Chapter 40
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 40
'A spicy taste and aroma.'
It was exactly what Gio had been looking for.
"..."
Of course, the description of the Crying Hem had more to say.
...An herb that grows in the shape of a concave bell. When dried in the sun for over a month, it turns pink and its leaves become plumper. Once fully refined, the pink Crying Hem produces a sweetness so intense it feels as if it might tear the tongue. Lulupu petals preserved in its extract are highly effective in restoring the optic nerve.
Alchemy Method: Dry the Crying Hem in the sun for over a month. The ideal time is when it turns a deep pink and the leaves thicken to about 3 cm. Squeeze the extract from the plump leaves, which have absorbed moisture from the air. This extract alone serves as an excellent painkiller, and storing Lulupu petals inside it in a cool place will yield a potent medicine for optic nerve recovery within three days.
"..."
But it was all too long.
He just skipped past it.
'I need spices, not medicine.'
In the end, the only part that caught his eye was "spicy taste and aroma." All that talk about restoring the optic nerve was irrelevant; he was trying to make delicious sausages, not concoct a remedy.
"Does it look like a morning glory?"
While not identical, it was quite similar in shape. It was a climbing vine wrapped tightly around a tree, with fluttering, lace-like leaves. The leaves, however, were much larger than a morning glory’s...
"They’re almost the size of my hand."
"Kkurrrr?"
"Yeah, they’re pretty big."
Even though Gio’s hands weren’t small, a single leaf of the Crying Hem was large enough to spill over his palm.
"And it’s strange that the vines are an opaque white."
The leaves of the so-called 'Crying Hem' boasted a gradient that deepened from white at the stem to a rich green at the tips. The opaque white vines connecting them looked like they would stand out starkly in the evening.
"Anyway..."
He had found his chili pepper.
'I’ll have to make chili powder with this.'
He was more than satisfied.
"Let’s check its condition."
He plucked a Crying Hem leaf, tore it open, and took a sniff. Just as he’d hoped, it had a superb, pungent, and spicy aroma.
While not exactly like the chili peppers of Earth, it was close enough. Its strangely mellow undertone seemed like it would pair beautifully with the nutty aroma of the meat he had. The complex scent was almost dizzying.
'Is it a mix of chili, mala, and… a bit of star anise? There’s also a soft, sweet scent reminiscent of pandan leaves… The meat already has a walnut-like aroma, so if I play my cards right, I could whip up a dan dan noodle-flavored sausage in no time.'
Having reached that conclusion, Gio muttered, "But..."
There was one problem.
"This might become overwhelming if I use too much."
As someone who could eat just about anything, Gio didn’t mind how strong the chili aroma was, but the scents of mala, star anise, and pandan were a bit intense. The mala provided a numbing sensation, and the subtle sweetness of the pandan was fleeting enough to be ignored, but the star anise...
"This is a bit too strong."
"Kkurrrrr..."
"..."
Tearing off a tiny piece and putting it in his mouth only confirmed his suspicion.
"Yeah, way too strong."
The aroma bypassed his nose and pierced straight into his brain.
"Is this an assassination attempt?"
Technically, it would be suicide, but the fragrance was incredibly intense. Star anise was a spice primarily used to eliminate the gamey odor of pork, characterized by its pungent yet somewhat bittersweet aroma. The problem was that the "sweet" aspect, combined with the subtle sweetness of the pandan leaves, created an excessively heavy profile.
"I shouldn’t use too much of this."
Looking back at the description, it mentioned that the plant would become insanely sweet if processed a certain way. Sensing the strange sweetness woven throughout the aroma, he could vaguely understand why. If handled correctly, it certainly had the potential to become that sweet.
"But it’s not bad."
"Kkur..."
"You don’t have to worry, Honey. I won’t make you eat it raw."
They were all going into the sausages anyway.
"..."
"..."
At that moment, a sudden thought struck him.
"...Are all the ingredients I’m using actually medicinal herbs?"
"Kkuk."
"What kind of sausage am I even trying to make?"
Well, if he had too much left over, he could always pack some for Yoo Seong-un.
* * *
After a long adventure, Gio returned to the cabin and proudly declared, "I did it."
He had found ginger.
"It’s very different from the ginger I know, but the aroma and taste are similar, so let’s just call it ginger."
"Kkoong-kkoong."
"I’m not just making excuses; it really is very similar."
Arum
Features a light brown skin with a pale pink hue. The inner flesh is a deep red. It contains a large amount of starch, making it highly efficient when dried into powder. Edible without any separate refining process. A ginger-family plant characterized by its pungent, sharp aroma.
Alchemy Method: Slicing it thinly, drying it, and brewing it as a tea is good for headaches. Grinding it into powder and drying it in the sun benefits the digestive system and is excellent for restoring immunity.
"See?"
"Kkururu..."
Besides, Earth didn’t have just one type of ginger either.
"There’s something called galangal. It has a more complex aroma and a milder taste than the ginger we usually used back home..."
"..."
"If you’re bored, you can just say so."
"Kkuk."
"Alright then."
The newly discovered 'Arum' was completely to Gio’s liking. Its taste was quite spicy, but it was more of a burning sensation than a numbing one. The aroma was sharp and pungent, comparable to the ginger commonly used in Korea. If used correctly, it seemed like it would make an excellent zesty seasoning.
"Ta-da."
There were many other things he had found this time.
"This is nutmeg..."
Rabeun Walnut
Features a red shell, white flesh, and black seeds. Primarily...
"Excuse me, but aren’t I speaking right now?"
...The seed portion is utilized, which can be used either raw or dried. It is primarily used as a spice characterized by its mild, deep aroma. The shell and flesh can be made into medicine.
Alchemy Method: After removing the flesh, the seeds can be steamed while still soft and eaten, or they can be finely minced or dried hard to be used as a spice. Drying the shell in the sun for over a day and brewing it makes a good medicine for joints. Squeezing the extract from the flesh and letting it solidify yields an ointment excellent for wound recovery.
"What a stubborn fellow."
"Kkurrrr..."
"I’m glad you agree."
Honey seemed to agree.
At any rate, he had found nutmeg under the name of Rabeun Walnut. Even on Earth, it was a popular spice that eliminated gamey odors without being overpowering, elevating dishes to a more sophisticated level.
And the greatest harvest of all.
"Finding vinegar is truly a magnificent discovery."
Wow, the wonders of nature!
"Indeed, vinegar brewed directly by nature itself..."
"Kkurrrk?"
"I think trying to eat everything just because it looks edible is a bad habit, my son. You might eat something weird and get an upset stomach, so let’s practice some self-restraint."
"Kkurrrrr..."
"Yes, vinegar doesn’t normally just make itself in nature."
Life was truly fascinating.
"I was actually debating whether to make vinegar or alcohol out of Mangdung fruits."
There are various ingredients that can be used to make vinegar.
"You can make it from grains like rice and barley, fruits like jujubes and peaches, flowers like lotus and roses, and even honey."
However, the preparation process required a great deal of care.
"That’s just how fermented foods are."
The crucial thing about fermentation was that one wrong move could turn it into spoiled mush. You had to cultivate the exact right bacteria while maintaining the proper temperature and proportions to successfully create a fermented food.
And as he had thought several times already, this place was a paradise for chefs.
"To think vinegar would just flow naturally from inside some giant tree."
It was a rather peculiar-looking tree. The lower trunk near the roots bulged round like a bead, and among them was one tree that was particularly hard and dark reddish-black. Smelling a sour aroma, he approached and found vinegar slowly seeping from its swollen trunk.
"It was a magnificent sight."
Gio had to cry out to the gods of heaven and earth once again.
Candy Trap Tree
A tree with a lower trunk that bulges like a round piece of candy. It is hermaphroditic; while the leaves are on the outside, the fruit grows inside the swollen trunk. If the highly sweet and bitter fruit of the Candy Trap Tree is not harvested in time, it begins to rot inside. Depending on various conditions, this fruit mixes with the tree’s sap to become vinegar, juice, or fruit wine.
Alchemy Method: Harvesting the fruit before fermentation and soaking it in the sap of a Dorong-dorong Tree allows it to be used as an excellent nutritional supplement.
'I’ll have to look for trees containing juice or fruit wine, too.'
At any rate, with all the miscellaneous ingredients gathered, the time had come.
"Now," he declared, "this is real content."
"Kkoong?"
"You have fulfilled your purpose just by being cute. Now, watch."
Gio washed his hands.
"I wonder how the intestines I soaked earlier are doing."
He approached the basin where he had left the deer intestines. Modern sausages typically used collagen casings, which would have made production much easier. But here, in a forest completely isolated from the modern world, Gio had no choice but to stick to the traditional method.
"No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find any casings in the cabin."
"Kkuk?"
"And drawing casings is a bit..."
Casings made of paint felt like they would tear easily, and they just seemed unappetizing. Besides, he thought drawing thin, transparent casings one by one would be an incredibly tedious chore.
Honey, staring at the intestines, let out a low kkurrrr. It seemed to be saying that they looked different from what it remembered.
"They’ve been cleaned, so they probably look different from what you’re used to. I removed all the fat and debris from the inside, leaving only the casing. The shape has changed a bit."
The intestines, which had been marinated in sour fruit, had no gamey odor.
"Maybe it’s because the meat didn’t have any unpleasant smell to begin with."
After checking the cleaned and deodorized intestines, Gio lifted the basin. He planned to head to the kitchen and start by mincing the meat.
"When making sausages, it’s best to use tough cuts with strong flavors. Deciding how tough of a meat to use and which cuts to mix is one of the joys of cooking."
"Kkurrrrrrr..."
"You can’t eat it right now, so how about stepping back a bit?"
He immediately began mincing the meat.
"Otherwise, the pig-birds will steal it all."
He had to make the sausages quickly.
"It should be fine to add a bit more of this cut."
"Kkoong?"
"That’s how you get a good texture."
How the meat was minced also had a major impact on the sausage’s texture. Coarsely chopping the meat made it harder to bind but yielded a chewy, chunky mouthfeel, while finely mincing it resulted in a tender texture that melted on the tongue.
"Mixing them in moderation is even better."
On Earth, the size of minced meat had to be kept uniform due to drying issues, but this was a world inside a painting, overflowing with natural wonders. Thanks to this, Gio could design a sausage with a unique texture.
Some parts coarse, others completely minced.
'This way, the texture will be excellent, and it will fill the casing tightly, making it look great, too.'
Having finished mincing all the meat, Gio brought over the ingredients to mix in.
‘Milky Way Mary’ to add the aroma of pepper and chili; ‘Crying Hem’ to provide an intense, stimulating taste and fragrance; and ‘Arum,’ a ginger-family plant with a sharp, spicy kick.
‘Rabeun Walnut’ to gently eliminate gamey odors and add a sophisticated flavor; and the sweet and sour ‘Candy Trap Tree vinegar’ to add a twist to the taste...
"..."
He was thrilled.
"This is great."
He couldn’t contain his excitement.
"Who else could ever experience this?"
Cooking with mysterious ingredients in a deep, silent forest devoid of humans; using foodstuffs that held flavors he had never even imagined; all while breathing in the refreshing scent of phytoncides.
That day, Gio made roughly ten kilograms of sausage.
"..."
"..."
He had gotten a bit carried away.
"I admit my mistake," he nodded. "But no need to worry."
"Kkoong."
"We have Mr. Yoo Seong-un."
"Kkurrrk."
The two of them were in perfect agreement regarding how to deal with the excess inventory.
* * *
"Gio, are you here?"
Yoo Seong-un, who had stopped by to give Gio some bungeoppang for the first time in a while, called out.
"I saw that student we met last time selling bungeoppang, so I bought a bag."
"I see. Thank you for your kindness."
"It’s nothing. Go ahead and take it. If you must return the favor, just a light snack like before will do."
"I happen to have just the right thing."
"Oh, really? Perfect, I was feeling a bit hungry."
A short time later, Yoo Seong-un walked out of the gallery holding a paper bag stuffed to the brim with sausages.
"..."
"...This is not a light snack at all."
He knew it was a completely different situation, but he couldn’t help feeling a little ripped off.