The Primitive Adventures of a Chipmunk 38

Chapter 38

The weather had turned cooler, and the mutton, which had been left out for two days, had not spoiled. But whether it was because it was a wild animal or because the tribe members hadn’t handled it properly when they killed the goat, the mutton had a particularly strong, gamey smell, so strong it was overpowering.

He washed it several more times in the river, rinsing away the blood that had seeped out of the mutton. Hua Shi’an leaned in and sniffed the bamboo tube—ew, so gamey, so gamey. The lingering, rank smell made his head spin.

Fortunately, Chief Mu had specially saved him the raw meat, so he could cook it himself to remove the gamey and rank smell. If it had been a bamboo tube of cooked mutton, he would have had to pinch his nose to eat it.

After washing the meat and returning, the hunting and gathering teams had already gone out. The few tribe members in the camp had also started their new day’s work. The morning’s hustle and bustle gradually dissipated, and life returned to peace.

Cooking for one person was easy. Hua Shi’an walked to the fire pit, directly used the dried pine cones to build a small pile of firewood, then stuck the bamboo tube with the mutton into the pile, and started a fire to cook.

Mutton stewed in a bamboo tube, no need to wash pots or bowls, convenient and fast.

He had wanted to be lazy, but plans can’t keep up with changes. The fire starter went out. Hua Shi’an had just managed to get the fire started with great effort when Yan Qiuyu and Mo Huaishan arrived, each carrying a bamboo tube of raw meat to the camp.

“The Lord Priest has started cooking? Why aren’t you using a pot?”

Without starting a fire or washing the meat, Yan Qiuyu stood behind Hua Shi’an, making small talk, asking all sorts of things.

Hua Shi’an grunted in acknowledgment. Before he could speak, Yan Qiuyu looked at the chestnuts in his hand and started chattering again, “Why are you peeling the chestnuts when they’re still raw? Aren’t you going to roast them? Are you going to put them in the soup to stew with the meat? And that—”

“Stop chattering and bring it over,” Hua Shi’an sighed, put down the half-peeled chestnut, and turned to the two beastmen, holding out his hands.

“B-Bring what?”

As if he had been tricked into coming, the honest Mo Huaishan was stunned.

But Yan Qiuyu, who had had this idea from the beginning, decisively stuffed the bamboo tube into Hua Shi’an’s hands and quickly thanked him, “Thank you, Lord Priest. You’ve worked hard, Lord Priest!”

After speaking, Yan Qiuyu nudged Mo Huaishan with his arm and said directly, “Are you stupid? Quick, give it to the Lord Priest. He’s a good cook. He’ll help us cook it!”

Huh? He was asked to come and cook the meat, but it turned out to be asking the Lord Priest to help them cook the meat?

He had indeed been tricked. Mo Huaishan finally reacted, his face flushing red. “The Lord Priest is also ti-tired. It’s not right to trouble him. We, we’ll do it ourse—”

“Hurry up,” Hua Shi’an interrupted him, his chin slightly raised.

“O-Okay,” Mo Huaishan reluctantly handed the bamboo tube to Hua Shi’an.

Cooking one portion of meat was the same as cooking three. It wasn’t too much trouble. And the two beastmen had work in their eyes. They weren’t just masters who would wait for their food. One helped add firewood and peel chestnuts, and the other helped fetch water and wash the meat, leaving Hua Shi’an with nothing to do.

Mixing three portions of mutton together, it was no longer suitable to stew it in a bamboo tube. So Hua Shi’an had the beastmen wash a small stone pot and pour the washed mutton into it.

After the water boiled, he skimmed off the foam, blanched it once, and then boiled a new pot of clear water. The blanched mutton was put into the cold water, ginger slices were added to remove the gamey smell and enhance the fragrance, and a few of the stone lychees that hadn’t been eaten before, and the semi-dried sour papaya slices were added for flavor.

Mutton takes a long time to stew, so there was no rush to put the chestnuts in. Hua Shi’an used two large bamboo sheets as a lid to cover the stone pot, then turned to remind the beastmen to lower the fire a little and let it simmer slowly.

The seasonings available in the tribe were pitifully few. He had put in everything he could. Whether this pot of mutton soup would be delicious or not was up to fate.

Of course, it didn’t matter if it wasn’t delicious. Hua Shi’an had a backup plan.

After washing his hands and sitting down by the fire again, Hua Shi’an took three long, smooth bamboo skewers from the beastmen. He then picked up a bamboo tube that was placed to the side. Inside were more than ten pieces of blanched mutton.

It was a rare occasion to eat proper meat. Hua Shi’an was not willing to just stew it all in one pot. So after blanching it, he had picked out the mutton with a good mix of fat and lean, clear texture, and fewer bones, and planned to make some mutton skewers.

He cut the mutton into slightly smaller pieces and skewered them onto the bamboo skewers.

The three of them each took a bamboo skewer and slowly roasted them over the fire. In a short while, the mutton with a mix of fat and lean sizzled and dripped with oil, and a rich, meaty aroma filled the air with the smoke.

If you sniffed carefully, you could still smell the gamey taste. The two beastmen had no reaction to this smell, but Hua Shi’an frowned slightly.

Without chili and cumin, the gamey taste would definitely not be suppressed. What else could be used to mask the taste? Hua Shi’an looked around and suddenly saw the back basket with the honeycomb in the open space next to him.

Oh, right! His eyes instantly lit up. He quickly got up and went over to break off a small piece. He directly used the flattened honeycomb as a brush and evenly brushed a small amount of honey on the mutton skewers.

Roasted over charcoal, the honey-brushed meat skewers cooked faster. Before long, the slightly whitish mutton turned golden and oily. The overflowing oil dripped into the charcoal fire, and a rich, meaty aroma mixed with a faint, sweet fragrance lingered in the air above the camp.

Attracted by the fragrance, the busy tribe members in the camp all turned their heads and unconsciously swallowed their saliva. But they were very sensible. They watched from a distance and no one came over to look, because they had already eaten meat. Going over would only make the beastmen who were cooking the meat feel awkward.

Not noticing the tribe members’ gazes, Hua Shi’an’s attention was entirely on the mutton skewers.

They were almost cooked. The mutton on the skewers had obviously shrunk, and the outer layer had become golden and tempting. Finally, he sprinkled a little salt, lifted the skewer, blew on it a couple of times, and decisively opened his mouth and tore off a large piece of meat.

Fragrant! The honey and mutton were a perfect match. Under the charcoal fire, the surface of the mutton had formed a golden, crispy skin, while the lean meat inside was tender. With one bite, the meat juices burst out, simply to die for.

There was still a little bit of a gamey taste, but it was really just a little. You could barely taste it if you didn’t savor it. The only drawback was probably that the honey hadn’t been diluted with water, so it was a bit too sweet.

To be able to roast such mutton skewers with a lack of seasonings, Chef Hua Shi’an was already very satisfied.

Needless to say, the two beastmen were like they had been starved for three days and nine meals, eating the meat in large mouthfuls. They had no time to speak at all, their mouths stuffed, their cheeks puffed out, truly embodying what it meant to eat like a wolf.

After finishing the mutton skewers, the chestnut and mutton that had been stewing in the pot for a long time was also ready. The milky white mutton soup was bubbling away, the steam rising, and the unpleasant gamey smell was completely gone, replaced by a faint, milky fragrance and a rich, mutton flavor.

After sprinkling salt and scooping it into bamboo tubes, without caring about the heat, the three of them sat around the fire and feasted, a bite of meat, a sip of soup, a bite of chestnut, their faces filled with contentment.

He had wanted to go back to the tree hollow to catch up on sleep after eating the meat, but after a bowl of mutton soup, Hua Shi’an’s back no longer ached, his legs no longer hurt, and he was not so tired anymore. So after eating and drinking his fill and cleaning up the area around the fire, he and the two beastmen processed the three back baskets of honey.

The tribe didn’t have any large containers. The only two that could be used were the two large stone pots.

For this reason, before extracting the honey, Mo Huaishan and Yan Qiuyu had made a special trip to the gravel beach and brought back a large stone pot from the salt spring.

The honeycomb was soft, so it wasn’t difficult to extract the honey.

They wrapped the large pieces of honeycomb in coir sheets, held the top with one hand and the bottom with the other, and like wringing out clothes, they could very easily squeeze out the honey into the pre-cleaned stone pot.

The coir sheets were not only a tool for squeezing honey, but also a cheesecloth for filtering impurities. Its dense, net-like fibers could only let through water-like honey, while the broken comb residue from the squeezing process would remain in the coir sheets.

Of course, using coir sheets to filter honey also had its disadvantages, because in the process of squeezing, it would also shed fibers. Short, thin coir fibers would occasionally fall into the honey, which annoyed Hua Shi’an to no end.

Meticulous work was not tiring, but it was very tedious.

One stone pot, a stack of coir sheets, and the three of them were busy for most of the day.

They had been dealing with honey all day, and they were almost marinated in it. Their mouths and noses were full of sweetness. Finally, when the sun was at its peak, around three or four in the afternoon, all three back baskets of honey had been squeezed out.

The hard work was worth it. This batch of honeycomb had a high honey yield. Three back baskets of honeycomb had yielded a full three large pots. After being packed into bamboo tubes, Hua Shi’an counted them again. There were twenty-one full, large bamboo tubes, as thick as a calf.

There were more than fifty people in the tribe. Although each person wouldn’t get much if it was divided equally, this was only the first batch. If they could find other large hives in the future, and the entire hunting team went up the mountain to collect them, they would have an endless supply of honey.

The soft honeycomb was compressed, and it instantly shrank a lot. Three back baskets became one back basket of comb residue.

He was tired. He really couldn’t be bothered today. Hua Shi’an covered the comb residue with a coir sheet and left it in the camp. Finally, he drank a cup of honey water from rinsing the pot, said goodbye to the beastmen, and left, taking half a bamboo tube of honey with him.

As if he knew he would be sleeping for a long time, after returning to the tree hollow and putting away the honey, Hua Shi’an took his mouthwash cup and toothbrush, and the sheepskin that Chief Mu had given him, and went to the river. He hadn’t bathed in several days. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, scrubbed the mud off his body, and at the same time, soaked the sheepskin in the water.

After cleaning himself up and returning to the tree hollow, Hua Shi’an’s eyes were almost closed, but he still didn’t rush to sleep. He sat at the low table and rummaged through the bamboo tubes, finding the tooth-achingly sour jam that he had made with a few sub-beastmen a few days ago.

The jam was durable and wouldn’t go bad in two or three days. Hua Shi’an leaned in and sniffed it. Hmm, very fragrant, the fruity aroma was still strong.

Not forgetting his original purpose, Hua Shi’an picked up the bamboo tube and slowly poured the thick, sweet, and amber-like translucent honey into the jam, stirring it evenly with chopsticks.

Honey and jam were a great match. Just by pouring in the honey and stirring for a while, it was as if autumn had moved into the tree hollow. Blueberries and cranberries were laden with dense fruit, and swarms of bees were flying around. The entire tree hollow was filled with a fresh, sweet, and fruity fragrance.

Looking at the purplish-black jam on the bamboo chopsticks, which exuded a fragrant smell, Hua Shi’an’s lips parted slightly, and he took a gentle lick.

The jam was sour and fragrant, and the honey was fresh and sweet. The combination of the two was simply perfect. The sourness was suppressed by the sweetness but not completely covered. It was sweet and sour, and the rich fruity and floral fragrances were intertwined, running rampant in his mouth. The perfectly balanced taste was irresistible.

He had made the dumplings for this vinegar. It was not a waste of effort after all.

Hua Shi’an licked the blueberry jam on his chopsticks, his eyes, which had been narrowed from sleepiness, exceptionally bright.