I'm the Culinary God

Once the Sour Plum Sauce was ready, Lin Xu came over to the oven and adjusted the temperature to 250 degrees.

During the roasting process for Roasted Goose, the oven temperature doesn’t stay the same; it’s adjusted according to how far along the roast is.

Generally, you start with a slightly lower temperature when the goose first goes in, raise it after a while, then lower it again once the goose has basically set in shape, and right before and after taking it out, you raise the temperature again.

Doing it this way keeps the goose meat tender, makes the fat under the skin more fragrant, and turns the skin extra crisp.

Aside from this regular, variable-temperature method, there’s also a low-temp roasting technique where the oven stays under 100 degrees at the start.

The so-called low-temp method means you first use an oven temperature of just a few dozen degrees to dry the goose skin until it’s dry and smooth, then you raise the temperature and roast as usual.

This roasting style is often used when the goose carcass hasn’t had enough time to air-dry; it’s a compromise you make to save time.

"Wow, I can see the fat dripping!"

Shen Jiayue held the camera, shooting close-ups from the transparent viewing window of the oven. When she saw the goose, already turned golden, actually sizzling and oozing fat, she swallowed unconsciously.

It really looked insanely tempting.

Too bad they still had to wait. She really just wanted to tear off a piece, hold it in her hand, and start eating on the spot.

Once she finished filming the close-ups, Lin Xu finally spoke:

"Didn’t you just make a pile of fries? If you’re hungry you can eat the fries first, and try my Sour Plum Sauce while you’re at it, see if there’s anything wrong with it."

There wasn’t really anything wrong with the Sour Plum Sauce. After all, this was the Perfect Level method.

The only reason Lin Xu said that was to give Shen Jiayue an excuse to eat fries, so she wouldn’t keep sneaking peeks at the Roasted Goose in the oven and risk burning herself.

Right now both the oven mouth and the oven walls were very hot; it was best to stay as far away as possible.

"We’re about to eat Roasted Goose and you’re telling me to eat fries first—what’s your angle? Hmph, are you planning to sneak a few bites behind my back?"

Lin Xu was helpless in the face of Shen Jiayue’s wildly imaginative brain:

"It needs more than fifty minutes to roast. We probably won’t be eating until close to five, it’s still early. If you keep standing here I’m afraid you’ll get burned..."

"Then I’ll just bring the fries over and eat with you. I’m sticking with you anyway."

Running into this kind of clingy gremlin, Lin Xu could only keep doting on her:

"Okay, go get them. The two of us will camp out right here today."

So there they were, breathing in the Lichee wood aroma drifting out of the oven, the little couple dipping freshly made fries into Sour Plum Sauce, perfectly content.

By almost five o’clock, the Roasted Goose was done.

The sign that the goose is cooked is very obvious: when the skin in the center of the breast and belly forms a clear concave line, it means the meat is fully done.

Lin Xu opened the oven door, and a blast of rich fragrance surged out.

"Wow, that smells amazing!"

In the cloud of aroma, a plump Roasted Goose with a glossy reddish hue appeared in front of them. Lin Xu picked up the special fork used for taking food off the roasting rack, and one by one lifted the geese hanging in the oven, hooking them onto the cooling rack beside it.

Every goose shone with a bright color, as if coated in a layer of glaze. Shen Jiayue whipped out her phone and started snapping away, then immediately posted to the group:

"Send me 50 and I’ll feed you the most authentic Cantonese crispy Roasted Goose."

As soon as she sent it, the fan group exploded:

"Only fifty? That’s way too cheap, Boss Lady. Can you give me a hundred’s worth instead?"

"Cut me a serving of the upper quarter, I’m drooling over here!"

"Boss Lady has got to be joking, right? With goose this good, pricing it at fifty is a total loss."

"I’d be happy just to gnaw a single bone to curb my cravings."

"It looks so tempting. Boss Lin finally remembered he installed that roasting oven, huh."

"Even though Lin Ji never mentioned putting roast duck on the menu, I knew the day would come. Hope it’s soon, so we can see Lin Ji’s roast duck and compare it with the other roast ducks in Yanjing."

"..."

The chat was buzzing, and out in the booth seating outside the kitchen, the members of the fat-loss squad were already in place. To make sure they didn’t miss the Roasted Goose, Chen Yan had even canceled filming the last dish of Human Flavors.

They were chatting about fitness topics while they couldn’t help glancing toward the oven, hoping to get a bite of the long-awaited Roasted Goose as soon as possible.

Meanwhile at the table next to them, Geng Lishan was explaining the history of goose on the dining table to Xie Baomin, Shen Guofu, Cui Qingyuan, Old Huang, Old Sun, and the others who’d come over to join the fun:

"Back in the Ming Dynasty, at any grand banquet, the very first course had to be goose. Goose outranked pork, beef, lamb, and all other meats. In The Golden Lotus, there are dozens of banquets big and small; at every formal banquet, goose is indispensable. Roasted Goose, steamed goose, crystal goose, braised goose—it’s all there."

Old Sun picked up the thread:

"My deepest impression of goose in the Ming Dynasty is with Xu Da. He had that huge carbuncle on his back, yet the Ming Taizu bestowed steamed goose on him. A lot of people learned from that story that goose is a ’trigger food’—eating it will make poisonous sores flare up."

Cui Qingyuan wasn’t interested in history; he was more curious about how food traditions changed:

"Then why has that tradition disappeared now? Outside Guangdong, goose even gives people this feeling of being kind of unpresentable. Even Northeast-style braised big goose is treated as just an ordinary domestic bird."

Geng Lishan shook his head:

"I’m pretty curious about that myself. I tried digging up information before, but the historical records are too fragmentary, and what food writers say is way too subjective. It’s hard to judge."

Just as he was talking, Shen Jiayue came running over from the oven side, carrying a whole Roasted Goose:

"Anyone who wants photos, hurry up. Xu Bao’s about to start carving. This goose is gorgeous—hurry, take one of me first so I can flex on my Moments."