Tondemo Skill - 282 - Dismantling Lessons from Elland-san, Part 2
āāMaster, we'll be going now~āā
āāWeāll be back soon!āā
āāRight, letās go,āā
[6] I waved a weak hand at my familiars, āYes, yes, travel safeā¦ā
My familiars disappeared into the forest outside the City Avering.
[6] I'm here to practice my dismantling skills with Elland-san again today.
Unfortunately, whatever motivation I had from yesterday vanished after discovering that shocking truth.
To think that Feodora-san was nearly 200-year-oldā¦ on top of that, she already has four children and a grandkidā¦
From the talk between Gaudino-san and Elland-san, it looked like that grandkid was a boy of 10 years old. [1] However, since elves aged slowly, he still looks like a cute 5-year-old. Since heās her first grandchild, Feodora-san was really fond of him. [5]
The corpse of my love, which had budded and died before it could sprout further weighed heavily on my heart. [1] Perhaps, I am not meant to find loveā¦
No! Itās still too early to give up. [2] I must stay positive! Someday, Iām sure I will find the one!
āExcuse me~? Are you planning to start soon?ā
āHm? Oh, ah, right! Letās get started.ā [3] For a moment, I had forgotten about Elland-sanās existence. [1] Haahā¦ I guess I should clear my mind and focus on the task at handā¦
[8] On the makeshift Earth Magic table was a Red Boar. It was the smallest one of the lot, less than 2 meters long in total. [5]
First, letās drain its blood. I stabbed the boar in the neck with the Vampire Knife. [9] According to Elland-san, the knife could pretty suck out most of the blood from the animal wherever I stabbed it, but since thereās a major vein at the neck, itās the best place to use the knife.
Thatās useful to know. I have no idea how the knife works but itās really efficient. [1] Thank you knife-san for doing such a good job again today.
I had Fer do a high-level Appraisal on the knife, since itāsā¦ well, kind of dangerous?
Anyway, the result was:
[Vampire Knife]
A knife made by combining magic iron and vampire's bones. This bloodthirsty knife sucks blood endlessly. Wounds caused by this knife is hard to heal, and wonāt stop bleeding. In some cases, injuries could be fatal.
Scaryā¦ [5]
Still, as a blood draining knife, itās very useful. Iāll just have to be careful not to cut myself against this brutal knife.
[6] Since I feed it lots of blood, itās kind of like having another familiar, right? Itās dangerous but itās fine as long as Iām careful, right?
Right.
[6] Once the knife changed colour, indicating that the blood had been completely drained, my dismantling course with Elland-san began.
āFirst, cut open the belly, make sure not to damage the internal organs. If you damage anything, the meat will be contaminated. See, itās better to cut outwards and upwards with the blunt edge inside to avoid accidentally cutting into anything you don't intend to.ā
I worked following Elland-sanās instructions. Carefully splitting the belly apart. Hmm, the insides were really different from Cockatrice. [5] It has bits of things that a bird doesnāt have and were all much bigger and tightly packed. I must say it all looked kind of creepy.
Still, itās not so bad since knife-san has drained out all the blood.
After taking a deep breath, I braced myself to look at insides of the Red Boar.
āThis part and this part contains excrement, youāll need to handle it carefully. Generally, we take everything out and dispose of them. [6] Except for the liver. Usually, the liverās good to eat.ā
āI see, I see,ā [7] I silently activated [Appraisal] to check on the parts.
āWell, the general practice is to dispose of them, but are you planning to eat them too?ā
[6] āIām thinkingā¦ā
Thatās the idea, but according to [Appraisal-san], the Red Boarās innards areā¦ no good?
Odd?
It looks like almost everything is edible, but itās all rather stinky. Personally, I have nothing against organs but āstinkinessā isā¦ [8] After thinking about it, I decided to just bury the lot. [6] Organ meats have to be properly processed before they could be eaten. I really donāt feel like going through all that trouble now.
[6] Elland-san looked a little disappointed but considering how much my familiars (and Elland-san) could eat, I rather not botherā¦
After that, guided by Elland-san, I cut off the head off carefully since it could be sold, and peeled off the skin. [9] Luckily, thanks to my increased level, I was able to easily manipulate the boar around. Itās still a pretty big animal and rather unwieldy to handle but moving it around and taking the hide off was easier than I thought it would be.
Once the boar was skinned and gutted, it was time to dismantle the meat.
āOnce the meat is taken apart, you're basically done,ā said Elland-san cheerfully.
[6] āHmm, it takes more time to butcher a four-legged creature than a bird,ā I observed.
[4] āMaa, I think you did rather well. You have experience dealing with various meat parts and a very good knife, so thatās half the battle done,ā said Elland-san cheerfully.
Fer, Sui and Dora-chan came back before I could get started on the skinned Red Boar.
Todayās lunch was Yakitori Don, made with yesterdayās leftover yakitori. Itās just yakitori taken off its skewers and reheated over yakitori sauce and poured over fluffy hot rice and sprinkled with dried seaweed.
After lunch, my familiars set out again and I returned to my butchering lessons with Elland-san. Itās time to take the Red Boar apart.
This portion of the lesson went pretty quickly and I soon got started on my second Red Boar. It was slightly bigger than my first one, but the process was pretty similar. Now, letās drain the blood first and thenā¦
āFuuh, itās finally done.ā
I managed to properly dismantle the second Red Boar under Elland-sanās supervision. This time, he stood aside and watched as I figured out the process myself. [5]
[8] Once the second boar was taken apart, I stepped back to survey the neatly laid out meat on the second Earth Magic table. The first table was used for butchering and the second one was for laying out all the meats.
[6] A sense of accomplishment washed over me as I surveyed the meat. [8] Speaking of which, almost all the meat dismantled by the Adventurerās Guild that I received were eaten fresh. I wonder if thatās the only way of eating meat here?
I mean, monster meat is delicious when cooked immediately. Also, having access to fresh meat is great, not to mention having an [Item Box] which could stop time and keep meat fresh all the time.
However, meat such as beef and pork are more delicious when aged.
Iāve heard that after butchering a wild boar and removing the internal organs, hunters would leave the meat in a running stream to age it [10].
If I have the time, Iād like to try ageing monster meat too.
āElland-san, do people age monster meat?ā
āAge? Monster meat?ā [5]
āErm, I heard that if you leave meat out for a certain period of time at low temperature, it would improve the tasteā¦ā
āNo way~~ thatās impossible. Meat is sometimes kept fresh via cooling rooms or [5] [Item Box]. Because the fresher the meat, the better it tasted.ā
[6] āWhat happens if you leave the meat out?ā I wondered.
[4] āWell, if you salt it and hang it out, it turns into dried meat jerky. If you donāt salt it and just leave it as is, it will change colour. Turning darkish in about a week or 10 days and emits a horrible miasmaā¦ [5]
āI see, well, Iām even gladder for my [Item Box] now,ā [5] still, I wonder if fresh is the best way to eat monster meat.
āSpeaking of which, will we be eating something made with fresh Red Boar?ā [5]
Elland-san, your eyes are sparklingā¦
[8] I sighed and ran my eyes over the neatly laid out meats. Well, since Red Boars are considered low l level monsters. Maybe they are closer to wild boars than high-quality pork? Hmmā¦ do I have any boar recipes?
Letās see.
How aboutā¦ a Miso Botan Nabe, also known as Miso-flavoured Wild Boar Hotpot?
Right, itās decided!
Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~
Once we returned to the inn, I got started on dinner. [1] As usual, prep work began with [Net Super]. [5]
The recipe for this Botan Nabe came from my parentās neighbour. [6] They have somehow gotten their hands on some boar meat and shared some with us, along with a recipe for cooking boar.
Since everyone was hungry, speed was of the utmost importance.
In a large claypot, I placed water, granulated dashi stock, skipjack tuna, kelp, grated ginger (from a tube), sake, soy sauce, sugar, mirin and miso. While this was left to boil on the stove, I sliced the star of the dish, Red Boar, into thin slices. Once the liquid began to boil, I scatter the meat into the pot and lowered the fire.
[6] Naturally, I made several pots of the Botan Nabe.
While the hotpot simmered over low heat, I carefully removed the lye and added vegetables once the meat has become tender. Since itās a hotpot and not a soup, the radishes and carrots had been cut into strips so that they would cook easily. I also tore up some shimeji and enoki mushrooms, and arranged some cut Chinese cabbages and diagonally cut leeks in the hotpot.
Once the vegetables were tender, I added Japanese mustard leaves and itās done. This is the easy version since all I had to do was cut and put stuff into the pot and wait for it to boil. Burdock would be nice too, but I have to soak them first so letās keep those for next time.
Naturally, Fer, Dora-chan and Suiās portions were enormous.
āHere you go. Careful, itās really hot.ā
Fer used his Wind Magic to cool his hotpot. [2] Dora-chan actually burnt himself before imitating Fer. As for Sui, well, the heat doesnāt seem to bother her and she ate normally.
āāI wasnāt expecting much from Red Boar meat, but itās quite good like this.āā
āāYeah, the meat is tender and tasty!āā
āāItās so yummy~~āā
Well, Iām glad you guys enjoy the Botan Nabe.
I set a much smaller pot of Botan Nabe between myself and Elland-san, āWell, shall we?ā
āHmm, I thought Red Bear is only meant for grilling, but itās pretty delicious as a stew too.ā
[4] āYes, yes, itās really good,ā [3] I tucked into my little bowl, enjoying the tender yet still slightly chewy texture of Red Boar meat. [1] However, the part I enjoyed most was the soup. The sweetness of the meat and vegetables had seeped into the broth, making it really delicious~
Fer and co had to be topped up several times. Iām so glad I made lots.
I made sure to give them most of the meat and vegetables with minimal broth becauseā¦
āNow comes the best part of hotpot cooking. The udon noodles!ā
These thick, wheat flour noodles are a kind of comfort food thatās hearty, chewy and the best way to close a hotpot party.
I broke open several packets of freeze-dried noodles and stirred them into the broth. [5]
[6] Soon, only slurping sounds were heard in the garden.
[Gumihou: I changed the ending since itās kind lame to close a chapter with āIām satisfied with udon noodles after not having it for a long timeā¦ā]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken
[9] Added details on the butchering and skinning process.
Gumi is exposed to this information in Honzuki Gekokujou and Isekai Ryouridou. Please be warned, the link below has some very graphic and educational description on cleaning, skinning and butchering of birds and animals.
Hunters would sometimes leave an animal in the stream, but thatās mostly to quickly take the internal body temperature down quickly to slow down bacterial growth.
For meat to āageā, it takes at least 3 days. Whether its dry-age, wet-age or water-age.
Dry-age: Meat is exposed to air when aging
Wet-age: Meat is vacuumed sealed in plastic bags in its own juices and blood
Left this wrong fact in since Mukouda-san canāt know everything and itās not impossible for him to remember things wrongly. If he really left the meat in a stream for 3 days, it would have turned white or eaten by other creatures.