Wild Gourmet: Chapter 19

“Some.” Remm nodded towards one of the taller-grown sections of his garden. “I can’t say it’s going to be excellent. I’ve been cultivating some of the local wild-growing grain I found in ruined farms. The flour I have comes from the stuff I culled. Plants I didn’t want.”

“That will be fine. I don’t need it for flavor. Just for holding something together.”

“Then take it.” Remm stood up, walked into his home, and returned with a small bag of powder. “And I promise I’ll have something better for you next time.”

“No worries. This is great. Thanks, Remm.”

Brand cut what meat he could from the wolf, which was plenty big enough to have lots of whatever he decided was useable. Even so, so much of the wolf was obviously useless that he barely came away with enough to feed the town. The rest would be ground for Remm’s garden, he assumed.

He took the cuts of meat that looked at least somewhat usable and separated them into individual meal-sized chunks, then got to work with the flour. He really wished he had eggs for this, but none of the cranes seemed to be nesting and without any other source of them he was going to have to do without. He added a small amount of breading to some water in one of the spare bowls that had accumulated in his grill area over the last several days, working it into a loose, moist batter.

Butchering out a few chunks of meat from the crane, he laid them in his pan and let them heat as he began to dip each of the wolf steaks in the batter, coating them thoroughly before returning to the pan and assessing. The cranes were as oily as ever, and as he used one of his daggers to lift out each piece the drippings were substantial enough to leave him with a nearly full skillet of sizzling grease.

The cooking went quickly from that point. He transferred the crane from the skillet to the pail he sometimes used as a boiling pot and rotated out cuts of meat as he exhausted their oil supply. While that process continued without him, he began to cook the battered slices of wolf, letting the oil seep deeply into the flour around each piece, crisping and browning it. A bit of salt on each piece would do a lot to enhance the flavor, too.

He was cheating, a little. The wolf meat would still lack flavor, but it would carry a lot of energy due to the fat from the cranes. The rest of the quality of the meal was likely to come from how bread-starved the people in town were. For most of them, it would be the first grain they’d had in weeks, or even months.

As the wolf meat continued to cook, he ignored the gathering crowd, took the last of the sacrificial crane meat out of the pail, and began to slice mass amounts of vegetables for the pot. It was fast work, especially with his new points in skill. The vegetable slices cooked quickly, and when he drained the oil into another pail for later re-use, there was a fine mix of fried vegetables to go with the meal and further supplement the vitamin content the wolf couldn’t provide.

I wish I had enough flour to bread the vegetables, too. Maybe next time.

The townsfolk didn’t care. They descended on the fried meat like it was sent from the heavens, devouring it with a ferocity that only the carbohydrate starved could exhibit. Brand managed to get a plate of his own before it was all gone, and sat and watched as the townsfolk ate. The meat was tough, clearly. The frying could do little to fix that, and the sheer amount of time the villagers spent chewing showed just how little of the inherent toothiness had been cooked out.

Still, nobody cared. Brand was glad to see they all enjoyed the meal, even if it had been a long shot that had barely worked. If the message he got after the meal was done was a little back-handed, he was still thankful the system acknowledged the effort at all.

“Anything good?” Neil spotted him reading the status screen, and was reliably curious to see what Brand had gained. “Lots of levels?”

“Not yet,” Brand said. “Looks like the system wants me to wait.”