Seokbakji with Slowly Simmered Bone Broth (2)
Seokbakji with Slowly Simmered Bone Broth (2)
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
Heimer and his fellow knight Hamilton, who had defended the viscountcy alongside him, stood in the Knight Restaurant kitchen staring at the simmering pot.
"So this is the beef bone broth we're to serve the Viscount?"
Hamilton murmured, eyeing the boiling pot.
A comrade who followed the code of chivalry under Lancelot's command right alongside Heimer—and, like him, a green knight barely three years past his investiture.
Much like Heimer, his martial skills still had a long way to go, and of all the knights in the viscountcy's order, he was the one most prone to mischief.
"But come on. Boiled bones—all you really make from that is stock, right?"
"True."
Heimer nodded at Hamilton's remark.
"So what kind of sauce do you think Sir Lucas means to turn this into?"
Hamilton's voice brimmed with anticipation.
He'd tasted Lucas's cooking on more than a few occasions by now, and he was fully expecting culinary skill approaching divine miracle.
"He said it isn't a sauce."
"Not a sauce?"
"Correct. He called the broth itself the finished dish."
"And did he mention putting in any seasonings?"
Hamilton sidled up to Heimer like he was angling for a forbidden secret.
Food destined for the Viscount's own table was bound to be great for stamina and bursting with flavor. Had to be.
He was itching to know what seasonings, what sauces, what ingredients might go in.
"He said he's not adding a thing."
Heimer shattered those expectations in one blow.
"Nothing at all?"
"Yes. He said the finished broth, just as it is, already stands as a dish on its own."
"Oh, come off it. Broth from bones isn't a dish."
To be fair, the Empire had plenty of dishes that started with simmering bones.
But those were all meant to produce a base.
He'd seen bone broths reduced into brown sauces, or used as stock for soups and stews.
But a dish made solely by boiling bones?
He'd never once heard of such a thing.
"Are you doubting Sir Lucas?"
"I'm not saying that. It's just... honestly, it doesn't make sense. Even for Sir Lucas, how can boiling bones by itself count as a finished dish?"
"He's made dishes before that didn't make sense. Did you ever imagine Tuu could come out that tender?"
"...Fair point."
Heimer said it, but he couldn't deny it was hard to believe.
Sagol-guk, Lucas had called it.
He wasn't doubting Lucas. But no matter how he turned it over in his head, the idea that simply boiling bones yielded a finished dish was beyond him.
The sound of marrow bones bubbling away continued.
The pot boiled vigorously, the bones fully submerged, and the liquid level began to drop.
At first, an unfamiliar smell filled the kitchen.
There was a savory aroma of melting fat, but how to put it—
The sensation of fat diluted in water?
That was definitely the first impression.
The scent itself was thin, somehow.
It didn't trigger any promise of deliciousness.
But as the minutes passed and the broth slowly turned milky-white, the fragrance deepened—and Heimer's opinion shifted.
"The smell is remarkable."
The aroma rising from the pot was, how to describe it—a gentle, enfolding cradle.
It carried something almost like the scent of milk, and beneath that, a deeper, unidentifiable richness.
It was good.
The smell was incredibly good.
As if mesmerized, he stepped closer to the pot.
Heimer stared vacantly at the broth as bubbles frothed to the surface.
There was something strangely absorbing about the look of it.
'I think Miss Liana's complexion was about this shade.'
Ahem.
Maybe it was because evening had set in. An idle thought drifted across his mind.
A knight, by nature, is meant to master his desires.
Heimer gave his own cheek a slap and kept his eyes fixed on the sagol-guk as it reduced over the flame.
"So, you think I could have just one taste? I'm dying to know what it's like. Everyone says Tuu marrow is great for stamina. You think I'd really feel the power surging if I ate some?"
As it happened, there was one more person drawn to the broth.
Hamilton.
He, too, stood staring fixedly at the broth alongside Heimer.
In his eyes sat a clear desire to eat it, and soon.
Heimer, skimming the rising oil with a ladle just as Lucas had instructed, answered.
"Sir Lucas told us not to eat it. He said it wouldn't taste right before it's properly finished."
"Yeah? Hmm... Aren't you the least bit curious what secret that stock is hiding?"
"Better not to meddle. If we mess with it and the flavor changes, that's a real disaster."
Heimer reined Hamilton in.
"Nnnggh, I swear there's some incredible secret hidden in there."
The two of them stood inhaling the soft fragrance curling around their noses, watching the bubbles pop on the surface of the broth.
Truth be told, Heimer was excited too.
This was Lucas—the man who had laid out his own chivalric code through pork cutlets, bulbaek, Tuu, and so many other dishes.
What would this taste like?
What teaching lay waiting inside this broth?
What knightly truth was contained in this soup, so utterly unlike any ordinary cooking method?
Wasn't this, too, a lesson from him?
As the broth reduced, he felt the creamy scent of fat that had first filled the kitchen steadily deepen.
'This is...'
Heimer narrowed his brow and sank into deep contemplation.
Sagol-guk, releasing its essence more and more the longer it simmered. Slowly concentrating.
As the broth grew richer, the volume shrank, bit by bit.
The deepening fragrance tickled his nose, pleasant and insistent.
'To empty oneself over a long stretch of time. Does it mean a knight's essence deepens the more he does so?'
Heimer felt his head clear.
Another moment of enlightenment.
That said, enlightenment aside, he still hadn't fully grasped sagol-guk itself.
Even with the scent clinging to his nostrils, he couldn't begin to guess how it would actually taste.
'I'll do what I can.'
He was no versatile knight who could cook like Lucas.
The only thing he could do was exactly what Lucas had told him: wait for this broth to finish reducing.
Having skimmed the oil thoroughly, Heimer returned to his spot and sat in a formal posture.
He quietly watched the deepening sagol-guk, then closed his eyes and entered meditation.
Before this insight could escape him, he would make it his own.
Heimer was diligently absorbing Lucas's teachings (?) every step of the way.
By the time he opened his eyes again—
"...Hamilton. What in the world happened?"
"Well, about that. Pffha! Th-the broth had reduced like crazy. I absolutely, definitely did not eat it, alright? The thing about it being good for stamina—I did not sneak a taste. Absolutely not. Bwoooorp."
Hamilton's forceful belch carried the odor of beef fat and that milky richness Heimer had caught earlier.
"You absolute...."
The sagol-guk was nearly gone, the bottom of the pot practically showing.
"I-I only had one bowl. I swear! Bwoooorp! Th-three bowls, give or take...."
They were in trouble.
What now?
***
Roused urgently by Heimer's report, I hurried back to the restaurant to find his fellow knight Hamilton on his knees, both hands raised high above his head.
Dangling from his neck was a small sign.
- My apologies. I am a knight of feeble self-control. Unable to resist the claim that Tuu marrow enhances stamina, I consumed the soup. As punishment, I shall undertake 12 hours of Special Intensive Training.
Beside Hamilton, Heimer bowed his head.
"Sir Lucas, my apologies. This occurred while I was in meditation. I failed to stop it in time."
"Huh? Hamilton, you actually ate that?"
"My apologies."
"Stamina tonic or not, that's... you ate all of it...."
Hamilton ducked his head, visibly ashamed.
I studied the sagol-guk for a moment.
The remaining amount was smaller than expected, but not entirely gone.
Seemed he'd been unable to hold out against the smell mid-boil and helped himself to about three bowls.
"Well, at least you didn't eat it with Heimer."
"I would never commit the unchivalrous act of stealing another man's food!"
Heimer flared up as he shouted.
Hamilton's head sank lower and lower.
"Did you have somewhere to put all that energy to use?"
"......Yes."
"Ah."
Damn.
Gotta admit, a little jealous there.
"So how was the taste?"
"At first it was a bit mild, but as it reduced it grew a little heavy and greasy."
"Only a little heavy?"
"N-no. I suppose it was... edible."
"Really? It must've been insanely greasy and bland, with zero seasoning."
Hamilton didn't argue. He just kept his mouth shut.
Sagol-guk that hasn't been properly skimmed of its oil is cloying to the point of being hard to stomach.
And no wonder—the fat from the meat clinging to the bones melts straight into the broth, so a considerable amount of grease inevitably mixes in.
Even when you skim the oil that rises while it cooks, it's hard to eliminate every last trace left suspended in the liquid.
That's the whole reason you finish the dish by ladling the broth off and stripping away the remaining fat in a separate step.
But he'd dug in before any of that, so it must've been intensely greasy.
The taste of oil was probably still coating his mouth even now.
Whatever lingering memory of that charcoal-grilled meat he'd had earlier had surely been wiped clean.
He'd downed it on the promise of stamina, no doubt.
"Still, I'm glad you found it tasty."
"......."
"The second and third extractions make a far better broth than the first boil. But if even the first boil, with all the grease still in it, tasted good to you, then I suppose there's no need for you to bother tasting the later ones."
Hamilton squeezed his eyes shut, utterly without a retort even if you'd given him three mouths.
I looked over the remaining sagol-guk and strained it into a smaller pot.
"Now I'm going to put this in the refrigerator—or cool it down—so the solidified fat can be removed."
An essential step for clean, delicious sagol-guk.
Even when you keep skimming while it simmers, residual fat you simply can't catch always remains in the broth.
You could remove it without chilling, but since I had to extract the bones a second time while it cooled anyway, doing it this way was far more effective at getting rid of the grease—even if it meant extra dishes.
If you don't strip the fat out beforehand, it's just too heavy and goes straight to your waistline.
Exactly as Hamilton's taste-test had demonstrated.
I poured fresh water over the once-used bones and fired up the heat again, just like the first time.
"What shall we do?"
"You'll stand watch in shifts. To prevent exactly this sort of incident, I'll stand watch myself."
Hamilton's head drooped even lower.
"To display such disgraceful conduct before Sir Lucas... My apologies."
At the sight, Heimer lifted the sign around his neck and amended the text.
- My apologies. I am a knight of feeble self-control. Unable to resist the claim that Tuu marrow enhances stamina, I consumed the soup. As punishment, I shall undertake 24 hours of Special Intensive Training.
The Special Intensive Training had jumped from 12 hours to 24.
"What's this Special Intensive Training?"
"A hellish regimen devised by Commander Lancelot. Even six hours of it leaves your whole body trembling. He ate a stamina tonic, so I'm sure he'll endure just fine."
That level of punishment was hardly necessary.
Truth was, the first extraction of sagol-guk doesn't taste very good.
The marrow bones give their best flavor in the second or third boil.
That's why I wasn't particularly bothered that Hamilton had eaten some.
The fact that he had a girlfriend stung a little, sure, but regardless.
What mattered was making absolutely certain the second and third extractions were protected for the finest sagol-guk.
I didn't bother to object to Heimer's punishment.
And I certainly didn't tell him he could let it slide.
It absolutely was not because I was jealous about the girlfriend.
"Then I'm counting on you. We've got a fine meal to serve the lord. Bear with me just a little longer, and I'll set aside a finished portion for each of you later."
At those words, everyone nodded.
Honestly, the lot of them were obsessed with stamina.
I caught a glimpse of Hamilton's eyes, still clinging to a shred of hope.
"Sir Hamilton's already had his fill, so he's excluded."
"Argh!"
I sorted out the watch schedule.
By the third extraction, I'd need to put the tail meat on to braise as well, so I had to get things squared away.
***
"So this is the Tuu meat, is it?"
"Yes, Father."
Viscount Britten examined what his son Henry had brought him: the so-called Tuu Omakase.
One was a raw meat dish called mungtigi, and the other a charcoal-grilled preparation—though, lacking charcoal, they'd cooked it on a flattop range.
Well-versed in Tuu meat, Viscount Britten took in the food Lucas had served to Henry, the knights, and the soldiers, and swallowed hard.
Grilled.
That infamously tough meat....
Still, how could he refuse to eat what his own son had brought him?
"Are you certain this is edible?"
"Absolutely. It's truly delicious. Please, have a taste."
"......Very well."
Raw meat, of all things.
Skeptical as he was, the Viscount lifted his chopsticks and picked up a piece of the mungtigi.
"Hmm...."
For forty-five years, he had lived without once regretting his choices.
Not every choice of his had led to success.
But he was a man who believed that even a failed choice carried a lesson to be learned.
It had always been so.
He prided himself on the lifelong posture of a student—and credited it with the peace his quiet Britten territory enjoyed.
And yet, for the first time in forty-five years, he experienced regret.
'Why on earth did I refuse to eat it earlier?'
It was that delicious.
A meal that left him eagerly awaiting the marrow-bone dish Lucas would prepare for him tomorrow.
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★★★★★
The most delicious meat I have ever eaten.
The raw meat, alive with the pulse of Tuu, and the thoroughly seared charcoal grill were an experience unlike any I have known.
The chewy, springy texture of the raw meat and the rich juices that linger in the mouth defy description.
Freshly slaughtered beef, it turns out, is this good.
However, Chef Sir Lucas gave a stern warning: never eat raw meat unless it comes from a verified source.
I hope all who read this take heed.
The charcoal-grilled meat was the greatest grilled dish of my life.
I want to eat it again.
Recommended Dishes: Mungtigi, Charcoal-Grilled Tuu Omakase
- Henry Britten, Young Lord of Viscount Britten's Territory -
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