I'm the Culinary God

"Xu Bao, what time are you making roasted goose tomorrow?"

Shen Jiayue excitedly rubbed her hands together, her mind filled with visions of roasted goose with crispy, reddish skin. The taste of roasted goose with crispy skin and tender meat, paired with sour plum sauce, was simply amazing!

Lin Xu said:

"The process of making roasted goose is quite intricate. Even if we start preparing tomorrow morning, the goose won’t come out of the oven until around dinner time... Luckily, when the shop built the duck roasting oven, it came with a full set of equipment including the drying room, otherwise it would be even later."

There are many steps in making roasted goose. Even if the goose is already slaughtered, it still needs to go through a series of processes including stuffing, stitching, inflating, scalding the skin, applying water, and drying the goose before it can officially be placed into the oven for roasting.

Among these steps, just the drying process alone takes four to five hours, and that’s with a professional drying room. Without a drying room, it would take even longer.

To prevent any delays tomorrow morning, after eating a piece of Red Crispy Chicken, Lin Xu sent a message to Che Zai:

"Contact Old Huang, have him deliver ten black-brown geese around 90 days old tomorrow morning, preferably plucked but ungutted. I want to make Cantonese roasted goose."

Northern regions don’t often eat roasted goose. Most of the large geese in restaurants are either made into braised goose or stewed pot goose, usually with the belly cut open quite thoroughly.

However, roasted goose requires a small incision about four centimeters under the tail. If it exceeds that, the roasted goose might leak air during cooking.

If the purchased goose has been eviscerated, it can’t be used for this dish.

The best method is to bleed and pluck the goose, then bring it to the shop for Lin Xu to remove the innards. This not only ensures a smaller incision but also allows them to keep the goose’s innards.

With the innards cleaned up, they can be used for dishes or given to Xu Xinhua to make braised dishes, ensuring no waste of ingredients.

"Ten geese? Does this mean we plan to indulge all at once?"

Shen Jiayue was thrilled, ten geese! It would definitely be a feast!

Zeng Xiaoqi and Chen Yuanyuan were also surprised:

"Isn’t it just a trial? Why make so many at once?"

Lin Xu chuckled:

"So everyone can have a taste, and we can explore the process of making roasted geese in batches."

Many dishes are completely different concepts when made individually versus in batches, and the processes required are also entirely different. For instance, many meat dishes in restaurants are made into semi-finished products first and then fully cooked when ordered by customers.

This way, the taste remains excellent while saving a lot of time so diners aren’t kept waiting.

Roasted goose naturally has methods for batch processing, and it’s not just about batch cooking; you also have to find the best timing for drying the goose so you can prepare stock in advance.

When making roasted goose, you can’t be rushing to stuff, stitch, inflate, and scald the goose every day. Instead, all these steps should be completed before closing the previous day so the next morning, you can roast leisurely.

If tomorrow’s roasted goose turns out well, we’ll immediately have Old Huang bring over thirty more, preparing for the next day’s new menu item.

While they were discussing this, Che Zai had already contacted Old Huang and ordered ten black-brown geese.

Upon hearing this request, Old Huang quickly agreed:

"No problem at all, I promise it will be on time. Since Brother Lin is making roasted goose, it seems we’re in for another treat."

With the black-brown geese ordered, Che Zai took a shower in the restroom, then sat on the sofa and sent a message in Lin Ji’s Food’s fan group:

"The shop is about to introduce a new dish, a major dish, it’s the kind of dish that Cantonese folks can’t forget."

Yu Liyue, who happened to be resting from a live broadcast, saw the message and curiously asked:

"What dish? You say it’s unforgettable for Cantonese folks. I’m used to Lin Ji’s food; I can’t imagine any Cantonese dish that I would miss."

Currently, Lin Ji offers roast suckling pig, East Star Grouper, Braised Goose Feet, Claypot Rice, and various winter-appropriate stews. As a Guangdong native, it feels like there’s no Cantonese dish that can’t be found at Lin Ji.

As he was talking in the group, Che Zai hinted with a single word:

"Goose!"

Upon seeing the word "goose," Yu Liyue got excited right away:

"Wow, what’s Lin making with goose? Braised goose, roasted goose, or perhaps crispy roast goose, stewed goose, or white-cut goose?"

Cantonese folks have a love not only for chicken but for goose as well, especially fatty goose, which is delicious and indescribable no matter how it’s cooked.

The others in the group also became intrigued:

"I love goose too. Brother Che, tell us, what kind of goose is it?"

"Is this information reliable?"

"It’s not April Fool’s Day, don’t joke with us."

"Just tell us what it is. I’ll dream of tasting it tonight."

"..."

Seeing everyone urging him to speak, Che Zai said:

"It’s roasted goose. The boss plans to make a few tomorrow, and if things go well, you’ll be able to taste them the day after."

Though ten roasted geese seem like a lot, there are many people at the shop. Once they’re shared and the family gets a meal too, there won’t be much left.

As long as tomorrow’s roasted goose turns out fine, the new dish will definitely launch the following day.

So it doesn’t hurt to announce it now in advance.

Seeing this message, Yu Liyue couldn’t help but lick his lips and muttered to himself:

"Although freeloading isn’t nice, tomorrow’s roasted goose is a must-try at the shop."

Coincidentally, Strong Brother, who was examining his new notebook, also planned to visit the shop for some roasted goose tomorrow:

Qi Panpan asked curiously:

"The new dishes haven’t even been officially released yet. Is it appropriate to freeload like this?"