Culinary God in Wilderness

Once the egg mixture had noticeably thickened, Lin Chen lifted the pot off the heat again and increased his stirring speed.

As he rapidly whisked with the two twigs, the liquid in the pot gradually took on the thick consistency of mayonnaise.

Each time the twigs made a full circle, they left two distinct trails on the sauce’s surface.

"Good heavens, this is incredible! How does this even work?"

From his spot on the roof, Andre watched with his own eyes as the duck egg and water mixture transformed into a rich sauce. The sight was even more stunning than any of the other cooking techniques he had witnessed so far.

"Ever had spaghetti carbonara?"

"Of course... Are you saying this is how you make the sauce for it? That can’t be right. I always thought carbonara sauce was made from cooked egg yolks and cheese."

"The principle is more or less the same. They both rely on partially coagulating the egg to create a smooth, creamy texture. The difference is that with carbonara, you pour an egg-and-Parmesan-cheese mixture into hot, cooked pasta and let the residual heat in the pan thicken it into a sauce."

"As for this, you’d normally add milk. Milk already has some body to it and coagulates more easily, but since I don’t have any, I had to add extra sunchoke starch to get the egg mixture to thicken."

As he spoke, he gave the mixture a few quick stirs with the twigs before lifting them high. The thick egg paste stretched into a long, thin ribbon before dripping down.

"That should do it."

He placed the pot of egg paste into the rock crevice to cool it down faster, and while he was at it, he stirred in the jam he’d made earlier.

When he emerged again, he was cupping several large chunks of sunchoke starch in his hands.

"This is from my stockpile, and it’s all I have left. There are still a pound or two of sunchokes in the hut, but they won’t yield much starch. If we want to have this again, we’ll have to find a new patch of sunchokes or potatoes."

"A patch of potatoes?"

Andre’s ears twitched as he zeroed in on the key word. "There are tons near my shelter. At least seventy or eighty pounds worth, I’d say. That stuff proliferates like crazy, and it has no natural predators in the wild."

"What?! You have huge patches of potatoes near you??"

Lin Chen had been worrying about how they’d get by without a source of staple food and starch, but this sudden good news instantly washed away his concerns.

Potatoes have a unique property: once they sprout, the entire plant contains a neurotoxin called solanine. Anyone who eats it is in for a bad time.

This unique property makes them an unstoppable force in the wild. They can spread and grow unchecked, without fear of being eaten by some clueless animal.

"Yeah, I’ve already got over twenty pounds stockpiled back at my place. If I wasn’t so sick of them, and if I had any other staples to choose from, I wouldn’t even bother digging the things up."

It’s true that Westerners like potatoes, but they prefer them processed—mashed with gravy, french fries with meat sauce, waffle fries, or potato chips. At the very least, they’ll toss them with some spices and throw them in an oven.

Plain boiled or baked potatoes, on the other hand, are practically impossible for them to get down.

"I’m going with you tomorrow," Lin Chen said, clenching his fists in excitement. "Potatoes are a godsend! There are so many dishes you can make with them. Even just extracting the starch would let me create a whole new range of dishes."

"Sounds good. I’ll even help you dig. Just remember to make me something tasty with them next week."

For Andre, eating potatoes was purely a means of getting carbs to fuel his body.

Given the choice, he’d much rather eat his fill of meat.

While Andre was stuffing bundles of spruce needles into the roof to create a waterproof layer, the egg paste left in the rock crevice had cooled down considerably.

Lin Chen went in every few minutes to give it a stir, partly to help it cool faster and partly to prevent ice crystals from forming on the surface.

The temperature had already dropped below freezing, making the rock crevice a natural freezer. In just half an hour, the scalding hot paste had cooled to a dozen or so degrees.

’At this rate, I can almost start on the finishing touches.’

He had already ground the sunchoke starch he’d taken out earlier into a fine powder, using the pommel and flat of his knife.

He filled the now-empty small frying pan with some water and brought it to a boil. He poured the boiling water directly over the sunchoke starch, whisking rapidly in circles with the twigs in his right hand.

The scalded starch visibly turned translucent and began to form a dough ball as he stirred.

He added more boiling water, a little at a time, until the dough reached the perfect consistency—no dry powder remaining, and not too sticky to the touch.

The resulting dough ball wasn’t large, only about the size of his fist, but obtaining even that much in the wild was quite an achievement.

He didn’t bother dividing it, instead rolling the entire thing into a long log. Then, he pinched off pieces of roughly equal size and rolled them into balls.

By the time he finished this prep work, the egg paste’s temperature had dropped to the freezing point. He could feel a powerful resistance when he tried to stir it.

Judging from its appearance alone, the egg mixture could no longer be called a ’paste.’ It now had the texture of slightly melted ice cream.

While the dough balls were still warm, Lin Chen grabbed one, tossed it into the small frying pan, and gently pressed it flat with his combat knife. A round, translucent, thin wrapper materialized.

"?????"

Andre stared, completely dumbfounded.

’What new sorcery was this?’

Lin Chen had no time to deal with him right now. He used a twig to scoop up a large dollop of the jam-infused egg paste and placed it onto the wrapper. With a quick pull and lift of his thumb and a few deft pinches, his fingers became a blur in the firelight.

Andre couldn’t even follow what was happening. Before he knew it, the egg paste was completely sealed inside the transparent wrapper, forming a plump, round ball.

Lin Chen was incredibly fast. In just two or three minutes, he had made four plump white balls.

"Can we eat them now?"

"We could, but they’re best after they’ve been frozen solid and then left to soften a little. Since they’re made with duck eggs, they’ll have a faint gamey taste if they’re not cold enough."

"Never mind then. Let’s save them for breakfast tomorrow."

Andre rubbed his full belly and decided against trying one right away.

Lin Chen scraped the pot clean with a bark spoon, managing to get exactly one spoonful of the leftover paste.

Although it wasn’t completely frozen, the way it slowly melted on his tongue was a convincing imitation of the real thing.

Many ice cream recipes use eggs as a primary ingredient anyway, and while his version lacked cream, he had flavored it with an all-natural berry jam. The result was an ice-cream-like texture with a light, sweet-and-sour flavor and a subtle hint of egg.

If he had to describe it, it was like drizzling some tart blueberry jam over a vanilla soft-serve and eating it, cone and all.

"Lin, you should get some sleep."

Andre pointed to the small section of roof that was still unfinished.

"I’m on watch anyway. I’ll finish up the roof and then take care of it. I’ll try to have a surprise for you by morning."