Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 393: Chapter 246: Extreme Delectability

The bright moon hung high.

Beneath the pitch-black canopy of the sky.

By the entrance of the bamboo hut, a spark suddenly flared to life.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Erica gazed at the ingredients spread all over the ground, rubbing her hands together in excitement and anticipation.

"Clean all these shells and take out the meat."

While directing her, Lin Chen split open four coconuts. He poured the water into a few bamboo tubes, scraped the flesh from the shells, and finally filled them most of the way with fresh water before setting them on the fire to heat.

A sharp blade flashed as he skillfully deboned and filleted the grouper and stingray. He chopped the bones into small sections and split the fish heads in half.

First, he placed the fish heads and bones on a grill to smoke over the charcoal fire. Once they were golden-brown on both sides and sizzling with oil, he tossed them into the boiling water to stew.

As the roasted heads and bones were plunged into the hot water, the oil forced out from within the bones immediately dissolved. The once-clear surface of the water turned a milky white in just a few blinks.

While the fish head soup was simmering, he removed the remaining large bones from the grouper fillets he had cut, then sliced them, skin and all, into translucent, thin pieces.

Each slice of fish was the same size and thickness. They shimmered with a crystalline luster under the firelight, and one could faintly see the colors of the scenery behind them through the flesh.

Nearby, shucking oysters, Erica’s mouth hung slightly agape. She hadn’t expected his seemingly casual slicing technique to produce such an incredible result.

Having survived in the wild for nearly a month, Lin Chen had long since grown accustomed to handling his small military knife. He used it with much more proficiency than before.

Many tasks that could only be done with a cleaver, he could now accomplish with his military knife; the technique was just a bit more complex.

After slicing all four fillets, the resulting pile of fish slices was as spectacular as a small mountain.

He drizzled a little coconut juice and sea salt over them, gently mixing by hand until uniform. Once the moisture was fully absorbed, he added fresh water and repeated the mixing motion.

After adding water four or five times in a row, the texture of the fish slices had clearly become gelatinous, and they made a sticky, squishing sound when stirred.

Only then did he get up, grab a few chunks of sweet potato starch, crush them, and sprinkle them evenly over the surface of the fish slices. He then drizzled on a little more coconut juice and mixed it all together, ensuring each slice was coated in a thin layer of batter.

"What’s the purpose of this step?"

As usual, Erica was like a curious child, peppering him with questions whenever she saw Lin Chen perform a novel part of the process.

"To make the fish slices more tender and juicy."

Lin Chen pinched a slice of fish and held it up before her eyes.

"Let me ask you, why is a rare steak more tender than a medium-rare one? And why is medium-rare more tender than medium?"

She hadn’t expected Lin Chen to suddenly throw out a question to test her. She tilted her head and thought for a few seconds. "Um... a shorter cooking time?"

"And why does a shorter cooking time make it more tender?"

"I don’t know."

"Because of the water content," Lin Chen explained directly, not beating around the bush.

"During the cooking process, food rapidly loses moisture, and the rate of loss is directly proportional to the temperature. A rare steak is more tender, and yes, that’s because of the shorter cooking time. But the main reason is that the center of the meat isn’t affected by the high heat, so it doesn’t lose as much moisture."

"So, based on that example, let me test you again. What’s the point of me adding water to the fish slices?"

Something seemed to click for Erica. She blinked.

"Because moisture is lost during high-heat cooking, you add extra water to the meat beforehand. That way, even after some is lost, it will still retain about the same amount, or even more, than it started with, making the meat more tender?"

"Bingo! Congratulations, you got it right. You really do have a talent for cooking!"

Hearing such rare words of praise from Lin Chen, Erica couldn’t suppress the smile that spread across her face, her expression full of pride.

"Then what about the sweet potato starch? What does that do?"

"Do you know how fried chicken is made?"

Lin Chen didn’t answer directly, instead posing another question.

"Fried chicken? I think it’s marinated chicken coated in batter and deep-fried, right? I’m not really sure about the specifics."

"Well, can’t be helped then. I’ll just explain it to you."

He cleared his throat. "The starch slurry works just like the coating on fried chicken. When you cover the meat’s surface with a coating, it solidifies quickly in high heat. This forms a sealed shell that prevents the moisture inside the food from escaping."

"You just said that adding water during marination is a step to hydrate the meat and make it more tender. So now, I’m adding another layer, a coating, to prevent the water that would normally evaporate from escaping. Doesn’t that make it even more tender?"

Erica stood there stunned for a moment, thinking. Gradually, her eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"So that’s how it works! I get it now!"

But she quickly asked, confused, "But the fish slices are so thin, and they’re being boiled. Won’t the batter on the surface just wash off? Or won’t the texture be weird?"

"Of course not. What does ’thin’ imply?"

"It implies... it implies... it cooks quickly?"

"Oh, I know! It cooks quickly! That means the fish slices need an extremely short cooking time—they might be done the moment they go in. The moisture won’t have time to escape, so even if the surface batter washes away, it doesn’t matter."

’Before today, I’d never imagined that the principles of cooking could be so simple.’

’Such a simple principle... why have I never heard of it in Western cuisine?’

’As far as I know, the only method in Western cooking for tenderizing meat seems to be brining. I only remember that because a waiter at a Michelin-starred restaurant explained it to me once.’