Chapter 127 – Cooking the boar steak
The oven was big.
That being said, I could not use all of the wood at once.
That was how large the tree that Hippolius knocked down was.
“I could take the extra wood back to the base and use it for fuel.”
We used it every day for cooking. And we would also need it for heating during the winter.
And so I put the extra wood inside of the magic bag.
After that, I split them into smaller pieces for firewood, and placed them inside of the oven.
You had to do it so that there was enough space for air to flow through.
Once that was finished…
“Grau.”
The dragon offered to help with the fire.
“Hmm? I appreciate the offer, but I think dragon flame would be a little too strong.”
It would likely burn up the wood in a second.
“Grau!”
“I see. In that case, I’ll leave it to you.”
The dragon said confidently that it could adjust the force of the flames.
“Graau…bo.”
And so the dragon unleashed a small flame.
It was about the size of a thumb, but it was white hot.
But once it was in the oven, it spread out into red flames.
“Oh, it continues to burn.”
“Grau!”
The dragon wagged its tail proudly.
Once the flames had reached the bottom of the firewood, they continued to burn without dying out.
And then the wood started to burn slowly.
“Dragon. It is perfect. I see that dragons are good at starting fires for cooking.”
“Graaaauuu!”
Apparently, it did this at home as well. As they sometimes cooked their meat like this.
“I thought dragons cooked their meat with fire directly.”
“Gaau. Graau. Grau.”
While it could do it with breath, it was harder to adjust the heat like that.
It would have to be cooked for a long time at a low heat.
And since this was meat that dragons ate, it would be very large.
Maintaining your breath for that long would be difficult and tiring.
And a little mistake could result in burning the whole thing.
This was why the dragon burned wood or coal instead, and cooked the meat on top of a heated rock.
“Grau. Gaau.”
“I see. So it’s important to cut the meat into thin slices as well.”
Of course, this was only thin by dragon standards.
They would still be something like ten centimeters thick.
“You are quite the cook.”
“Grau.”
“I see. So it’s good if you cook them on lava that has cooled off.”
“Grau, gauuu. Grau.”
I did not know that.
I wondered how different it would even be compared to cooking it on stone.
However, the dragons had tested it with various stones, so it must be true.
“Grau-gau, grau.”
“It is your treasure? I see.”
As Adventurers knew, dragons liked to collect treasures.
However, their idea of what was valuable was not the same as humans.
A thief might sneak into a dragon’s lair, and be disappointed to find a stone slab for cooking meat.
“So, dragons get together and cook meat on a lava board?”
Apparently, Kelly had not known about this. And her eyes shone as she wrote it down in her notebook.
As I was translating for Kelly…
‘Hippolius want to eat too.’
Hippolius started to rub its head against my foot.
“A board made of lava. Well, we’ll have to see what the geologists say about that.”
“Kyuo.”
As we talked, the stone slab became hot enough.
“Now, it’s time to cook it.”
While the dragons ate very thick steaks, it would take too long to cook them.
And so I made them half as thick.
That was still quite thick for humans.
“And I’ll lower the fire so it doesn’t burn…”
I limited the amount of air that went through in order to lower the heat.
And then I placed the meat on top of the board.
It sizzled and looked delicious.
“…Kyuo.”
Hippolius’s eyes were shining as it gulped.
“Ije would have been able to cook them even better.”
“Grau?”
“Ah, Ije is one of our friends. She is a good cook.”
“Gagarau.”
“Boo-boo.”
Upon hearing this, the dragon and Boaboa’s child looked interested.
“Do you like salt and pepper, dragon?”
“Grau-gau.”
“So you like it with seasoning. Very well.”
“Grauu!”
“I see. You like it to be tasty.”
The dragon said it wanted plenty of salt and pepper on its meat.
“What about you, Boaboa?”
“Bui-bui.”
“Just salt then. Do you even know what pepper is?”
“Booobui.”
“You don’t know. Well, I’ll just add salt for now.”
“Bubui.”
Later, I could let her compare the two to see which she likes better.
And so I took out the salt from my magic bag and sprinkled it on the meat.
Salt and pepper was something that no modern Adventurer could live without.
“You’ll have it the same as me, Hippolius?”
“Kyuo.”
Like that, I took my time and cooked the meat, occasionally flipping it over.
Thanks for the treat. 🖖
Thanks for the chapter!