Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 39 The Huadiao Fire Dragon bursts forth in response; the Chef of Wine truly lives up to his reputation.
What is meant by "silent killing"?

Simply put, it's a method of slaughtering pigeons.

Compared to chicken and duck, which are common meats in the market, there are two common ways to prepare pigeons.

The first method is "bleeding," which, like with chickens and ducks, involves releasing the pigeon's blood from the base of its neck or under its armpit (this requires manual intervention) before proceeding with subsequent steps.

The second method is "suffocation," which involves killing the pigeon by suffocating it.

Because the blood has already been drained from the pigeon's body, its skin will appear yellowish-white after slaughter, similar to the color of a freshly killed hen.

Because the latter suffocated, a large amount of blood accumulated in the abdominal cavity, while a small amount of blood remained in the pigeon's body. Therefore, after the pigeon was finally slaughtered, its skin would appear red.

Furthermore, the different processing methods result in slight differences in the taste of the pigeons.

First, bleed the pigeon. Because the blood has been drained, it has less of a gamey smell, and the soup will be brighter when cooked.

Conversely, while removing the internal organs can eliminate most of the blood residue in a bloodless pigeon, the small amount of blood remaining in the meat will still increase the pigeon's fishy smell.

At this moment, on the field, "Xia Yuxingye" is using the former.

Of course, since pigeons are living creatures, it will take some time to bleed them, while suffocation is much faster.

On the second floor, Xia Ming watched as Li Zhian kept throwing pigeons into the pot, and he narrowed his eyes slightly.

"More than 30 have already drowned; we were trying to make it 50!"

On the other hand, "Summer Rain and Starry Night" on the other side has only processed the fourth pigeon so far. It seems that they are only planning to process about 30 pigeons in the end.

Since the judges had already been fed by Xia Ming at mealtime, a smaller portion wouldn't have much of an impact, and the contestants clearly thought the same way.

"So, Ban has some plans?"

Xia Ming rubbed his nose with his fingers and, amidst the chaotic smells in the room, caught a whiff of chili peppers.

Turning our attention to Zeng Huaijun, she was currently roasting chili peppers in an iron pot, seemingly preparing a dish based on spiciness.

Xia Ming knew that spiciness could mask the bloody taste in the flesh of a pigeon that had been simmered, but there were trade-offs. It would also weaken the pigeon's own flavor. After all, this was a dish from the "Sky," not a dish from the "Spicy" category. He still had to make a judgment on what to give up.

Just then, Li Zhian had suffocated all 52 pigeons and handed them over to Dong Jiaqi.

Looking at the pigeons in front of her, Dong Jiaqi took the hot water she had prepared earlier, then added a certain proportion of cold water to control the temperature at 65-70 degrees Celsius, and then poured the pigeons in.

After putting the lid on, she continued to help Zeng Huaijun prepare the chili peppers, clearly intending to soak the pigeons for a while.

On the other side, after finishing his pigeon feast, Li Zhian took a couple of sips of wine during a break, then pushed out four stainless steel serving tables from the side, lining them up in a long strip.

After that, he first placed a lot of shallow square plates underneath, then fixed the two sides with an iron frame, and then started to set up the barbecue grill on top.

His actions left the viewers in the live stream somewhat confused.

Are you preparing roasted pigeon? That sounds good; roasted pigeon with chili sauce should be delicious.

[But if the braised pigeon isn't treated to remove the gamey smell, won't there be a residual bloody taste when it's roasted directly? The skin and meat shrink, sealing the flavor inside.]

[The other contestants are too slow. Chef Dong has already started plucking feathers, and they've only killed 9 of them.]

There's no other way; that's how bloodletting works. It's pointless to do it before all the blood is drawn, and it takes time to finish. We can only hope to make up for that time later.

Seeing what Lai Chi-On was doing, most of the contestants guessed that he should bake it first.

On the advancement stage, the bald cook shared the same thought.

"They're probably going to grill it first to retain the juices, and then process it a second time. But it seems to have a slightly fishy smell! What do you think, graduate student?"

The graduate student stared at the height of the barbecue grill for a long time before shaking his head.

"It shouldn't be roasting, the rack is too high, it looks more like smoking."

"smoke?"

The bald cook frowned slightly, then looked at Xia Ming.

"What do you think, Magic Chef?"

Xia Ming glanced at Li Zhian a few more times, then pondered for a moment, and finally smiled.

"Oh, so you're trying to remove the fishy smell? That's interesting~" The bald cook was taken aback.

"Remove the fishy smell? What fishy smell? Are you going to use medicinal herbs to remove the fishy smell? You can't just pour onion and ginger water, can you!"

Xia Ming glanced at the bald cook but didn't explain further.

"Just look at it, it's hard for the elderly to handle the ingredients, we need to use some real ingredients~"

Upon hearing Xia Ming's words, the bald cook's pupils contracted slightly, and he quickly turned around to look. In his eyes, Xia Ming was now on the same level as "Xia Yuxingye" below him. Since he said he was using real stuff, it must be true.

"Inside the competition venue"

Dong Jiaqi quickly finished cleaning the pigeon feathers. Unlike other chefs who delegated such small tasks to their subordinates, she still preferred to do things herself, even at her age.

That's why it's not easy to get a meal from her, but it's also because of this that she has maintained her proficiency in all aspects of the kitchen to a great extent.

Even though the other side is young and determined to win, compared to her, plucking hair is not a fraction of a second slower.

After completing this step, she followed Li Zhian's instructions to remove the pigeon's feet, tail, and head, and then carefully emptied its internal organs, especially cleaning the blood clots in the abdominal cavity very thoroughly.

Next, she used kitchen paper to absorb the excess moisture from the pigeons, and as instructed by Li Zhian, she arranged them one by one evenly on the grill with their backs facing up and their bellies facing down.

After finishing all this, she handed things over to Li Zhian and then quickly went to get spices for Zeng Huaijun.

Watching Dong Jiaqi's retreating figure, Li Zhian yawned.

"Xiao Dong is really diligent, otherwise our team would be suffering a lot!"

"Honestly, the competition theme is cooking for a banquet for a hundred people, they don't seem to care about us old folks at all~ But I must say, they're quite generous with the wine they're giving out~"

As he spoke, Li Zhian pushed a wine jar with a wooden lid over from the side. The moment the jar was opened, a fragrant aroma of wine wafted through the arena.

"This is top-quality Shaoxing wine. I certainly wouldn't use it like this in my own hotel, but things are different now~"

As he spoke, he picked up a wine ladle from the side, scooped half a ladleful from the wine vat, took a sip, and then his eyebrows relaxed.

"That's the taste!"

Wiping the wine from his lips, Lai Chi-on suddenly noticed the camera was filming him. He blinked and then chuckled.

"Minors are not allowed to drink alcohol~ Haha"

After Li Zhian finished speaking, the live stream was quiet for a few seconds, and then the comments started scrolling wildly.

[This is hilarious! Chef Li is so funny. He sneaked a drink himself, but still remembered to remind minors not to drink alcohol.]

The old man is very energetic; he clearly surfs the internet often.

[He really does have a bit of the air of the Drunken Sword Immortal; hopefully this isn't just a character setup created by the production team.]

[This isn't a persona; the old man genuinely enjoys drinking. He once said that he can't cook comfortably without at least two sips of alcohol.]

,,,

Just as everyone in the live stream was praising Mr. Lai Chi-On for his free-spirited nature, he had already poured the wine into a full plate.

Then he took out a small wine jar from the side and used a brush to evenly brush the wine onto the back of the pigeon.

After doing all this, he yawned, then used a stick to start a fire at the stove, and then took a sip of Shaoxing wine.

Standing at the very front of the table, he took a sip of Shaoxing wine, which, along with the flames of the torch, transformed him into a fire dragon, instantly igniting all the steel plates.

Instantly, a surge of heat rose in the arena, and flames formed a rolling fire dragon along the plates. The high-proof Shaoxing wine, catalyzed by the flames, released an intoxicating aroma, and the roast pigeon placed on top also began to emit a faint aroma of meat under such heat.

On the advancement stage, the bald cook's eyes widened at the visually stunning scene.

"No, this...this works too!"

Xia Ming watched as Huolong rubbed his nose with his finger. He could feel that the smell of blood in the pigeon was gradually being suppressed by the effects of the wine and the flames.

"Was that small jar of liquor also carefully blended? Blanching the liquor to remove the fishy smell requires a deep understanding of the temperature and the liquor itself. Too much liquor will make the flavor too strong and affect the final taste, while too little liquor will not completely remove the fishy smell and the whole dish will be ruined."

"As expected of the culinary master of wine, his reputation is well-deserved."

(End of this chapter)