Chapter 482 - 316: Absolutely More Delicious Than Beef

Chapter 482: Chapter 316: Absolutely More Delicious Than Beef

"That sounds good, but let’s put a pin in the collaboration talk for now. We can chat when we have time. The beef’s getting cold."

Mr. Beef, who hadn’t gotten a taste in the last round, was already being driven mad by the fragrant aroma of the beef in his bowl. He was in no mood to think about work.

He first speared a few slices of beef and rolled them around in the rich sauce, making sure it coated every crevice, before stuffing the whole thing into his mouth.

Then, he experienced a satisfaction like never before.

As he chewed, he finally understood why his dad had been giving him such a hard time earlier.

Dividing two plates of meat among four people left far too little for everyone. It was barely a mouthful each.

If it were him, he wouldn’t want another mouth at the table taking a share of this delicious beef either.

"What cut is this? It has the fragrant aroma of the fat, but the texture is also incredibly soft and tender. I can’t even tell which cut it is from the shape."

"It’s the part that combines ribeye, sirloin, and filet. It wasn’t portioned out separately."

"Ah, so that’s how it is!"

Mr. Beef nodded, the realization dawning on him. He instantly understood the benefit of not separating the cuts.

The reason Western-style steaks are portioned out is partly due to industry standards and partly to differentiate pricing and cater to individual diner preferences.

Take sirloin, for instance. It’s a lean cut with a strip of sinew and fat. The texture is on the tougher side, and if you were to remove that sinew, it would lose its fatty aroma completely.

Filet, however, is extremely soft, tender, and juicy. It’s even leaner than sirloin, making it the leanest and most expensive cut on the cow.

If you wanted a rich, buttery flavor, you’d definitely order a ribeye. It’s tender and juicy with a creamy fragrance, falling somewhere between a sirloin and a filet. It’s one of the most popular cuts and perfect for anyone new to steak.

But all of that is based on grilling or pan-frying the cut whole.

For a cooking method like hot pot, which takes only a few seconds, pure lean meat wouldn’t be good. You need the fragrance from the marbled fat.

Combining several cuts blends their different textures, mitigating their individual weaknesses while amplifying their strengths.

Most importantly, it was sliced thin enough. A simple, few-second swish in the hot broth preserved the beef’s natural aroma. On top of that, the broth was a rich stock made from beef bones, so not even the thickest sauce could mask the meat’s flavor.

After finishing the first few slices of beef, he noticed the thin, white, wavy slices of beef fat that had sunk into the sauce at the bottom of his bowl.

Trusting Lin Chen, he didn’t hesitate. He speared a slice with his fork and popped it into his mouth.

He had expected the melt-in-your-mouth texture of beef fat. Instead, the moment his teeth clamped down, he was met with an extraordinary crisp, springy texture that made a slight crunching sound.

"Huh???"

His eyes widened in disbelief. He clearly hadn’t expected a slice of beef fat to have such a texture. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"How is this possible? Isn’t fat supposed to be soft? Why is it crunchy?"

"It’s really crunchy?"

Hearing him say that, his father finally believed Lin Chen hadn’t been exaggerating.

His son, after all, hadn’t listened to the earlier descriptions of the cuts’ textures, so he naturally had no idea what to expect from this one.

He quickly tried a piece himself. Sure enough, the texture was crisp and chewy.

Not only did it lack the greasy taste of fat, but it was actually incredibly refreshing.

Especially when chewed with the crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, crispy garlic, garlic paste, cilantro, and green onions in the sauce. The aroma billowed up in waves, several times more fragrant than the beef he’d eaten before.

Despite the number of plates on the table, only three or four minutes had passed by the time they had eaten everything.

Seeing the wanting looks on their faces, Lin Chen had no choice but to slice some more meat and then tossed five blocks of instant ramen into the pot.

"Cooking thin noodles in the beef bone broth after you’re done with the meat is delicious, but instant ramen is actually the most popular choice. Because the ramen blocks are deep-fried, they develop countless tiny pores inside."

"When you cook the noodles, these pores will soak up all the broth. Then, you coat them in the sauce and pair them with the beef—it’s absolutely the best part of the whole meal, even better than the beef."

With such high praise from Lin Chen himself, the craving they had just suppressed came roaring back. They stared eagerly at the noodle blocks slowly softening in the pot.

"Can you cook pasta?" Mr. Beef asked curiously.

"You could, I suppose. You could cook anything you want in it, really. But pasta is made differently. It’s a very hard type of noodle and doesn’t absorb broth, relying purely on the external sauce for flavor. I’ve never tried it, though. If you’re curious, you can try it yourself at home."

It was just as he’d described. When they all took a slurp of the instant ramen, now fully coated in the sauce, the intensely rich, savory aroma was so good it almost made them faint on the spot.

Mr. Beef, in particular, couldn’t contain his excitement. He pounded the table furiously even as he continued to chew.

"My God, how can noodles this delicious exist in the world? Pasta is pathetic compared to this stuff! If you sold this, I bet it would become the most popular noodle dish in town!"

"I agree," his father, for once, didn’t contradict him, but nodded seriously, his eyes shining with excitement.

’If even people like us, who’ve eaten beef for decades, can be blown away by this beef hot pot, the impact on ordinary people will be even greater.’

"Lin, it seems this could be sold alongside the barbecue, right? After all, it’s just a matter of boiling a pot of broth and preparing some seasonings. It would let customers enjoy two different styles."

"Of course. In Great Xia, there are actually many shops like that, with combined hot pot and barbecue. And actually, there’s an even more fragrant way to cook the meat."

"Huh?? It can be even more delicious than this?"

"Yes, using a copper pot shaped like a volcano with charcoal piled inside. The meat cooked this way has a much richer aroma. This kind of pot is very common in the northern parts of Great Xia, but it’s mainly used for cooking lamb, not beef."

"Also, in the region where beef hot pot was invented, there’s another specialty: swishing chicken. They use a special breed of chicken, slaughtered and cut on the spot, sliced into thin strips, then marinated with celery and oil. It’s also delicious, but we definitely couldn’t do that here. The animal protection society would be all over us."

With even the main course finished, the group tactfully put down their forks. They were all pleasantly full.

"By the way, Lin, what are you going to do with those? And that sinew you were boiling earlier, can we try it yet?"

Mr. Beef pointed to the beef shank and beef tendon soaking in the sink. The clear water had already turned a distinct pink from the blood soaking out of the muscle.

"These? I’m going to braise them. It’s one of the most common and popular cooking styles in Great Xia. The main ingredient is soy sauce, usually cooked with sugar and wine, though some regions don’t add sugar."

He first boiled a pot of water, added some ginger slices and white wine, and blanched the beef tendon and shank. He put the beef tendon into a pressure cooker with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rock sugar, cooking wine, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon bark, and other seasonings, and cooked it under pressure for fifty minutes.

"Beef tendon is hard to cook, just like beef backstrap, so it needs a pressure cooker. If you cook it in a regular pot, it takes at least three or four hours before you can chew it. The shank can be boiled directly, which also takes about an hour."

After starting to cook the beef shank with the same seasonings, he brought over the previously cooked beef backstrap.

Seeing that no one had any intention of leaving, he simply handed everyone a pair of gloves.

"This needs to be shredded to be eaten, or sliced thinly. Slicing is too much trouble, so let’s just shred it. The finer, the better, just like with pulled pork."

Having gotten a free meal from Lin Chen, the two guests and Mr. Beef’s father put on gloves and got to work without a word. Mr. Beef also wanted to help, but remembered the ground meat still waiting at his stall, so he could only apologize and run back to work.

While everyone was helping shred the backstrap, Lin Chen got a large basin and started mixing the seasonings.

He had just finished preparing the various seasonings when he felt three pairs of eyes staring intently at him.

’He shook his head, inwardly amused.’

’Go ahead and learn. I’ll be impressed if you can still remember any of this when you get home.’

’You’ll just have to pull up my videos and learn while you watch, giving me free views!’

Coarse and fine chili powder, sesame seeds, cumin powder, ginger powder, garlic powder, salt, white sugar, light soy sauce, minced garlic, and minced onion.

With each ingredient he added, he would announce a specific weight range in grams.

It was fine at first, but when he announced more than three ingredients, he could clearly feel their gazes begin to waver.

As he went on, they became completely lost in a fog, their heads spinning.

First the beef hot pot, then the braised beef tendon and shank, and now a dressing for the mixed backstrap. The amount of information was too much to remember.

Once the seasonings were ready, Lin Chen temporarily moved the beef shank off the stove, took a small pot, and heated some oil to pour over the seasonings.

"SIZZLE~"

"SIZZLE~"

"SIZZLE~"

Three loud sizzles erupted, and the rich aroma of the spices billowed into the air.

He mixed the hot oil and all the seasonings thoroughly, then poured in all the shredded beef backstrap and mixed it by hand, ensuring every single strand was coated in the rich seasoning.

This seasoning mix looked completely different from the dipping sauce for the hot pot earlier. It wasn’t a smooth, thick liquid, but a paste-like marinade made almost entirely of various powdered spices.

The originally white, faintly yellowish strands of backstrap instantly became a vibrant, tempting color after being coated in the seasoning.

Just when everyone thought he was going to start cooking after the marinating, Lin Chen placed the metal basin directly in front of them.

"Alright, eat up."

"Huh?"

Erica’s mouth fell slightly open as she asked, "Just like this?"

"Yep. Didn’t we already cook it beforehand?"

Lin Chen didn’t even bother to take off his gloves, just grabbed a strand to taste, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Oh, right. It is cooked. I almost forgot about that."

The process of eating meat immediately after marinating it was still a bit unfamiliar to the group. But being so close, the aroma of the seasonings became even richer. That, combined with the impactful image of the hot oil being poured earlier, made them all extremely curious about what this dish would taste like.

No sooner had Erica spoken than Mr. Beef suddenly pushed his way in from behind, his hand already reaching for a piece.

"It’s done? Let me try some!"