The Gourmet Customizer

Previously, this was the step he had improved to get his large meat buns to S Level.

Now, Su Chen was lost in thought once more.

’How can I keep the pork knuckle meat juicy without it being greasy? And how can the secondary ingredients retain their flavor without affecting the bun’s texture?’

There was only one answer!

The Su Chen of today, with his deep understanding of ingredients and mature cooking techniques, was incomparable to the greenhorn he used to be. He no longer needed to rely on constant trial and error to pinpoint the flaws.

’Not affecting the texture simply meant not adding the other ingredients in solid form. Retaining the flavor meant extracting it and mixing it in.’

’So...’

Su Chen placed the large, cooked but uncut piece of pork knuckle into a dry pan, then sprinkled the prepared chopped onions and chili peppers on top.

’A slow stir-fry over low heat...’

The pork knuckle, which had been stewed for over three hours, was practically falling apart. Without adding oil, he could only sauté it over a low flame, using the gradual temperature increase to render out some of the fat from under the skin, along with a bit of moisture.

Before long, a layer of mixed oil and water formed at the bottom of the pan, producing tiny bubbles over the low flame.

’This right here is the essence... The aroma is incredible.’

Su Chen marveled for a moment, then added the prepared shiitake mushrooms, minced onion, and chopped chili peppers to the pan.

When adding them, he had to push the pork knuckle aside and place the other ingredients directly into the hot liquid at the bottom.

’I hope this works!’

The pork knuckle was so tender that he couldn’t risk touching it too much with the spatula. He could only turn it over carefully, trying to prevent the skin from turning into a gelatinous mass.

As the vegetables sautéed in the rendered liquid at the bottom of the pan, he used a spoon to continuously baste the meat with the juices.

’This method is a bit like searing a steak...’

When searing a thick-cut steak, you have to constantly baste the top with butter to get the flavor to penetrate better.

Before long, all the finely chopped vegetables were sautéed to a golden brown. Only then did Su Chen lift the pork knuckle out of the pan.

He followed the familiar steps, dicing the meat into small cubes. As he was preparing to wrap the buns, Su Chen noticed that the broth left in the pan had now congealed into an aspic.

’What if I add the aspic? Could that fix the flaw of moisture loss?’

It was worth a shot!

Su Chen immediately divided the meat filling into two portions. He used the first portion to wrap the buns directly.

For the second portion, he added a small piece of the aspic before wrapping them.

The two types of buns went into two separate steamers. He brought the water to a boil over high heat, then turned it down to medium.

’The filling is already cooked, so I just need to wait five minutes.’

During those five minutes, Su Chen checked the Gourmet Practice Room’s new evaluation system.

The previous ranks and descriptions hadn’t changed, but the newly added evaluation rank left Su Chen a little confused.

[SS Level: Gastric Memory Stick.]

What kind of rating was that?

The old ratings were so much better. Things like, ’So good it’ll leave you speechless.’ How much more down-to-earth can you get!

What in the world was a "Gastric Memory Stick"?

Setting the evaluation system aside, the five minutes were soon up.

Su Chen lifted the two small steamers off the pot and opened the one without the aspic first.

[Pork Knuckle Big Meat Bun: S Level]

’Hmm... removing the solid ingredients didn’t lower the bun’s rank. This proves I’m on the right track. Time for a taste!’

He was thankful for the new tasting feature in the Gourmet Practice Room. It saved him the trouble of having to go and cook one in the real kitchen.

He took a bite. The soft, fluffy bun, filled with hearty meat, entered his mouth. This time, none of the strange textures from the other ingredients were present.

For instance, the soft-on-the-outside, crisp-on-the-inside texture of the onions, and the mushy texture of the shiitake mushrooms. In their place was a perfectly consistent texture!

Soft, supple, tender, and smooth!

The bun itself was fluffy and fragrant.

’It’s hard to describe... This is exactly the texture a bun should have. Nothing more, nothing less.’

’The only flaw was the same as before: a lack of moisture.’

Full of anticipation, Su Chen opened the second steamer.

’So... what about this bun, the one with no flaws...?’

[Pork Knuckle Soup-Filled Meat Bun: SS Level]

HISS!

’The practice room’s evaluation actually changed the name of the dish?’

Not only that, but the two sparkling, capital ’SS’ letters were so bright they made Su Chen’s eyes ache!

’So what on earth is a "Gastric Memory Stick"?!’

Su Chen held the bun as if it were a priceless treasure. "CHOMP!"

He took a bite.

"HISS! Hot, hot, hot..."

Just as the name suggested, the original big meat bun had become a soup-filled bun!

But it wasn’t a traditional soup-filled bun.

In traditional leavened soup-filled buns, the meat filling tends to form a ball, and it’s full of broth. A single bite naturally leads to a scalding mouthful of juices.

But this bun wasn’t like that at all!

Looking down, he couldn’t see any broth inside the bun. But he could vaguely discern that the large chunks of meat seemed to contain moisture. If he squeezed it gently, he could easily press the juices out from the meat.

That first bite had been too hot for Su Chen to taste anything. This time, he had to be more careful.

He blew on the filling, then took a small, cautious bite.

’The broth has the savory flavor of the meat and the aroma of the vegetables. There’s the fragrance of the chili peppers and the taste of shiitake mushrooms, but the onion flavor is very faint.’

’The meat is even more delicate and tender than in the previous version. The texture isn’t drastically different, but every bite releases a gush of rich broth.’

’Because the aspic melted inside, the inner surface of the bun has become firm. It’s also been soaked in the broth, making both the texture and flavor even richer.’