[The Dueling Exam: Arc 11]
[Planet Earth - Fortune Island - Fortune Hill - Fortune Lake - Saturday 10:00 a.m.]
38 managed to continue the cooking and each of them are being quite impressive at it for the moment.
"I'll make the most fantastic meal you'll ever see! You just watch Codey!" Ellie seemed to be quite annoyed of who he heard. "Seriously, for once in your life, shut the hell up. I got no intention in doing competition with such an idiot, I bet your meal will be extremely sucky, it won't even be worth looking at it." Codey sighed, angry. "Oh, really! Bet! Let's see how skilled your stupid finger noodles are!" Shouted Ellie in annoyance. Once again, the two of them began arguing. "These two are so annoying at times, instead of focusing on their meat, they should at least wait for the next test. I can't believe they might fail at the cooking test." Tim sighed, holding his forehead. "Don't get bothered by them too much, they'll get through it eventually. Although." From that Tim sighed. "Yeah, I guess. but still they-" However, Ayuka moved her face in front of Tim's facing at Codey and Ellie. "Are really annoying! Will you two just shut up already!" At that moment, both Codey and Ellie froze on the spot after hearing Ayuka's angry voice. "Yes, of course!" After bowing down, Tim seemed to be leaned backward with a sweat down his forehead. "Well that - sure was a quick turn of tables." Tim claimed, but then at the same time, Yasu and Shoji seemed to be rather confused.
"Is he really combining leaves and lemon juice, just what does he plan on doing, he's so focused on his greens that barely anything disturbs him." Thought Yasu. "Don't talk to much, when he is in that phase, he's overwhelmingly focused on his priority, and this right now is his 'focus on one goal' mode." Claimed Shoji. "Yeah, but still. Who would eat leaves?" In that instant a terrifying gaze faced Shoji and Yasu. "Now you've done it! Quick, back to work, ignore him!" Claimed Shoji as the two of them began working. Shin faced back to his goal.
"All right let's make this meal turn up the music!" Smiled Ume, ready to prepare a meal. Kaori then wondered while heating up the boar. "Do you even know what you're doing? You surely seem like you're a bit lost on what to do at this case?" But Kaori's question was useless as Ume spoke. "I know exactly what I am doing! Don't you worry!" Smiled Ume, giggly. "Well, you seem to not understand the meaning of 'identical warm spread'. You're turning that pig around at insane speed, you've gotta focus and begin slowly, not go rushing from the start." Explained Kaori, rather confused. "Oh.... well, ehehe! Don't worry, I may still provide an amazing dish, watch!" Smiled Ume and began to spin the boar slowly. "Hey. No offense Tim, but could I ask you for - help?" With embarrassement, Codey showed a sign for just a tiny help. "What is it?" Tim asked a bit confused. "I mean. I know I could use wind to make the spread equal, but do you think you could turn up..... I, by accidant stopped the fire." Codey claimed, embarrassed. "Seriously?" Tim was a bit annoyed. "....Ugh, fine. Whatever." Finally Tim decided to help with lighting up the fire. "You're the best, thank you very much!" But back to Shin, Yasu and Shoji.
"Y'know. He's really a bit 'too much' focused on that. Does he always get like this?" Shoji smiled. "He does - he never lets go of focus to once he is in testing, this means. Every work he does, such as cooking and plus, will pretty much make him too into the stuff, so he'll just forget about the surroundings and only hear the things that might insult his work." Claimed Shoji a bit uncomfortable. "Ah, this guy is actually quite interesting, and others seem to be doing great as well." Smiled Yasu.
".....Kylin, do you think you could give me a few 'headsups'? I am a bit on the verge of confusion. I cannot tell if I should combine the meat with either lemons or oranges." Wondered Midori a bit worried. "Just use all of it. Usually, people make these boars with at least both, lemons and oranges - but make sure they are halved." Smiled Kylin. "I suppose this will be helpful very much. But, what about gallons of water, how many?" Midori wondered adding orange juice and lemon juice. "4 gallons and at least additional 12, of water." "Huh, you are actually pretty smart when it comes to cooking." Claimed Midori a bit surprised. "I don't cook much - but I have made a great boar once. Though I was younger and it was still a bit too crunchy." Explained Kylin. "Oh! Is that so? Hmm. Well either way, you're helpful with these informations so I'll do whatever it takes to pass this third test." Midori giggled, preparing gallons of water.
"Wait. How about injecting.... I'm a bit confused...." Claimed Hideki.
"Ah, you'd like my help as well? Oh, well all right. I'll give you the other option of injecting something. Here is something you should know a bit.
Another good way to push flavor into the meat is with injection. This can be done instead of brining if you don't have time or space. Or it can be in addition to brining as a way to put more seasonings into the meat. Many meat injection needles are available. Just make sure to get a sturdy one as it can be a little tough to push through the raw pig skin. There are many injection recipes to be found as well. But, because we don't have recipes, here is something you should know about injecting.
For it you may need 1 cup of apple juice, 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 cup of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoonfull Worcestershire sauce and 1 teaspoonfull of salt." Explained Kylin.
"Dang. You made that explanation a bit hard to understand, bit how am I supposed to use injecting to my advantage, all you did was explain a bit, but not how to." Added Hideki. "Just mix the ingredients thoroughly. Pull the mix into the injection needle. Inject the mix into numerous places around the pig. Concentrate on the legs as well as the shoulders with a little along the back as well. It's simple, this is why we were given these needles, if we may need them." Explained Kylin once again.
"Could you deeply explain about mine?" Belovedly asked Midori. "Ah, all right then." From there she explained.
" We'll go with brining, so that I explain it better. An important step for roasting a whole pig is brining. This helps to season the meat but, more importantly, it adds moisture through osmosis that keeps the meat from drying out during the long cooking process. A large cooler works perfectly – people oftenly use a 120 quart cooler and have found it fits wild boar up to 50 pounds easily. Brine for at least 24 hours but 36 hours is preferable. Though cooler is something we should not worry about, since we don't have it. So just use the additional items that you've recieved, use that and use water to brine the ingredients.
For a basic brine combine 3/4 cup table salt per gallon of water or 1/2 cup pickling salt - dissolves easier - per gallon of water. I don't recommend kosher salt for brining because the grains are too large and difficult to dissolve. You can keep it this simple or you can add additional flavors – sugar, herbs, citrus, etc. It's fun to play with flavors at this point but know that anything you do here will be very subtle and if you add any smoke at all to the cooking process the flavors will likely be unnoticed. The main point of this step is to push salt and moisture deep into the muscles. That's pretty much what both of you should be aware about." Kylin explained.
"Do you remember when she said about 'not knowing'. I think she proved us wrong..." Sighed Hideki. "Yeeeeaaah. She sure did, seriously. You know way to much about it." Explained Midori. "Oh? You really - uh, think so? Thank you, I guess.." Claimed Kylin. "And another thing, I didn't know there were more types of salt...." Claimed Midori, embarrassed. "It's just something people usually do while they have every item needed, at home of course. Though, things work just a tiny bit differently around here, since we barely have any proper tools. Either way, these steps should help you quite a bunch." Explained Kylin, giggling.
"Wow. Kylin just gave them an entire explanation. Hush, that's something I didn't know she knew." Claimed Octavius, scratching his head. "True, but hey! Your pig! You're using way too much of fire!" Shouted Eguchi. Octavius got surprised so he immediately grabbed a cup of water and slipped it over stopping the fire. "This is the end. What can I do, the pig is fully burnt...." Octavius sighed, and the rest were a bit surprised.
[Planet Earth - Fortune Island - Fortune Hill - Fortune Lake - Saturday 10:35 a.m.]
"All right. I've given you additional 5 minutes to prepare the boar. But now, it is time that you finish it. Any additional accessories and you will be disqualified." Everybody finally stopped and time for taste has come. "We'll start with number 25." They've seen that number 25 was Kyou and he seemed to be quite interested so he brought the pig on plate that was given to Kameyo. "There you go, I believe that's all you asked for. Was it not?" Giggled Kyou when Kameyo faced at the meal. "Scoring the results on the looks, I'll give it a solid 8." Claimed Kameyo. "8 already, so I guess all that needs to be told is the taste." Answered Kaori. After Kameyo tasted, she seemed to be happy with it. "Taste, it's a well squishy and it's well cooked, taste it a high 9." Claimed Kyou. "Your total scoring is 8." Answered Kyou. "Ah, well, pardon myself, I was hoping for a 10, but that's fine too." Smiled Kyou, stepping aside. "You've put too much water on it, that is the only reason." Claimed Kameyo, that surprised the rest. ("She was able to tell that, just by tasting it that quickly? What is she? Is she skileld for tasting immediately???") Wondered Yasu, surprised.
"With number 25 by, next one is number 47." That was Ume so she came stepping in front of Kameyo, happily. "Here ya go, ma'am!" Smiled Ume, holding the plate with both hands in front. "The accessories are barely seen, that's a low 6." Claimed Kameyo. "Eh, t-that's fine. W-what about the taste, ehehehe...." Ume was getting quite worried. After, Kameyo tasted and delivered the taste. "For taste..... it's fine, solid 7, your full score, let is be 6. You pass." At that moment, Ume almost barfed from relief. "She scores that extremely detailed." Codey gulped. "Next, number 343." It was one of the examinees. "Here is the food." Claimed the man. This was Oishi Tadao, an adult examinee who came here to achieve 'Dueling Licenses' just like everybody else. "The accessories, they are way better than the first two, so I'll give it a 9. What you did with leftovers of the fruit and vegetables, that's pretty skilled. But the taste, that's what it matters the most." Claimed Kameyo and tried. She flinched a little. "Y....Your boar is not cooked enough. Sorry, but that is less than a 5. I'l ll give it a 3." This surprised Tadao and made him worried. "But, the accessories having a high 9, did save you at your final score, so let it be exactly 5." With that his eyes seen relieved. "I should of known, cooking it too slow would make the final taste bad." Claimed Tadao and stepped to the side.
There were additional 13 examinees who came before Tim and others, however, only 5 of them managed to pass.
"Next one up.... hm... Number 98." At that Kaori came stepping before Kameyo, and she was given a solid score of 7 and an 8, she managed to pass. "So luckly I added those sweet fruits." Claimed Kaori, sighing.
"Numbeeeer, 500." Kazuko came stepping forward, serious and all sticky from the honey. "Well, what you did with honey as accessories, that really looks very bad, so a score is a 3." At that she froze. "All-all right... w-what about, the taste, eeeeeh?" The taste was scored and it resulted in 7. "That's another 5 pointer. You pass I suppose." Claimed Kameyo. "Hah! What a rookie! She got a 5! One less and you'd fail!" Laughed Yutaku, but soon, he was up. "Number 711.... if you have high language, then why don't you step forward." At that Kazuko showed him a tongue to when Yutaku stepped forward. "The accessories..... that's worse than before, 2.... and the taste.... let's see..... I'll give it another 7." At that, he froze. "That's less than 5...." Claimed Kameyo and that made Yutaku shocked. "W...w...what? Wait, you haven't seen how well it's cooked! Please, can you count how well it was roasted?" Asked Yutaku, worried. "..... I suppose it was cooked well, but the accessories made it worse... all right, fine. I guess that's fair, I'll make the taste an 8, you pass..." At that Yutaku almost dropped on the floor while he stepped to the side. "And he calls me a loser..." Kazuko added.
"Wow, she's very serious about this.... she scores bad if she doesn't see the point in the food."
To be continued...