American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 212 Techniques of Oil Seals

Peeling is an extremely physically demanding process.

Lin Yu'an's breathing became heavy, and the warm air constantly impacted the cold air, forming thick white mist in front of him.

The wolf's carcass was cooling rapidly, and he could clearly feel the subcutaneous fat gradually losing its elasticity, transforming from a soft paste into a solid, hard wax-like substance.

This made each peeling process more difficult than the last, and he had to speed things up.

He encountered his first difficulty when he skinned the wolf down to its forelegs and shoulder blades.

He stopped what he was doing and pointed to that area: "The scapula, the muscle groups here are extremely complex, and the subcutaneous fat is very thin, the skin is almost directly attached to the fascia. You must never use brute force in this area."

He had to pick up the hunting knife again, but he couldn't use the blade to cut; he could only use the tip of the knife to peel the tightly adhered skin away from the complex muscle groups around the joint, bit by bit.

Every movement he made was extremely precise, because if he deviated even slightly, the sharp tip of the knife could tear the wolf pelt, a mistake that a hunter could not afford to make.

After dealing with the shoulders, the back and torso became much easier.

"Now, it's time for gravity to take effect."

He only needed to grasp the edges of the stripped fur with both hands, forcefully "shove" downwards between the skin and flesh with his fists, and simultaneously drop down using his own body weight.

"The entire skin will be peeled off in large pieces, just like taking off a heavy sweater, under the influence of gravity."

Finally, after nearly forty minutes of intense work, he arrived at the last and most delicate step: treating the head.

He peeled the skin down to the neck, and then carefully dealt with the ears, eyes, and mouth and nose—the most error-prone areas.

Then, using the tip of the knife, he precisely severed the cartilage connecting the ear from the inside, carefully separated the fascia of the eyelid from the eye socket, and finally completely peeled off the skin of the lips and nose.

As the last thread of connection was severed, a complete wolf pelt was perfectly peeled off and fell onto the snow below.

On the inside of its skin, a thin layer of pale yellow fat clung, gleaming oily in the grayish-white sunlight. For a wolf, this was all the possessions it could accumulate over the winter.

He carefully rolled up the wolf pelt, fur facing inwards, and tied it tightly with rope.

After skinning him, what was presented before him was a wolf carcass suspended in mid-air, its muscles clearly defined, its body covered with white fascia and fat, resembling a biological anatomical model.

Then he began to butcher the wolf meat, a process known among hunters as the "quartering".

He explained, "The hanging position is also the best posture for butchering large prey. This ensures that the pieces of meat do not touch the ground when being cut, keeping them as clean as possible."

Lin Yu'an's knife skills remained precise and efficient. He used the tip of his knife to accurately locate the gap connecting the hip joint to the hind leg, and then forcefully severed the joint capsule and ligaments.

"Crack!"

With a crisp crack of a joint dislocating, a whole wolf hind leg was cleanly and neatly removed by him, falling onto the birch bark spread out at his feet.

He has tested this technique on many animals and has mastered it to a high degree.

He used the same method to treat the other three legs.

Then, he began to take the two most valuable pieces of tenderloin.

"The tenderloin consists of the two softest muscles below the spine, which are encased in the abdominal cavity and must be removed first."

He carefully cut open the abdominal wall with a knife, not touching the huge, hollowed-out space, but instead reaching under the spine.

Then, the two long, slippery strips of tenderloin were completely peeled off from the attached fascia.

After doing all that, he began to process the strips of meat on the back. The blade followed the spines on both sides of the spine, slicing from the neck to the tail, cutting off two thick back muscles.

This is the red meat he needs most, and it's also the most valuable part.

"Many people are curious about the taste of wolf meat." He held up a piece of dark red tenderloin to the camera.

"It's completely different from dog meat. Wolf meat is very lean with almost no intramuscular fat, so it's tougher and has a very strong, wild flavor."

"Some people might find the gamey smell strong, but for someone like me who has long lacked red meat, this kind of meat, full of myoglobin, is exactly what my body craves!"

"The key to cooking wolf meat is to replenish the fat and slow cook at a low temperature. Direct grilling will make it dry and tough."

"Because high temperatures cause the tough connective tissue in its muscles to contract rapidly, squeezing out all the juices."

"The best method is a very old French cooking technique called 'confit'. Although I don't have that many seasonings here, the principle is the same."

"Specifically, it means completely submerging the cut pieces of meat in melted animal fat, such as the fish oil I rendered earlier or the wolf's own fat."

"Then, it is heated for several hours at an extremely low, non-bubbling temperature."

"During this process, two amazing things happen. First, the oil slowly seeps into the lean meat, making it juicy and flavorful."

"Secondly, and most importantly, prolonged exposure to low temperatures will slowly break down and melt the tough fascia in the meat, turning it into a soft and smooth gelatin-like substance."

"The end result is that the meat becomes exceptionally tender and can be easily crushed. It's a kind of culinary alchemy that can turn the rotten into the magical."

After finishing all this, Lin Yu'an began the final packing work.

He neatly arranged the four legs of meat, two tenderloins, heart, liver, kidneys, and the rolled-up wolf skin on the spread-out birch bark.

Then, he did something extremely important: he picked up his hunting knife, returned to the wolf carcass that was now just a skeleton, and began carefully scraping off all the usable fat.

This was no easy process, as wolves have almost no large clumps of fat. He could only patiently collect the scattered fat deposits around the abdominal organs and the subcutaneous fat layer.

“Alright, this is one of the most important spoils of the day.” He displayed all the collected pale yellow fat mixed with fascia in front of the camera.

"As I said before, the best way to cook wolf meat is to use its fat, but it has very little fat. These are all I can find, and they will be the soul of my wolf meat cooking."

All the scraped fat, along with the previously processed sausage casing fat, was carefully wrapped in a large piece of birch bark to create a grease pouch that wouldn't easily leak out.

Because he didn't bring a trailer and only had a limited-capacity hiking backpack, he had to make reasonable trade-offs and allocations.

"Guys, now it's the packaging stage, which is also the time that tests our planning skills the most."

"I must fit the most valuable items, which also best fit my next plan, into the limited space."

First, I stuffed the two most prized tenderloins, the heart, liver, and kidneys—the most valuable internal organs—along with the heavy bag of fat, into the main compartment inside the backpack.

"These are the most important assets and must be protected in the best way. Meat provides protein, offal provides vitamins, and fat provides energy and is key to cooking."

Then, he used nylon rope and the remaining four heavy leg muscles to securely bind the wolf skin and the remaining leg meat to the outside and top of his backpack using the "mountaineering binding method".

"External attachments can greatly expand the capacity of your backpack, but they must be tied very tightly and there should be no swaying. Otherwise, they will seriously affect your balance when walking and consume extra energy."

This made his backpack extremely heavy, with a total weight of at least 60 kilograms.

As for the remaining skeleton and the internal organs he had decided to discard, he decided to leave them there for the time being and cover them with thick snow, just in case.

He glanced at the sky; the sun was almost touching the western ridge, and the sky was darkening at a visible speed.

He shouldered the heavy backpack that made his body sag, picked up the spear, and without pausing, immediately began to return to the shelter at top speed.

This time, his steps no longer carried the composure of a victor, but were filled with urgency and vigilance.

He knew that he was now a moving, blood-smelling "bait".

The bloodstains he left behind, and the smell emanating from his backpack, were broadcasting his location to the entire forest.

He must return safely to his sanctuary before nightfall, before other large predators find him by scent.

The journey home was arduous; the heavy load caused his snowshoes to sink even deeper into the snow than when he came, and every step required tremendous physical exertion.

He dared not stop to rest, and could only mechanically move forward step by step.

A few hoarse, rough cries of ravens came from the distant sky, but he didn't think they were just hallucinations caused by exhaustion.

"The ravens are here." He didn't look up, but his tone became even more serious.

"The appearance of these sky cleaners means only one thing: they have discovered the remains of the wolf that I left behind."

"And their calls are like a flashing Japanese neon sign to all the predators in the forest, saying, 'New customer today! Welcome to experience!'"

"This will accelerate the gathering of other animals in that area, which also means I have to leave here faster. Because after they finish that appetizer, they will start looking for the main course."

The last rays of twilight were swallowed by the horizon.

When Lin Yu-an finally dragged his almost broken body back to the shelter, night had already fallen completely.

He didn't start a fire immediately. He first gently put down his backpack and weapons, and then spent a full ten minutes carefully observing and listening to the surrounding darkness through the observation window reserved in the shelter.

He kept a close eye on the sky, but the ravens didn't follow, which relieved him slightly. Only after confirming that nothing was following him back did he completely seal the entrance and light the fireplace.

The warm firelight illuminated the small shelter again, finally dispelling the last trace of chill he felt from being tracked.

Instead of immediately processing all the wolf meat, he first took out the precious grease packet from the core area of ​​his backpack, and then threw all the fat clumps directly into the iron pot.

Watching the sizzling oil in the pot, its rich aroma was the greatest reward for his life-or-death struggle today.

While refining the oil, he began preparing tonight's main dish—confitted wolf tenderloin.

He took out the two deep red wolf tenderloins, which he treasured, from his backpack. The surface of the meat was already frozen stiff.

Lin Yu'an faced the camera, picked up a hunting knife, and said, "Now, I'm going to use the oil seal technique to tame this wild wolf meat. You can try it too!"

He first cut the two tenderloins into uniformly sized pieces about five centimeters thick.

"The first step in making an oil confit is actually 'marinating.' In a French kitchen, it is marinated for several hours with plenty of salt, garlic, and herbs to remove the meat's fishy smell and enhance its flavor."

“I don’t have these things here, but I have better alternatives.”

From a corner of the shelter, he took out several spices he had collected earlier, a small handful of dried juniper berries, and some birch polyp scraped from a birch tree and ground into powder.

"Juniper berries provide a pine-like aroma, while birch polypore brings a unique, mushroom-like umami flavor."

Crush the spices and spread them evenly on the surface of each piece of wolf meat, then rub them carefully by hand to allow the aroma to fully penetrate the meat fibers.

After all this was done, the wolf oil in the pot had been rendered. The golden and crispy cracklings were scooped out and set aside, leaving only a layer of clear, boiling wolf oil in the pot.

Then he removed the iron pot from the hottest fire and placed it on a cooler stone by the fireplace, and poured some oil into a birch bark bowl.

"A crucial step has arrived."

Lin Yu'an dipped a clean little wooden stick into the hot oil in the pot and then observed the way the oil dripped.

"Oil sealing is a slow cooking method at low temperatures, not deep frying at high temperatures. The temperature of the oil must be precisely controlled."

“In a professional kitchen, a thermometer is used to control the oil temperature between 90 and 100 degrees Celsius. I don’t have that kind of thing here, but I have an older method of judging the temperature.”

Then, he threw a small, very thin piece of wolf meat that he had cut earlier into the pot.

He pointed to the piece of meat scrap and said, "Look, it sank to the bottom of the pot, and some very tiny bubbles are slowly rising around it. The oil itself remains completely still."

"This proves that the current oil temperature is just within the perfect range of around 90 degrees. If the bubbles become violent or even hiss, it means that the temperature is too high."

Only after confirming that the oil temperature had dropped to the appropriate range did he put the "marinated" wolf meat pieces one by one into the oil pan.

There was no loud sizzling sound, only a soft "sizzle..." as the meat sank into the oil, with the same string of extremely tiny bubbles rising to the surface.

He poured all the wolf fat from the birch bark bowl into the pot, making sure that every piece of meat was completely submerged in the golden fat.

"Now that we've found the right initial temperature, the real challenge is maintaining that temperature precisely for two to three hours without a thermostat."

“I can’t leave it on the fire for too long, or it will turn into fried food. But if I leave it on the side, it will slowly cool down.”

"Therefore, I need to use two temperature points to perform reciprocating interval temperature control."

He pointed to the edge of the fireplace, where there was a scorching hot stone slab, the place he usually used to bake things.

Then, he pointed to the ground in front of him, near the fireplace, and said, "These two areas are my heating and cooling zones."

He placed the pot of confit wolf meat, which had already reached an initial temperature of around 90 degrees Celsius, in the "cooling zone" at a distance.

"The following steps will be quite tedious. In my experience, it takes about ten minutes to cool such a large pot of oil from 90 degrees to below 70 degrees at the current room temperature."

"Once I observe that the bubbles around the meat in the pot have almost completely stopped, it means the temperature is too low."

After saying that, he stopped talking, leaned against the wall, and patiently waited while repairing the spear that had been bitten by wolves and left with deep teeth marks.

About ten minutes later, he saw that the bubbles in the pot had indeed become extremely sparse. He immediately stood up.

He picked up the iron pot and moved it to the heating area on the scorching hot stone slab next to the fireplace, squatted down beside it, and stared intently at the chunks of meat in the oil.

Almost the instant it was placed on the plate, the dormant bubbles around the meat began to stir again, rising steadily upwards.

He didn't leave the pot on the heat for too long, only about a minute and a half. When he saw the density of the bubbles return to a "slightly boiling" state, he immediately put the pot back in the "cooling zone".

"Heating for one and a half minutes and cooling for ten minutes, through this repeated operation, I can control the oil temperature within the perfect 'oil seal' range of 70 to 90 degrees Celsius."

"This process is complicated and requires constant monitoring, but it is the most precise sous-vide cooking that can be achieved without professional equipment."

For the next two hours, he was like a most dutiful alarm clock, getting up precisely every ten minutes to complete a cycle of heating and cooling.

The shelter gradually filled with two distinct, intertwined scents.

One is the caramelized aroma of wolf oil when heated, a scent common to all animal fats. But alongside this enticing aroma is another, more penetrating scent.

It was a strong metallic odor, similar to the mixture of pig iron and animal liver, emanating from the myoglobin in wolf meat, mixed with a hint of the musty smell of damp fur.

The two scents blend together to create a unique aroma that is both mouthwatering and instinctively repulsive.

When he felt the time was almost up, he forked a piece of confit wolf meat from the pot after completing the final heating cycle.

The meat had an appealing brown color, but it wasn't burnt.

With just a gentle press of the edge of the wooden fork, the entire piece of meat easily separated along the muscle fibers, revealing the still moist meat fibers inside.

"It seems the physical effect of the oil seal is perfect." He said to the camera, showing off the tender, juicy meat.

"It successfully breaks down connective tissue. But how it tastes is another matter."

Lin Yu'an hesitated for a moment before putting a small piece of piping hot meat into his mouth. He didn't chew it immediately, but instead closed his eyes and carefully savored it.

Unlike a simple olfactory experience, when food enters the mouth, the taste buds and retronasal olfaction are activated simultaneously, and the wild flavor that was masked by the aroma of caramelization begins to burst forth violently.

First, there's the texture; the meat is indeed as tender and juicy as I expected. But what follows is a powerful explosion of flavor.
The strong metallic smell and stubborn muttony odor swept through his entire mouth like a storm.

Instead of neutralizing it, wolf oil acted like an amplifier, enveloping and amplifying every detail of this "wild" flavor, presenting it fully on his taste buds.

The wild onions and juniper berries he used earlier were like a small boat in a vast ocean compared to this powerful, complex flavor.

It can only bring a faint, almost imperceptible fragrance, which is completely incapable of neutralizing or enhancing the aroma.

He chewed a few times, and with a somewhat complicated expression, he said to the camera, "To be honest, this thing has little to do with deliciousness, and it's even very different from food."

"If you close your eyes and only focus on the texture, it's top-notch. But its flavor is very challenging."

"The rich, smoky aroma of oil will make you want to take a bite, but the muttony smell that follows will make you want to vomit."

"It doesn't taste good, but it's definitely packed with energy."

With a blank expression, he tore off another large piece from the tender wolf meat and put it into his mouth again.

It felt like performing a mechanical task, forcing myself to ignore the resistance from my taste buds and quickly chew and swallow.

In the intense pursuit and fight that just ended, he had burned at least several thousand calories, and he had to force himself to replenish that energy.

He continuously fed these "energy blocks" into his body, one after another.

When he had eaten about half of it and estimated that he had consumed close to 200 grams of wolf meat, his chewing speed slowed down noticeably.

A feeling of fullness, mixed with grease and a strong muttony smell, began to rise from his stomach.

Lin Yu'an stopped what he was doing, put the rest of the meat back into the pot, then picked up a mineral water bottle and gulped down several mouthfuls of water to suppress the nausea that was about to rise to his throat.

He leaned against the wall, let out a long breath, his face even a little pale. "Today's dinner must end."

"If I eat one more bite, my stomach might throw up, and it'll be a waste of time. The taste is truly indescribable."

After enjoying a high-calorie wolf meat dinner and having processed all the spoils, Lin Yu'an felt a little sleepy.

He turned up the fire in the fireplace and then crawled into his warm sleeping bag.

However, he did not sleep well.

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(Explanation regarding recent content: This book focuses on extremely detailed descriptions of wilderness life, not the kind of lighthearted, interactive storytelling. This might not meet the expectations of some readers who skipped ahead. Let me reiterate: the core creative philosophy of this book is to delve deeply into the details of wilderness survival while maintaining logical consistency. Therefore, I will continue to provide detailed descriptions in later chapters. Readers who don't like this style should have lower expectations.)
(There will be another update tonight. The giveaway ends tomorrow night at 20 PM, so throw all your monthly tickets at me!)
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(End of this chapter)