard His Highness speak.

"What if I tell you that stew is three months old?"

Ekansh's eyes widened. How could that be real? He could understand if it is only a few weeks old, but three months was preposterous. "Impossible," he exclaimed.

Agni did not give any reaction; he did not have to prove himself to the man, so he waited for him to calm down. But out of his expectations, the guy did not actually settle, but once again dipped into the stew and started to taste it for the second time.

He kept mumbling, "But this doesn't make sense, doesn't make sense at all, how, how, how could, how could this be still so edible, although it is horrible, and even the donkeys in the road should not be fed with such trashy food, they have not gone bad, but how, but how, ha, how, how?"

In the end, he finally attributed the weirdness to the tin can. Was the tin can able to preserve the food? He did not hold back and directly asked, "Your Highness, is this metal container stopping the food from going bad?" If so, then he suddenly understood why all the factories he mistakenly stumbled into were producing only cans like these, of different sizes.

Agni nodded, "You're partially true, the reason why the food has not gone bad is indeed, in a way, thanks to these tin cans, but that's not the whole reason."

"They haven't gone bad because, at the time of production, the vegetable stew was sealed using the steam-pressure tinning method, where the cooked stew inside the tin is sterilised with pressurised steam to kill all germs and prevent spoilage."

"What an idea!!"

Ekansh was amazed, "It's very impressive, Your Highness, but still, it tastes horrible."

Agni didn't deny it; in fact, the dal and vegetable stew is the closest thing that could be manufactured now that could even be considered edible.

"I agree, and that's why you have been invited."

"I would like to use your expertise in both your arts and engineering to perfect the recipe of foods that go into such tins, so that they don't taste horribly bad when people consume them."

Ekansh realised from those words, "Your Highness, does this mean there are more of such kinds of foods capable of being put into tin containers? Are they all stews?"

"No, there are many different kinds of foods, some are fruits like mango, jamun, and jackfruit; stews like the one you just had; cooked meat, fish, even condensed milk, eggs, tamarind chutneys, various other chutneys, paneer and similar products, pulses, bread, tea, spices, sweets, dry fruits, all of these can be canned. We already have preservation methods for them, but we need someone to help us develop recipes that suit our needs."

Ekansh got excited, "I'll do it, Your Highness, please let me do it."

Agni nodded. "I agree. That's exactly why you were brought here in the first place—but you'll have to prove yourself."

"Here, take this..."

Agni pushed forward the recipe that had been used for the dal vegetable stew, as well as the canning method used to can it.

"I'll give you a week. If you can perfect this recipe and production method by then, you can officially join the Canning Company as a core staff."

Ekansh nodded and accepted the condition immediately. He liked this challenge.

"I'll do it, please show me my way to the lab, Your Highness."

He said straightforwardly.

Agni didn't find it strange that the man had asked for a lab instead of a kitchen, as he already knew his style from Srikanth. So he instructed one of his subordinates to escort him to his living quarters and the lab.

"Now then, it's time to leave," Agni thought to himself. He had been tied up with the canning factory matter for the past three to four months. Although he had managed to get the operation running as his father had suggested, the unexpected challenge of developing and designing specific recipes, especially for planning, had become the biggest hurdle. Thankfully, it now seemed they had reached a breakthrough.

Now Agni could only trust Ekansh to get the job done.

However, just when he was about to set off that evening, he was pleasantly surprised because Ekansh asked to meet him, claiming that he had already perfected the recipe for the canning process.

Ekansh came forward and put in front of him a sealed can, waiting with expectation oozing out of his eyes.

Agni took the container, which was cool to the touch. This was something he was used to, but when he pulled open the tab, the aroma that came out of the tin surprised him.

He wasn't a food critic or a connoisseur of scent, but he could definitely tell that the smell had drastically improved compared to before.

He dipped his finger into the stew and licked the edge. His eyes widened. It actually tasted good. He took a bite of the dal and a few vegetables floating in the stew; they were well-cooked, and the spices blended in perfectly.

"It's best if you heat it, Your Highness."

Agni did as he was instructed.

"Heat it up and bring me a few pieces of chapati."

A few minutes later, the aroma of the dal stew appeared once again, but this time it was stronger.

Agni's appetite was immediately wetted, so he tore off a piece of chapati, dipped it in dal stew, and put it in his mouth. His eyes brightened. This was actually tastier than before.

"How did you do it?" Agni asked without holding back. He was unable to understand how this guy was able to make such a drastic improvement in taste in such a short amount of time.

"Ah, the problem was much simpler than I anticipated, Your Highness. I took a look at the recipe you gave me, and I realised that the selection of the vegetables and the dals was wrong. Whoever came up with this recipe does not have a good grasp of what kind of vegetables and dal go together perfectly."

"Coincidentally, I had my own dal vegetable recipe. I simply used that while tweaking the spices, ingredients, and other ratios to retain as much of the taste as possible for a long, long time."

"Apart from the recipe itself, I made some changes to the tinning process as well."

"Before, the cooked dal stew was being put into the tin, sealed up, and treated with hot steam, but this is wasteful and does not help the retention of taste in the stew at all. So I came up with a method where the stew will be poured into the tin can with the ingredients that are easy to cook being raw, and the hard to cook being partially cooked."

"So when the steam treatment begins, not only will the steam be killing off all the germs within the sealed container, but it will also complete the cooking process and lock in the tastiness within."

"I have come up with detailed technical standards for this, please take a look, Your Highness." He passed a single sheet of paper which contained the pressure of the steam required, as well as the temperature and different steps in cooking.

Agni knew then and there that Ekansh was the right man for the job, so he immediately made him a permanent member of the company while showing him a few more food items to tackle.

Then he also negotiated a deal with Ekansh for his recipe. After tasting the stew, he knew he had to have that recipe for the canning to work.

So he made a generous offer of 200,000 Varaha for that specific recipe and royalty for every recipe he contributes to the factory that ends up being used and is profitable.