185: Jerky
Entering the butchery room, I pulled out the grarok first. It was the toughest of the three, so it would be the best test for the knife. When I originally butchered it, the knife could barely cut it.
Pulling out the new knife, I went to gently slice along the spine.
I cut immediately straight through the flesh and bone as if nothing was there at all. The knife only stopped because the handle hit the bone.
“That’s… dangerous,” I muttered to myself.
I pulled it forward, and besides the slightest amount of pressure required, it cut straight through the rib bones along the spine, which gave me an idea…
I pulled the grarok to the side. I would deal with that shortly. I pulled out the drake, filling the room, approaching its hindquarter, where the scales seemed the thickest outside of the spine, and just tried to cut straight through the scales.
There was resistance, and simply pressing on it didn’t cut into it. However, as I drew the knife down across the scales, I could immediately feel the knife cutting in, and then through… it cut drake scales in half.
I stored it away. That left one test. Pulling out the dragon’s tail, I looked over my shoulder to make sure that Milo wasn’t watching. If this destroyed a dragon scale, I knew he’d be very upset.
I was just about to touch my knife to the scale when Liane appeared, squatting next to me.
“Ooooh, that knife looks incredible!” she said in awe.
“It’s legendary,” I said in a whisper back.
When I turned to her, she caught a glimpse of the scale mail under my jacket.
“Wait! You got the chest piece too!” she practically yelled. “Let me see!”
“Hold on! Let me test this,” I said, shrugging her off as she tried to turn me.
I put the knife on the scale, right in the middle, and like the drake, pressure didn’t do anything. I pulled the knife down like I did with the drake, and…
Well, I don’t know if I was disappointed or relieved when the blade didn’t cut into it.
I moved the knife back and forth a little, putting a decent amount of pressure, but I didn’t cut through it. With a sigh, I pulled the knife away and was surprised to see, unlike all the other items that had tried to cut the scale, there was a gouge left in it.
“Wow,” Liane said.
“Yeah, it’s not a lot. I was kind of hoping it would cut through,” I said.
“Not a lot? What are you talking about? Cutting an ancient dragon scale is ridiculous. We all tried to cut or even damage it, remember, and none of us made a scratch. You, however, have left a solid gouge out of that,” Liane said, running her finger along it.
“Watch your finger,” I said, just trying to be safe as I moved the blade under the scale, and watched as it cut effortlessly through the skin underneath, removing the scale completely from the tail.
Liane stared at it. “So easy…” she muttered.
I quickly stored the dragon and the scale away, and only after a moment Liane remembered the armour, turning me towards her.
“Open the jacket, let me see!” she said.
I opened it up, showing her the mail as she scrutinised it.
“Is it legendary as well?” she asked.
I didn’t know that, so I just shrugged.
“I really like the drag…” she began to say, but there was a pressure in the room halfway through the word.
“As I was saying, I really like the Lily embroidery on here, and Crisplet,” Liane said.
Looking over her shoulder, I saw Lily sitting there, staring at us. “Lily, you can’t just bully everyone who mentions the dragon on the armour. Remember, the suit has your face on it and not a dragon!”
Lily just let out a huff of breath before moving over to the grarok that was pushed to the side.
“Don’t eat that! It’s for jerky. I’ll make you some lunch when I’m done. I promise,” I said.
I covered the armour back up and got to work, being extra careful with the knife as I cut, though it didn’t help all that much. On multiple occasions I slipped through the bone, and was so thankful to Martin for teaching me to cut away from myself all those months ago, or I might have lost a hand.
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It took me about an hour to butcher all three animals. The hardest ended up being the Miremaw. The bones were just too soft, and I struggled to tell what was bone or flesh. In the end, I cut it in half and practically ripped the bones out by hand. Cutting around it was impossible.
Liane was laughing at my struggles constantly, and Lily had vanished somewhere.
“How thin do I cut jerky?” I asked, looking at Liane.
“Usually you cut it with the grain, and you cut it half a finger thick. It will lose a lot of mass as it dries and loses water. Just remember to trim as much fat as possible because that’s what goes rancid the fastest,” Liane said.
I nodded, carrying all the cuts of meat into the kitchen so I could work on the counters. I got to work and ran into my newest problem almost immediately. The knife was cutting deep into the chopping board with every slice, even when I was desperately trying not to.
“You’re going to need a runescribed chopping board now, or you’ll go through those in no time,” Liane chuckled as she got comfortable in the corner.
“Where do you even buy one?” I asked.
“Easy enough to find one in the city. Often adventurers with very high strength need one, so it’s more common than you’d expect,” she said, before seemingly having a thought.
“Actually, Hari might have one? I don’t think he’s ever used it, but he always pulls out random, obscure equipment. Let me go ask,” she said as she vanished.
I went back to work on the meat, and by the time I had finished cutting the rump of the grarok, the chopping board was basically ruined, and Liane had not returned yet.
With a sigh, I threw that chopping board to the side and took the next one off the counter. This time I stored the knife away, pulling out my old one, and regretting it instantly as I struggled to cut the grarok meat again, but at least I didn’t cut the chopping board.
Nearly an hour had passed, and I had a giant pile of sliced meat, as I had nearly finished the grarok, when Liane finally returned.
“Sorry that took so long,” she said.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yep! Hari didn’t have one, nor did Milo or Jen, so I went into the city and purchased one,” she said, holding out a dark grey-looking block.
“Now, this is not automatic; you do need to activate the rune,” she said as she held her finger on the rune, and the board went from grey to white.
“As the white fades, just use the rune again, and you shouldn’t have any trouble, even with your knife, though you may still scratch it. It claims it’s as strong as dragon scale, and the owner said if we can cut it while enchanted, we’ll get our money back and a free board,” she said with a smirk.
“Shouldn’t we test it then?” I asked, confused. Why not try to get our money back?
“Nah, no need to try to break it, that’s being a bad sport,” Liane said, taking her spot back in the corner as I stored away all the grarok and got to work cutting up the Baelvryn. I was happy to see I was already close to three hundred pieces just from the grarok, and had not even started the other three, so I would have plenty of spares.
Time seemed to blur away as I got into the motion of cutting all the meat into strips. Before I knew it, I was all done with the Baelvryn stored away. I only used the tough and lean cuts of this one, saving most of the fatty pieces for other meals, and I was just finishing up the Miremaw. Since this one was so lean, I used it all.
Looking up, I saw Lily was back in the kitchen, as was Crisplet, though I’d need to make sure I didn’t get Crisplet’s help, at least with the jerky I was to give Micca. I didn’t want to give everything fire immunity.
Storing everything, I realised just how much I had, with over five hundred strips of Baelvryn, three hundred grarok, and close to two hundred Miremaw. I was well and truly over my required amount.
“Do you know if Milo is still studying?” I asked Liane.
After a nod, I poked my head into the dining room, seeing Milo now with a growing stack of wood.
“Um, Milo, sorry to interrupt. Would I be able to get your help?” I asked.
I seemed to break him out of a deep concentration, and I actually felt bad.
“Yeah, sure, a break would be good anyway. What’s up?” Milo said as he stood up, stretching.
“I’m about to start the jerky, but I need as many hooks as possible to hang the meat from in the smoker,” I said.
“Ah, yes, no problem. Let’s get on it. You’ll need to get some proper metal racks from a smith, as the stone ones will be far rougher on the meat,” Milo suggested.
Entering the smoker, it was pretty bare. There was a fire pit in the middle of the room, and then along the edge there were very basic hooks to hang items. However, Milo got to work as stone shot out of the walls, connecting to the opposite side as small hooks started appearing along the length of the bar.
In the end, there were dozens of bars on all the walls, giving far more than enough.
“Now remember, don’t go too crazy on these,” Milo said with a smile.
I just nodded.
Following him back to the kitchen, I needed to season all the pieces I would use, and each creature has a speciality, with grarok being Endurance, Baelvryn being Strength, and the Miremaw offering Perception, so I decided to dive into that, adding the dried virfolium to the grarok to give it minor Regeneration as well as Endurance.
To the Baelvryn, I added quickroot powder so it would gain a Stamina buff, and finally for the Miremaw, I added ground blood owl beak so it would gain an extra perception point and minor regeneration.
I then spent far too long painstakingly hanging up every piece of meat while Lily, Liane, and Crisplet watched. However, I knew they couldn’t help because it would likely not work if they did, although I would absolutely test it thoroughly after this run to make sure and not make the same mistake I did with the wine, in the end I hung up three-hundred and fifty pieces, just to make sure we had some spares.
The fire was one of the most important parts of a smoker. I wanted a cold smoke, which meant I needed wet wood that would smoke more and burn slower. I had to get fire from the burning oven in the kitchen, as I had no idea how to start the fire without Crisplet, and although I didn’t think that would be enough to ruin anything, I didn’t want to take the chance.
Finally, I got the fire started, and it began to smoke, so with a last look, I left the room. I would need to come back and make sure it doesn’t get too hot, and to make sure the wood is still burning.
As soon as I walked back into the kitchen, all eyes were on me.
“All sorted?” Liane asked.
Nodding slowly, wondering what trap I was going to walk into.
A giant grin broke across her face. “It’s lunchtime!”
Crisplet burst into sparks, and I could have sworn Lily was nodding.
“Alright, alright, lunch then candy,” I said.