Under One Person: My Inner Realm Connects to All Worlds!

Chapter 26 Wang Wu's Descendants
Kyoto has a high demand for meat, so there are many restaurants and stalls. In order to buy fresh ingredients, many people often arrive as early as four or five o'clock to wait for the first batch of cut meat.

Note that it is not slaughtering, but cutting up.

After being slaughtered, live animals go through a rigor mortis phase. At this time, the meat has a poor texture and an unpleasant smell. It is also very tough after cooking, and the broth is quite cloudy.

Once the rigor mortis has passed, the meat begins to mature, also known as meat aging. Meat in this mature stage is the most suitable for consumption, exhibiting a series of reactions.

For example, enzymes break down proteins into flavorful amino acids; convert liver glycogen into sweet-tasting glucose; and transform fats into flavorful fatty acids.

This series of reactions gives the meat a rich meaty and nutty flavor during the post-ripening stage, and makes it tender, juicy, and delicious after cooking.

Where there is demand, there is supply. Over time, the restaurant and stall owners formed a morning market in front of the slaughterhouse, where skilled butchers cut and processed whole cattle and sheep on the spot and then sold them together.

Of course, large quantities of meat are still supplied to supermarkets, markets, and other key partners.

But if there's money to be made, why not take it? It's good to get rid of some of it right here in my own neighborhood.

At this moment, Han Yun went straight to a knife-wielding master with a weathered face. In his hands, the beef was quickly dissected without any hesitation, clearly showing that he was a master craftsman.

"Which part do you want? How much? Let's agree on a minimum of 100 jin!" The chef asked without even looking up.

"Thirty catties of beef shank, thirty catties of hanging tenderloin, thirty catties of beef ribeye, thirty catties of beef brisket. Oh, and master, can you process it here? I'll pay extra!" Han Yun said with a smile.

The master chef then looked up at Han Yun, his eyes unusually bright, but his hands moved quickly, pulling over a beef leg and asking, "How should I cut it?"

"Cut the brisket into chunks, slice the tenderloin thinly, cut the beef shank whole along the grain, and cut the ribeye into small pieces the size of chess pieces."

Han Yun almost blurted out, "Cut it into minced meat."

The chef, being knowledgeable, immediately said, "Beef brisket has a good balance of fat and lean meat with tendons and membranes, making it suitable for stewing. The collagen in it will release and make the broth rich and flavorful. The brisket has a snowflake-like marbling, combining tenderness with a rich, oily aroma, making it perfect for hot pot."

"Beef shank is suitable for braising. It is rich in collagen and becomes chewy and tender after braising. Beef ribeye is evenly marbled with fat and lean meat, shaped like an eye, with strong fat penetration and a prominent aroma after roasting."

"Sure, let's eat here!"

Han Yun asked, "Can't I just run a restaurant?"

The experienced chef gave him a strange look: "What restaurant would order so little stuff, and still make hot pot, barbecue, braised meat, and stew? Does it even go together?"

Han Yun touched his nose: "Two more beef hearts and ten pounds of beef liver, no need to cut them!"

Although the master chef was talking, his hands moved with incredible speed, like a blur, and in less than ten minutes, the hanging dragon was already cut.

Han Yun clicked his tongue and laughed, "Master, your hand speed is pretty fast!"

The experienced chef said nonchalantly, "I've been cutting meat for decades. I know exactly how to cut it and how to save effort. I deal with this meat every day, how could I not be fast?"

"is it?"

"But why do I feel that there's a murderous aura emanating from your blade?" Han Yun said in a low voice.

The master cut the meat and immediately paused, then laughed, "What murderous aura? You young man have read too many novels. Even if you have murderous aura, it comes from killing cows." Han Yun shook his head, looking regretful, and said, "A perfectly good killing technique, now it can only be used to slaughter cows and sheep. What a pity!"

After saying that, Han Yun stared straight at the other person.

"Young man, what do you mean?" The old master narrowed his eyes, a hint of danger in them.

Han Yun leaned closer and whispered, "I really feel sorry that the descendant of the dignified Wang Wu, the Great Swordsman, has been reduced to a butcher. It's a real waste of his talent!"

The old master craftsman pretended to be deaf and dumb, saying, "I don't understand what you mean."

He was still cutting meat, but he was clearly distracted, and also wary of Han Yun, so his knife speed had slowed down.

When they got to the last piece of ribeye, Han Yun smiled and reminded him, "Master, you're too slow!"

Before he could react, Han Yun snatched the knife away with a flick of his wrist. He then sliced ​​the beef rib meat as if it were a single, sweeping cut, but in reality, he made over a hundred cuts in an instant.

Fortunately, it was winter, around four or five o'clock, and the sky was as dark as night, with only a few incandescent lights illuminating the area. The morning market was noisy, and no one else paid attention to this place.

The master chef looked at the "untouched" beef ribeye with some doubt, but when Han Yun picked up a small piece of meat, it instantly split into a pile of chess pieces.

"What superb swordsmanship!" the master craftsman thought to himself.

The old master chef stared at the pile of meat pieces, each as thin as a chess piece, his eyes gradually sharpening. He slowly straightened up, wiped his fingers on his apron, and asked in a low voice, "Young man, who exactly are you?"

Han Yun gently placed the knife back on the cutting board, a smile playing on his lips: "Just someone interested in knife skills, eager to learn and simply want to exchange ideas with a senior."

The old master shook his head: "The younger generation of the Wang family no longer gets involved in matters of this circle. Please leave!"

As he spoke, the master chef packed the meat that Han Yun had ordered into a bag and brought it to him.

"Don't be like that, Master. To be honest, I actually come from a family of martial arts practitioners. You probably know how difficult this path is. Didn't Senior Wang Wu also stumble and fall and suffer countless scornful looks before he learned all these skills?"

"I genuinely want to experience the Wang family's swordsmanship. After this matter is over, I will have no further involvement. What do you think?"

The old master seemed very stubborn: "Young man, the Wang family's knife skills have long been lost. I'm just a butcher, how would I know anything about knife skills? You've come to the wrong person."

He waved his hand and turned to pack up his stall.

Han Yun stopped him and said with a smile, "Master, I know what you are worried about. First of all, my identity is very clean, and I am definitely a Han Chinese."

"Secondly, what era are we living in? Those old almanacs from previous dynasties don't exist anymore. Even if you have ancestral instructions to live in anonymity, there's a time limit!"

The old master shook his head, but his tone softened a bit. He sighed and said, "Young man, you don't know, some grudges can't be erased by time, especially those within the industry."

"You never know when they might rise up and still hold a grudge. I know of several families like that. You know, when it's time to keep a low profile, you have to keep a low profile."

Han Yun glanced at the master chef quietly, cupped his hands in greeting, paid the money, picked up the meat, and turned to leave.

(End of this chapter)