Chapter 41

Today’s dish will be a barbecue using the Awakening Species Fruit Tree Antlered Reindeer.

Even though there are various dishes besides grilled ones, when feeling down, nothing beats the power of grilled meat.

First, we receive the meat from the Awakening Species, which has been dismantled by the Adventurer Guild, leaving only the meat.

Before preparing the meat, we handle the branches that serve as the antlers of the Fruit Tree Antlered Reindeer.

Most of them were burned by Serena’s flame magic, but since they were grown large, a significant amount of branches remained, which we use as smoking chips for smoking.

Smoking is essentially using the smoke from burning wood to infuse the meat with its aroma.

Thus, the type of wood used as smoking chips greatly affects the flavor of the meat.

However, I decided without hesitation to use the horns of the monster hunted today as smoking chips.

Although I haven’t actually cooked with this creature’s horns before, my intuition as a hunter and chef told me that these horns would undoubtedly be the best smoking chips I could choose right now.

After cutting the branches into thin chips using a knife, we soak them in cold water for about 30 minutes to an hour to ensure they produce a lot of smoke when smoked.

They need to retain some moisture to produce smoke, but soaking them too long can weaken the unique aroma of the smoking chips.

After simply preparing the smoking chips, it’s time to handle the meat.

We cut the dismantled meat into parts suitable for cooking, and for grilling, the meat from the torso is preferable over the front or hind legs.

Among these, we use the sirloin and tenderloin, which are popular for steak dishes.

The sirloin is relatively fatty, offering a rich and tender taste, while the tenderloin, with less fat, provides a hearty and clean flavor.

Debating which part to use is a waste of time.

We simply grill both parts and then grill more of the part Serena prefers.

Given the creature’s massive size, over 4 meters, cutting through the spine is challenging, but it’s not a big obstacle for someone who can use aura.

We coat the kitchen knife with aura, extend it, and cut a generous amount of meat.

Then, we slice the large cuts into thick pieces suitable for grilling.

We apply rub to the sliced meat; usually, I believe the skill in barbecue is to bring out the maximum flavor with available ingredients, and the charm of barbecue is to make the most plausible dish with what’s at hand. However, today’s goal isn’t such wild barbecue but cooking for Serena, so we buy all the ingredients available from the Adventurer Guild.

If there’s any left, we can save it for later use elsewhere.

We mix salt, pepper, dried rosemary, dried bell pepper, and dried garlic, ground into powder on the spot.

Originally, these were sold as luxury items for adventurers to use when making stew with hunted meat to remove gamey smells, but dried spices can be used in various ways beyond just stew.

We also add ingredients to detoxify the monster’s poison.

Normally, we would use the juice of the Predatory Water, but today, we use the seed of the non-aromatic, highly toxic swamp lotus.

Since we’re using meat and smoking chips to impart a fruity aroma, using the Predatory Water’s juice might not blend well.

Thus, we use the seed of the highly toxic swamp lotus, which only grows in heavily poisoned swamps.

The swamp lotus, when fully bloomed, contains a potent poison, but its seeds have properties that purify toxicity to withstand the swamp’s poisonous environment.

This property makes the seeds useful in various detoxifying medicines.

Of course, humans like me also use them as cooking ingredients.

We extract oil from the swamp lotus seeds, mix it with other edible oils to increase the quantity, and then mix it into the rub powder.

After thoroughly mixing, we carefully apply the completed rub to the meat.

We make cuts in the meat to allow the flavors to penetrate more quickly, inserting the rub into the cuts.

Normally, it takes about two hours for the flavors to fully penetrate, but since someone is waiting, we start grilling the unseasoned meat first.

Of course, we also apply the swamp lotus oil to the unseasoned meat to detoxify the monster’s poison.

Then, we assemble skewers on the spot and set up two grills.

We arrange the completed grills into a two-layer structure, placing ample amounts of the Fruit Tree Antlered Reindeer branches soaked in cold water on the lower grill.

We carefully oil the upper grill to prevent sticking, place the meat, onions, mushrooms, etc., and immediately cover it with an inverted wok lid.

This way, the smoke rising from the lower grill evenly infuses the meat on the upper grill, and the wok lid traps the smoke, allowing the meat to fully absorb the aroma of the smoking chips.

While grilling, we occasionally flip the meat, only opening the wok lid to do so.

Once all the meat is grilled, it’s done.

Today’s dinner menu:

Smoked Barbecue of Fruit Tree Antlered Reindeer.

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Serena watched Kurt’s back with anxious eyes.

Of course, she knew from drinking at the Adventurer Guild that despite being a Lizardman, he was incredibly skilled at cooking.

But even so, this time, Serena couldn’t help but watch Kurt cook with cautious eyes.

It wasn’t because her feelings for Kurt had changed.

In fact, any adventurer in the guild right now would have to watch Kurt cook with uneasy eyes.

At first, it seemed like he was just butchering and grilling meat normally, but suddenly, intermittent massive amounts of smoke started seeping out from the kitchen.

After the smoke appeared once, it subsided, but after a while, it would burst out again, making everyone in the Adventurer Guild, though they didn’t say it, anxious about a possible fire.

After the smoke seeped into the guild hall a few times, Kurt came out of the kitchen with a plate of meat.

Clatter.

“Here. Eat first. I’ll keep grilling.”

“Then Kurt, you…?”

“I’ll finish grilling the rest of the seasoned meat. Eat before it gets cold.”

Kurt said this and returned to the kitchen without waiting for Serena’s answer.

‘Ah. How can he turn away without hesitation…’

As he left, Serena slowly looked at the plate he handed her.

Fortunately, the meat he brought looked quite delicious, considering the continuous smoke.

No, it wasn’t just quite delicious; it was glossy, appetizingly browned, and the ideal form of grilled meat.

“Hehehe… As expected. Kurt couldn’t have failed at cooking.”

Confirming this, Serena felt proud of Kurt’s cooking skills as if it were her own achievement, even though she didn’t grill the meat.

Growl.

Gulp.

And as soon as she was sure Kurt hadn’t failed at cooking, her stomach started growling.

She tried to act nonchalant in front of Kurt, but she had been getting increasingly hungry while waiting for the food.

Even though Kurt quickly dismantled the monster and finished cooking, the time from preparing the meat to grilling it was close to an hour, so it was inevitable.

As her stomach growled again, Serena felt her hunger even more acutely, and soon she swallowed her saliva and carefully picked up her fork and knife.

The meat, which seemed to smell even more delicious than usual, perhaps because she was hungrier.

It didn’t just seem like the meat’s quality was excellent and it was grilled perfectly.

It felt as if some magic had been cast on the meat, with an irresistibly appetizing aroma rising.

‘What is it? I heard the Fruit Tree Antlered Reindeer’s meat doesn’t have a gamey smell and instead has a fruity aroma… but this much?’

The refreshing fruity aroma was so intense that she wondered if the meat in front of her was actually a fruit shaped like meat.

But she carefully moved her fork and knife, afraid that if she lost focus even for a moment, she might put down her utensils and tear into the meat with her hands, driven by the violent aroma.

She sliced the meat carefully, mindful that Kurt might be watching from the kitchen.

The slice she cut was very small, even considering her small mouth.

This wasn’t because she wasn’t hungry but entirely to look good in front of Kurt, an uncharacteristically demure action.

Having put on this elegant display, Serena carefully looked at the piece of meat she had speared with her fork.

Gulp.

As she brought it close to her mouth, the rich aroma of the meat, which had been noticeable from afar, became even more intense.

If she kept smelling this aroma, she might forget to act reserved in front of Kurt and start devouring the meat ravenously, a thought that began to creep in seriously.

Realizing this thought, she forgot all about elegance and immediately put the meat into her mouth.

Hahp.