Chapter 190

After finishing the herb gathering, we returned to Astram.

The time it took from exposing their secrets to finishing the herb gathering was short compared to before I revealed their secrets, but…

Honestly, it felt like the longest part of the day because I had completely swung and missed.

Thinking back, all I did today was doubt and interfere with the sisters who were dedicating their day to volunteer work and charity.

“Well, that wraps up today’s tasks. You’ve worked hard today.”

“I’m really sorry, Kurt. It seems like I ended up deceiving you all for no reason…”

“No, no! We didn’t even know we were being deceived from the start! And since we weren’t harmed, getting angry would be completely unreasonable!”

“…”

If you put it that way, what does that make me?

“Still, approaching you all with impure intentions from the start…”

“No, impure intentions? How is the goal of saving more people an impure intention? I never once thought you had impure intentions!”

“…”

I did.

“After all, whether you deceived us or not, you didn’t cause us any harm, so there’s no need to feel uncomfortable!”

“…”

I felt uncomfortable.

“From the start, seeing you work hard all day for others, how could we think badly of you? If someone gets angry after seeing that, they must be really twisted!”

“…”

I was thinking bad thoughts and doubting them the whole time.

“…”

Is Mari teasing me right now?

Glancing at Mari, her expression was a bright, innocent smile, devoid of any malice.

And in response to Mari’s kind reaction, Daria smiled gratefully and suggested we head to the church.

“Thank you for saying that. Then, let’s return to the church and have dinner.”

“And during your escort, we’ll provide you with a room to stay at the church.”

No. I can’t go back to the church like this.

Even if the sisters and my party overlook what I did today, I can’t let it go.

I have to make up for what I did today somehow.

So, I stopped the five of them heading to the church and said,

“…No. There’s a place I’d like to stop by first.”

“Kurt?”

“Before we go back to the church, why don’t we stop by the Adventurer Guild? I’ll treat you to dinner as an apology.”

“Ah… Kurt is treating us to dinner? Th-thank you for the thought…”

“L-Lizardman’s dinner… That’s meat dripping with blood, with bitter grass that hasn’t even been properly cleaned, served in a bowl…”

Daria and Ayla asked with uneasy expressions.

Even the sisters of the Holy Kingdom seem to grimace at the thought of Lizardman’s cooking…

“Right. And I’ll also show you the artifact I found in the ruins that you were so curious about.”

“Really?!”

“Is that true?!”

But unlike their horrified expressions when I mentioned treating them to food, Daria and Ayla asked with wide eyes.

“Yes. I didn’t want to tell anyone else, but you two deserve to know. Just keep it a secret that we went deep into the ancient ruins. I don’t want others to find out.”

“Yes! Of course!”

“I swear!”

With that, the two nodded brightly, seemingly forgetting about the Lizardman’s meal, and we headed to the Adventurer Guild.

…

…

…

Returning to the Adventurer Guild, I immediately went into the kitchen.

Hoo.

It’s better to be in the kitchen.

It was painful to keep looking at their faces.

Anyway, time to prepare the meal.

Though I say prepare, there’s not much to do today.

Because the cooking is almost done.

Today’s menu is the sous-vide pulled beef they’ve been wanting, using the Artifact of the Ancient Empire.

Generally, pulled pork is a dish comparable to Western-style braised meat.

And pulled beef is the version using beef instead of pork.

The original recipe wasn’t made using sous-vide, but after the sous-vide method was developed, it became a dish that paired exceptionally well with it.

It’s the perfect dish to demonstrate the artifact’s capabilities.

The recipe is simple yet difficult.

It sounds contradictory, but there’s no other way to describe it.

If I could use electronic devices from my past life, it would be easy…

But in this world, there’s no sous-vide machine like the ones I used before.

The simplicity of the recipe lies in the straightforward process.

The difficulty comes from the fact that while the steps are simple, executing them is hard.

The recipe for pulled beef is similar to the onion soup I taught the elves in the Elf Village.

Meaning, the cooking process is simple but requires a lot of brute labor.

Even more labor than onion soup.

First, cut a large piece of lean meat from the Steel Armored Bison without dividing it into portions.

Then, add molasses and spices to the meat’s surface to tenderize it.

I used a simple combination of honey and brown sugar, with salt and pepper as spices.

After slathering the meat with the ingredients, it’s time for the artifact.

Cover it with a vacuum-sealed mana pack.

A regular mana shield can last two to three hours, but this pulled beef requires much longer.

The cooking time is about a day.

To keep the mana shield intact for a whole day, it needs to be at maximum output.

The next step is long, tedious, simple labor.

It’s the same method as making sous-vide steak, just extended to 24 hours.

In my past life, a sous-vide machine would automatically maintain the water temperature, but in this world, I can’t expect that.

So, the key is to keep stirring the water all day to maintain a constant temperature.

After cooking for a full day, the pulled beef is done.

Of course, starting a 24-hour dish now is nonsense.

So, I’m using the sous-vide pulled beef I prepared this morning.

Honestly, I thought several times about staying overnight in the Adventurer Guild’s kitchen and going back to the ancient ruins to find something like a fan to control the water flow…

But with the determination to eat delicious pulled beef, I managed to complete it after 24 hours.

If I weren’t a Transcendent, I wouldn’t have dared to try.

Being a Transcendent is really a blessing.

To add crispiness to the pulled beef, after tearing off the mana shield, I set aside the overflowing juices, cleaned the surface, and put it in the Dwarven Oven.

At this point, the oven isn’t to fully cook the dish but to crisp the surface, so the temperature is much higher, around 250 degrees, and the time is much shorter, about 10 minutes.

Often, recipes say to cook for 10 minutes on medium heat, but beginners think cooking on high heat for 5 minutes will save time, resulting in overcooked surfaces and undercooked insides.

Now, putting the sous-vide meat in the oven uses that principle.

Heating at high temperature for a short time prevents overcooking inside while crisping the surface.

Since the inside is already cooked, it’s to induce the Maillard reaction on the surface.

Meanwhile, use the juices from tearing the pulled beef’s mana shield.

Pulled beef is a dish where smoked or sous-vide meat is shredded and mixed with sauce.

So, barbecue sauce is essential for eating pulled beef.

And the juices from sous-vide cooking, infused with spices, are perfect for making the sauce.

I’m making a tomato-flavored barbecue sauce in the style of pulled pork.

First, chop onions and garlic and sauté them in oil over low heat.

Once the onions and garlic are cooked, add the collected juices, tomato sauce, and vinegar.

If you have ketchup, you can replace the tomato sauce and vinegar with ketchup.

After all, ketchup is a mix of those two.

Then, adjust the seasoning with salt and sugar, and thicken with flour.

Stir until it thickens.

While stirring, the pulled beef in the oven is done, so take it out and continue reducing the sauce.

Once the sauce is done, all that’s left is to mix the two.

Using a fork to press the pulled beef from the oven, the crispy surface resists at first but easily crumbles the sous-vide cooked insides.

The key here is that the meat isn’t pressed or torn but crumbled.

Like meat that was shredded from the start but packaged to look whole, it crumbles as if it was always that shape.

Continuing to press with a fork and skewer, the sous-vide insides crumble completely without much effort, like a car ran over them.

Don’t stop until the meat is shredded into bite-sized pieces.

In my past life, I could have easily crushed it with gloved hands, but here, the meat crumbles so easily it’s almost cathartic.

If I could crush it with gloved hands, I could enjoy the sensation of the meat’s texture breaking down…

Once the meat is sufficiently crumbled, add the barbecue sauce and mix thoroughly.

Once the sauce and crumbled meat are fully mixed, it’s done.

Today’s dinner menu:

Steel Armored Bison Sous-vide Pulled Beef, served as an apology.