Day Forty-Nine.
Lin Yu’an awoke early and added the last batch of pine needles to the fire pile in the smokehouse.
Over the past two and a half days, his main focus was on observing the venison hanging in the thick smoke.
Starting from the evening of the forty-seventh day, this long and ticulous smoking process had lasted for nearly two days and nights.
He estimated that with this intensity of smoking and the size of the at strips, they should reach the ideal preservation state by noon today.
While waiting for the smoked at to finish, he began to prepare breakfast.
The piece of venison stomach he had soaked for a long ti was today’s main ingredient.
As Lin Yu’an carefully lifted the venison stomach out of the murky ashes of grass and wood water, he explained to the cara.
"The ashes of grass and wood water is alkaline and can effectively remove most of the odor, making it easier to achieve that crisp and tender texture during subsequent cooking."
After thoroughly washing the venison stomach, Lin Yu’an prepared to proceed with the next step of ticulous processing.
"Although the venison stomach doesn’t have a noticeable black inner mbrane like cow tripe, the inner wall is covered with a rough mucosa that must be carefully scraped off to achieve the white, crisp, and tender stomach lining."
He turned the venison stomach’s inner wall outward and, with the blade of his knife tightly against the base of the stomach lining, deftly scraped away the thin, slightly tough inner wall mucosa.
As the blade moved, he casually discarded the scraped-off mucosa.
The exposed stomach lining appeared very clean, an ivory white, feeling smooth and elastic to the touch.
Once the entire inner wall of the venison stomach was processed to a faultless white, Lin Yu’an nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, now this piece of venison stomach is exceptionally clean. Next, we’ll finely cut it into strips suitable for quick stir-frying."
With a multifunction knife, he quickly sliced it into thin strips about two to three milliters thick, and then stacked and cut these slices into fine strips about half a centiter wide.
"The stir-frying requires extrely high heat; as the saying goes, ’quick fry on high heat’—if you cook it a second too long, it becos tough and chewy, losing that unique crispness."
"So, all the preparation must be done in advance. Once it’s in the pan, it has to be completed in one go."
He sliced off a thumb-sized piece of milky white fat and placed it in his usual stainless-steel pan.
The venison fat almost instantly lted at high temperature, emitting a fierce sizzling sound.
As the venison fat completely lted and the temperature rose extrely high, a faint blue smoke began to rise visibly from the oil at the pan’s bottom.
"Now’s the ti! Into the pan!"
Lin Yu’an grabbed the pile of cleanly cut white stomach strips from the stone slab and without hesitation emptied them into the searing venison fat!
"Ssssszzzz——!"
The instant the stomach strips contacted the scorching hot venison fat, it erupted with a deafening, firecracker-like explosive sound!
A thick, white steam rose imdiately, nearly obscuring the view inside the pan.
Lin Yu’an grabbed the pan handle, tilting and flipping the stomach strips with a nearly tossing-like motion, ensuring every strip was evenly heated in the shortest amount of ti.
This stir-frying process was astonishingly quick, lasting only a re few tens of seconds!
He swiftly transferred the perfectly stir-fried stomach strips into a birch bark-folded platter.
At this mont, the stomach strips were distinct, beautifully white with a hint of golden brown, their surface glossy with oil, releasing a rich aroma of venison fat!
He sprinkled the minced wild onions and a bit of fine salt over the freshly cooked, steaming stir-fried stomach strips, then quickly mixed them with chopsticks.
"There you have it, the wilderness-style venison fat stir-fried stomach strips are completed to perfection!"
Eagerly, he picked up a small pinch of stomach strips, each slightly curled from the heat, the surface glistening with venison oil and onion bits.
Lin Yu’an first inhaled deeply, savoring the aroma that rushed to his taste buds, then blew on it briefly and carefully placed it into his mouth.
"Mmm——!"
Lin Yu’an’s eyes lit up instantly, his chewing becoming noticeably indulgent.
"Mmm... this isn’t just good, it’s truly delicious! The tripe is both crispy and fragrant!"
"Really tasty, it would be even better with beef tallow hot pot base!"
After finishing the venison oil stir-fried tripe, Lin Yu’an returned to tending the ’smoked at project’
He periodically observed the changes in the at strips amidst the swirling smoke.
The venison, originally bright red and moist, had completely transford!
It now appeared an oily, glossy, mouthwatering deep brownish-red, with a surface tightened from dehydration.
Exuding an extrely complex aroma of charred wood, the fresh scent of pine needles, the distinctive tar-like sll of birch bark, combined with the inherent venison aroma.
As the sun gradually climbed to the sky’s zenith, it was now midday on the forty-ninth day.
Lin Yu’an judged that this batch of venison was smoked to perfection.
He stopped adding new smoking materials and fully opened the smokehouse door, allowing the thick smoke to gradually dissipate.
Simultaneously, it allowed those still-warm at strips to undergo their final drying and ’llowing’ in the circulating air.
He took down a venison hind leg strip that smoked evenly and was of firm texture, showcasing it carefully before the cara.
Sunlight streaming through the doorway reflected tantalizingly off the deep brownish-red at surface.
"After nearly two whole days of smoking, my venison jerky is finally finished!"
"Look at that color, that firmness, and that enticing aroma... this is surely the wealth secret to the championship throne!"
With the sharp blade of his multipurpose knife, he sliced a thin piece of smoked venison off a strip.
The cut surface showed a consistent deep red color inside and out, with at fibers visibly distinct, tightly bound together.
The edges bore a deeper color, a transparency from smoking, exuding a strong smoky fragrance.
He placed the thin slice of jerky into his mouth, closed his eyes, and chewed thoughtfully.
"Mmm——!" Lin Yu’an’s eyebrows shot up instantly, his face revealing an expression of surprise and delight.
The smoked venison was tough and chewy but not dry or hard.
The rich smoky flavor first assaulted the taste buds, followed by the unique at aroma of venison slowly releasing in the mouth.
The at texture, though firm, still retained sufficient internal fat, making it buttery and fragrant, growing tastier with each chew.
He carefully removed all the venison jerky from the smokehouse, categorizing them by different cuts and sizes.
These ticulously smoked jerky pieces weighed at least a third less than before, but each was infused with a unique wilderness flavor.
He wrapped most of the smoked venison jerky securely in large, clean dried birch bark previously stripped.
"Birch bark can prevent the jerky from sticking to each other and mixing flavors, and also acts as a moisture barrier to so extent."
Then he neatly packed these wrapped jerky pieces into his large, waterproof hiking backpack.
He only kept a small portion for imdiate consumption, intending to ’taste’ and showcase it well in front of the cara.
The rest was placed back into the space away from the cara’s view.
Having dealt with all the smoked venison, it was already noon.
The light breeze that persisted throughout the morning at the Chilco Lakefront had now gradually died down.
The lake surface, previously rippling, was once again mirror-like, calmly reflecting the distant snow-capped mountains and the shoreline’s coniferous forests, the scenery magnificently picturesque.
Lin Yu’an looked at the lake before him, knowing it was ti to head back to that small island again.
————
(Has everyone had dinner yet, perhaps you could have so duck blood and tripe in spicy soup this evening.)
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