Chapter 149: Chapter 148: It’s Perfectly Normal to Cut Corners

"Lin, stop picking."

Hei grinned, hoisted the entire beef leg onto his shoulder, and started walking out.

"I’ll haul it all back for you!"

Seeing him walk off so briskly, Lin Chen silently put away his combat knife.

’Fine, might as well take it all then.’

’Andre’s share can stay here. He can move it himself, bit by bit.’

After returning to the shelter, Lin Chen skillfully began to debone the King Salmon. He froze the fillets in the storage room, ready to be thawed and have their pin bones removed when it was time to eat.

He chopped the fish bones into small pieces, split the head in half, and threw them into the pot to fry along with the skin.

"Hei, come watch how the fish soup is made. It’s really simple. If you master this, you might even be able to rip off Robert and the others later."

"Heh, sounds good," Hei said, making several trips to unload the trunk and glancing over as he passed. "But I don’t have any talent for cooking, so I’d better not."

"Who’s in charge of making instant noodles for you guys now?"

"Aili, of course. She’s the only one who knows how to cook."

"Then you should memorize the steps and explain them to Ariana when you get back. Maybe she’ll be able to make fish soup herself next time."

"The steps should be the same as the fish soup you made before, right?"

"Right."

"Oh, then it’s fine. We’ve already watched you do it many times. In post-production, they even edit your cooking segments into standalone clips and post them online. A lot of viewers are already trying to copy them at home. Remember that White Whale Restaurant from last time?"

"White Whale... Oh right, I remember. Don’t tell me they started selling fish soup at their restaurant too?"

"I’m not too sure about that. I can check the customer reviews online for you later."

The two chatted for a while, and Lin Chen gave up on the idea of teaching this bunch of lazy bums how to cook.

’It makes sense, though,’ he thought. ’These guys watch a screen all day, and the entire process for every dish I make is recorded. If they really wanted to learn, they would be like that White Whale Chef and just replicate it from the videos.’

’Since they chose to have me process it for them, it just means they’re too lazy to learn.’

’Instead of wasting energy teaching them, I should just focus on how to get a better deal from Robert.’

He fried the fish bones, skin, and head until they were browned and crispy. He then used a wooden stick to crush them and continued to stir-fry until all the bone fragments and meat scraps were rendered dry and crisp in the fish oil, with nearly all the moisture evaporated. Only then did he pour in boiling water.

SPLOOSH—

Large bubbles rolled to the surface. The clear, hot water turned milky white the instant it was poured in, with a layer of pale yellow fish oil floating on top.

"Alright," he said, waving Hei over. "Take this pot of soup back and let it simmer for another two or three hours. Strain out the bits, and it’ll be ready to drink. Add salt and pepper to your own taste."

He couldn’t be bothered to finish cooking it and strain it for them. ’You guys can jack up your prices, so I can cut a few corners,’ he thought. ’Besides, I still have to prepare food for Andre. I don’t have the time to babysit them.’

’So you want to use fish soup to make your instant noodles, huh? Fine. Deal with it yourselves when you get back.’

"Alrighty~" 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Hei didn’t know anything about cooking anyway, so he didn’t see a problem. Besides, the production crew didn’t have much to do cooped up in their wooden cabin all day.

After he finished moving the beef, the soup pot wasn’t as hot. He got a large roll of plastic wrap from the car and sealed the lid to prevent the precious soup from spilling during the bumpy ride.

"Thanks, Lin. I’m heading back now. I’ll bring you the next shipment when it arrives."

Making the soup didn’t take long, only about half an hour. He even found time to trim the excess sinew from the surface of a beef foreleg.

"Normally, you’d use the hind leg to make ham. It has more lean meat and less fat, giving it a better texture. But I’m planning to make hand-pounded beef meatballs, which also require the hind leg, so I have to use the foreleg instead."

"A little extra fat is fine. After all, fat is the scarcest resource in the wild. The unique flavor of cured fatback is an exquisite delicacy, whether used to enrich a soup or in a stir-fry."

After trimming the impurities from the beef leg and roughly shaping it, he could begin rubbing it with salt.

"The official process for making ham is quite complex. It requires multiple saltings, as well as soaking, rinsing, and drying steps. The whole thing takes at least half a year. What I’m making now is a home-style version, a simplified recipe that will be ready to eat in about two to four weeks."

"The biggest fear when making ham is using too little salt. That will prevent the salt from penetrating the interior, which will then rot without you even noticing. It’s not a big deal if the final product is too salty; you can just soak it to remove the excess saltiness."

He evenly coated the surface of the beef leg with a thick layer of sea salt, making sure every nook and cranny was covered.

"A cow’s forelegs account for about ten percent of its total weight, so a single leg is five percent. This leg in front of me, after trimming, weighs about... eighteen kilograms."

"The amount of salt for curing ham should be about five to ten percent of the fresh leg’s weight. That means I need to rub at least one kilogram of salt onto this leg."

One bag of salt weighs five hundred grams. A regular contestant would only get this one bag for the entire duration, which is definitely enough for daily consumption, with some left over for curing meat.

Since the item exchange was opened, regular contestants, unlike the professional ones, couldn’t redeem special items, but they could still exchange for basic supplies like salt and pots.

He currently had six and a half bags of salt. Just curing this one beef leg instantly used up two full bags.

"Good thing I had the foresight to exchange for some extra salt beforehand. I also scammed two extra bags from the production team, so it was basically free, heh heh."

He set the salted beef leg aside to rest, allowing it to purge some of its water. He planned to have Andre build a meat-drying rack to hang the ham on after he woke up.

’I could do it myself, but there’s no sense of accomplishment in such a low-skill task. No need to waste my energy.’

He had been up all night, and his eyelids were practically glued shut. He was running on pure willpower. He still needed to save what little strength he had left to make the beef meatballs, so every bit he could conserve was a win.

He took out six more King Salmon fillets, let them thaw for a bit by the fire, pulled out the pin bones one by one, coated the surface with salt as well, and laid them flat on the snow to keep them cool.

With so much salt, there was no need to worry about the fish freezing solid in the snow; it would basically stay preserved at 0 degrees Celsius.

"Next, I’m going to make hand-pounded beef meatballs. This is a rather famous snack in Great Xia. The most well-known come from the Chaoshan Region, where they can turn any kind of meat, including seafood, into smooth, bouncy meatballs."

"If you want to replicate this at home, there are shortcuts. You can use a stand mixer to beat the meat, adding ice along the way. For seafood balls, you can use a high-speed blender. Here, because my resources are limited and I have plenty of time, I’ll be using the traditional method."

"Full disclosure, this is also my first time making beef meatballs purely by hand. If I fail, please don’t be disappointed. Anyone who’s interested can also search online for videos to learn."

He didn’t know how many people behind the screen were like the White Whale Chef, who would actually put his lessons into practice. But at the very least, this was a good opportunity to promote the food culture of Great Xia, and he definitely wouldn’t miss it.

He carved all the meat off the entire beef hind leg, first removing all the surface sinew. Then he could start pounding it with a wooden stick.

"There aren’t many tricks to pounding the beef. Just pretend it’s the person you hate the most. This is a task that really tests your strength and stamina, and it requires immense patience."

"During the pounding process, the muscle tissue of the beef will be completely broken down, and the internal sinews will emerge. All these impurities must be discarded, as they will affect the texture of the finished meatballs."

He pounded the beef with forceful blows, each strike leaving a visible indentation in the meat.

"I know that meatballs are also very popular here in North America. I used to make them almost every day when I worked in a restaurant, but the method is completely different from our meatballs in Great Xia."

"Meatballs here in North America are usually made with pre-ground meat. You just put it in a stand mixer with eggs and various spices and mix it all together. Then you weigh it, roll it into balls, put them in the oven, and finally stew them with canned tomato sauce."

"These meatballs have a distinctly grainy texture because they’re just simply mixed. The ground meat is still ground meat; it doesn’t become any finer."

"Of course, Great Xia also has meatballs made from ground meat, but they are completely different from the kind I’m making now. You can find pre-made versions of the ones I’m making in almost any Great Xia supermarket. Most of those are machine-made and not as delicious as the handmade ones. Curious friends can go to a Great Xia supermarket and buy some to try."

"The characteristic of these meatballs is that the meat is completely beaten into a paste. Under low temperatures, a gelatinous texture is developed, which increases the meatball’s elasticity—so much so that they can bounce on the ground like tennis balls or ping-pong balls."

After briefly explaining the characteristics of Chaoshan beef meatballs, he fell silent and focused on pounding the meat from the hind leg.

After a few minutes of pounding, the beef was already shredded and tattered. Most of its tissue was destroyed, and he had to pause every few strikes to manually reshape it back into a pile for easier pounding.

Every now and then, white sinew would surface. As soon as he saw any, he had to pick it out and discard it.

Only a few minutes had passed, but it felt as long as several hours. His arm muscles ached sharply, a pain reminiscent of his first half-session at the gym.

"I can’t even imagine how those artisans managed to persevere day after day in an era without machines. No wonder pure handmade beef meatballs are so expensive."

He switched the wooden stick to his left hand and kept swinging his right arm to relax the muscles as much as possible while continuing to pound.

’If I remember correctly, the beef needs to be pounded for over forty minutes. The temperature can’t go above ten degrees Celsius, and it’s best to keep it between two and five degrees to help the gelatin form.’

’With the weather this cold, I don’t have to worry about the temperature.’

’But a full forty minutes... Is this really a job for a human being?’

Perhaps the sound of him pounding the beef reached the cabin, because not long after, Andre groggily pushed the door open and walked out.

"How long was I asleep?"

Lin Chen glanced up at the sun’s position. "About an hour, I’d say."

Having napped for a bit, Andre looked significantly better, though his eyes were still slightly bloodshot, and the dark circles were quite noticeable.

’Age is a factor, after all. Can’t be helped.’

"What are you doing?"

The cold outdoor wind seemed to wake Andre up considerably. Seeing Lin Chen sitting in the yard pounding beef with a wooden stick, he came over, curious.

"Hand-pounded beef meatballs, a specialty snack from a coastal city in southern Great Xia."

"This is how you make beef meatballs? I’ve never heard of them being made like this before."

His interest was immediately piqued. He rolled up his sleeves, looking eager to give it a try.

"Alright, you can give it a try. But you have to keep the force consistent—don’t be heavy-handed one moment and light the next. If you see any sinew that looks like this, pick it out and throw it away."

With someone willing to take over, he was happy to slack off. It was only then that he understood why, in all those online videos of handmade sticky rice cakes or hand-ground sesame paste, the shopkeepers would so readily agree when a tourist asked to try.

’This stuff is exhausting to make!’

He handed the wooden stick to Andre and went inside to get the iron pot. He set it up over the torch and filled it to the brim with snow.

The beef meatballs could only be a snack at best; they still needed a proper meal.

He was reluctant to use the flour. The exchange price was too high; he had to save it for himself.

"We have so many potatoes at the shelter. Maybe... I’ll make some potato noodles?"