156: Cooking

Entering the kitchen, I immediately felt relaxed. Today had been crazy from the moment I woke up, and I needed a moment to just breathe. Pulling out the royal cookbook I had received, I remembered seeing a recipe for a buvul pie. However, I was sure it wouldn’t be an issue if I switched it with the Baelvryn, right?

I found the page. It was a pie that was made in a dish using two separate cuts of meat: the short rib and the shin, and there was a diagram for where on the buvul this could be located.

I pulled out the Baelvryn I had butchered. It was broken down a little, but it was still in very large cuts. The short rib was located right in the middle, while the shin was easy. The recipe called for large cubes of meat.

It took a little bit of time, but I eventually separated it all, leaving myself with two piles of large, cubed Baelvryn meat. I couldn’t help but notice that during this time, Liane had pulled out a pastry, which Lily stole.

This was the first time I had seen Lily steal food from anyone else, much to Liane’s horror and annoyance—although I noticed a new pastry back in her hand.

Referring to the recipe, it explained why it wanted to use two different meats. However, the explanation didn’t make a lot of sense to me. One of the meat types apparently would thicken the sauce, while the other meat type was tougher, but had more flavour. I went to the fire and, pulling down one of the pans hanging along the wall, I placed it near the fire to start getting really hot.

I started placing the meat into the pan. My goal was to get them all nice and brown. I also added salt and pepper to the Baelvryn.

Once that was done, I took it all off the heat and put it to one side in a pot. Every piece was brown all over. I would need to use that same pan again without cleaning it for cooking off the onion, carrot, tomatoes, and herbs I would add, so I set it to the side.

Pulling a far smaller pan from the wall, I placed it by the heat, and pulling out the red wine I had successfully infused prior, I poured it in, filling the pan up to around three quarters.

“That meat already smells so good. Can we try it now?” Liane said from the side, where she was sitting next to Lily, both staring at me.

“No, not yet. This will take a while to cook. That meat will be too tough to eat now,” I said.

Lily just tilted her head at me.

“Okay, not too tough for you, but no eating it yet,” I said, quickly looking at my inventory. I was sure I had some cooked food left to give them now, to keep them distracted.

That’s when I spotted it. I still had a rack of honey-roasted skywolf ribs I had set aside for Lily when she was missing.

Pulling it out, I was hit with the sweet smell of the charred honey coating, and deciding not to risk it by allowing them to split it themselves, I cut it into two pieces, giving Liane a third and Lily two-thirds.

“There, have those while you wait, but nothing else. You won’t eat the pie if you do,” I said, getting back to the wine, which was now boiling.

My next problem was the recipe called for buvul stock, or chicken stock.

I didn’t have either of them. What I did have was a Grarok soup, which was basically a stock, right? Was there an issue with stacking too much strength into one dish? I’d need to check with Milo before I added it.

“Liane, I don’t suppose you’d be able to find Milo when you’re done eating?” I asked.

I got a nod before she squinted at me. “What have you done, or are you thinking of doing?” she said.

I raised my hands in defence. “It’s not like that. If I use the Grarok soup for stock, there will be a lot of strength buffs in this dish, and I was curious if there was such a thing as too much in terms of strength.”

“Yes, there is such a thing as too much. I’ll get him. He’ll explain it better,” she said, shaking her head but returning to the ribs.

By this stage, the wine had almost reduced by half, but I used my ability to try to predict the buffs. The Grarok soup gave nine Strength, while Baelvryn itself gave two Strength. What I couldn’t see, however, was how second simmer would affect it, or if there were any combination buffs that would unlock with the two combined.

Alternatively, I could just not infuse the pie. It would still hold the buffs of the soup alone, or maybe only infuse Lily’s portion, so I could see exactly what the buffs were without dishing it out to everyone.

This seemed like the most reasonable decision.

I didn’t even notice Liane leave as I started to pull out the tubers that I would be baking, then mashing, because putting it on top to finish it, the recipe stressed I needed to bake it on salt to ensure as much moisture as possible was pulled out.

I noticed the wine had now reduced below half and was thickening up, giving an almost glossy appearance, so I took that from the heat, just as Milo entered the kitchen.

“What have you done now?” he said immediately.

“Nothing! Yet. I was just preparing some food, but I realised it’s stacking a lot of strength that I know of, and I was not sure if there was a limit, so I wanted to check,” I explained.

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“Yes, there would be an upper limit, which would roughly be double a person’s base before some negative effects occur. Could be anything from discomfort to fatigue once it wears off, unless you go into the real extremes. How much strength are we talking about?” Milo asked.

“Well, I was making a pie, and I don’t have buvul stock, so I was thinking of using some of the Grarok soup instead, which gives nine strength, then the pie itself is made out of Baelvryn, which gives two strength,” I explained.

“So, eleven, then?” Milo asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, no, probably not. This will trigger second simmer, and manaflair crust as well, then any combinations they may have between them I don’t know about,” I explained.