kscans

Chapter 244 - Minced Meat Dish Discussion

Yuri’s mind went blank at Mand’s unexpected revelation, but he pulled himself together and listened to the story.

"...I see... so it wasn't recognized as a cooking technique."

"Yeah, I knew they chopped up meat when making sausages, and I’ve heard of mincing tough meat to make it easier to eat. And eating scrap meat that way, too. But the idea of seeing that as a general cooking method, let alone seeing that kind of meat as a normal ingredient, just didn’t exist."

Meatballs and the like were a common cooking method on Earth in his past life, but perhaps things were a little different in this world. Yuri wondered inwardly, but...

"Think about it. If it’s good meat, it’s normal to eat it as is. And would a poor person who eats tough meat or scraps go to the trouble of mincing it up like that? What’s more, using a large amount of oil and firewood to fry it is something you wouldn’t normally think of."

When told this so seriously, he had no choice but to be convinced. No, it wasn't a matter of being convinced. If he was told this was the reality of this world, he had no choice but to accept it.

"In that sense, well, it would probably be a dish that takes the nobles by surprise. ...But..."

What Mand was concerned about was whether the ingredient of minced meat would be seen as something cheap and poor.

"We can just force our way through with seasonings. If we sprinkle a generous amount of coarsely ground black pepper on it, no one will call it a poor man’s dish, right?"

Yuri guaranteed the flavor, and Mand tilted his head, but they agreed that they wouldn’t know until they tried making it. So they made it along with the omelets and flan... and in conclusion, it was readily accepted. Both had a wide range of arrangements, and especially with the egg dishes, while it was possible to imitate something similar, creating something of the same quality would be difficult without a certain amount of know-how. In other words...

"It ain’t bad that we can stay ahead of the curve."

"And I doubt they’d easily think of something like a dedicated omelet pan."

"I mean, that’s just plain luxurious."

Now that it had come to this, it was human nature to want to maintain an advantage in minced meat dishes as well. But minced meat itself, it was just that it didn't appear often in the meals of the upper class, wasn't a particularly new cooking method. It was inevitable that it would be copied. So, where was there room for ingenuity?

"Let’s see... one way would be to use a mix of ground meats."

"A mix? ...You mean we use a pretty face to sweet-talk them?"

"Not that kind of ‘mix’... um... basically, it’s minced meat made from a mixture of two or more types of meat."

"Huh... you go that far?"

"Well, this is a matter of preference."

"Anything else?"

"Let’s see... as I mentioned before, how about using a tool instead of grinding the meat by hand? If we can grind it finely, we might be able to achieve a smoother texture."

"A magic tool?"

Is it really appropriate to have a magic tool made just for making minced meat? No, if it would help maintain their reputation, perhaps it was worth considering. Mand agonized over it. The line Yuri threw at him then was,

"Oh, no. If it’s just for making minced meat, it might not necessarily have to be a magic tool."

"...You mean we still do it by hand?"

"It’s manual labor, in a sense... but what I mean is, we use a normal manual tool, not a magic tool."

What Yuri had in mind at this time was a mincer. It was sometimes called a meat chopper, that thing where you put in pieces of meat, turn a handle, and minced meat comes out. He remembered his mother using one, for a time, in his past life, and with the help of his Appraisal master, he was able to grasp its general structure. The spiral roll, the meshing of the plate and knife, it was too much for him to build on his own. So he would just convey the general structure and have Mand or Adon arrange for it. If he was lucky, he might even get one for himself. He was making his own calculations. And Mand, having been told the outline of the mincer by Yuri, immediately left the kitchen to go consult with Adon.

...It seems to have ended smoothly at a glance... but in fact, Yuri had failed to recover a certain plot point here. It was the matter of the food processor that had briefly crossed his mind before.

While he had remembered the meat mincer, for some reason Yuri had forgotten about the cooking utensil known as a hand blender. Yes, a tool for crushing and mixing ingredients, used handheld like a hand mixer. Because you hold the power unit by hand and insert the blade part from above, unlike a stationary mixer or food processor, you don't have to worry about the sealing. Therefore, if you can just secure the rotational motion, the hurdle for development is low. But... to repeat, for some unknown reason, Yuri did not remember the cooking utensil called a hand blender, at least not at this time. He would remember it later and think, "I might be able to make this myself," and try it after returning to the village... but that is another story.

But well, that aside... as a result of this small oversight, Adon missed the opportunity to obtain the cheat-level cooking device known as a hand blender, at least at this time.