The Magical Food God of Hogwarts

Chapter 108 A Tribute to Lucas McGregor!

"Theoretically, that's true." Lanchi's words were like a bolt from the blue for Lucas, but seeing Lucas's terrible expression, he immediately added, "But nobody would do that."

That's it! Lucas realized as well. If that were true, then why would Hogwarts need such a large kitchen, and why would it need hundreds of elves to cook in it? Restaurants in the wizarding world are all well-run, and food stalls honestly make and sell food one serving at a time. I've never seen anyone directly copy food.

Before Lucas could ask, Lanchi explained, "This copying spell creates food that is completely identical in nutritional value, and its appearance and interior are exactly the same. But for some reason, the taste is different!"

"Does the replicated food taste different from the original?"

"Yes, and the more refined and delicious the food is, the worse the replica will taste. The more times it's replicated, the worse the taste will become, until the food becomes particularly unpalatable. Although it can fill your stomach, it tastes like chewing wax," Lanchi said. "Therefore, the Replication Charm is generally used in emergencies."

I see. No wonder Lanqi just asked me if I had any requirements regarding the quality of the duck. So, does the quality of the duck as an ingredient continuously decline after being replicated?

"But that's strange. Since it's a copy, you said that the nutritional value is exactly the same, and the appearance and inside are the same."

""

“Yes, Mr. McGregor, even the sauce on the food is exactly the same!” Lanchi said, “but the taste is different, and nobody knows why.”

"In other words, the Transfiguration spell cannot conjure food out of thin air, and while the Replicating Charm can replicate food, the taste will become increasingly worse." Lucas slowly summarized, keeping these points in mind.

"And the enlargement charm, Mr. McGregor," Lanchi added, pointing to the giant duck. "Like the copying charm, the enlargement charm also causes the food to lose its flavor."

Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was very curious about why this change had occurred, since even the wizarding world hadn't figured it out, it was far too early for a novice wizard like himself to research it. In any case, now that the Replication Charm existed, he could practice the Bone Extraction Charm without worrying about wasting ingredients!

The magical world is truly amazing.

With a sigh, Lucas suddenly remembered something and pulled Pepper down.

"Pepper, don't even think about slacking off. I just said your training has to start now."

Pepper raised his wings in salute: "Sir, yes sir!"

Pepper has an exceptional sense of smell and taste, and Lucas developed a training plan for her during the summer vacation, starting targeted training.

After summer training, the first phase of sensory baseline calibration and self-awareness has been largely completed.

First, we completed the taste threshold test. This test assesses sensitivity to the five basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami. It records the individual's threshold and lays the foundation for the analysis and identification of various complex flavors.

Secondly, there is the ongoing training of the taste memory bank. Blindfolded, students rely solely on their sense of smell and taste to perceive the flavors of various natural ingredients. After the blindfold is removed, they must match the flavors with the ingredients one by one.

Pepper has already tasted all the common ingredients, and now she is going to work on more complex and important categories of spices and flavor memories.

Lucas opened the spice bags he had brought one by one, and instantly the aromas of spices, some light, some rich, some sharp, and some gentle, spread out.

According to incomplete statistics, there are approximately 1,500 kinds of natural spices that can be used for cooking in the world, of which about 400 kinds are traded and circulated in the international market.

Of these four hundred spices, only one hundred and twenty have been produced and traded on a large scale. In other words, the spices commonly used in kitchens are basically limited to these one hundred and twenty.

Pepper's training involved memorizing and distinguishing these 120 spices.

It was already halfway done before they arrived at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, this was interrupted by Lucas's coma, and it's only now that it's resumed.

Today, Pepper will continue this training, memorizing the unique flavors, categories, and applications of six spices. She will also practice associative memory, naming spices with similar flavors and those with obvious contrasting flavors.

Only after completing the first stage of basic training can one proceed to the next stage of learning tasting methods.

Pepper may swear a lot, but he's not a bad person at heart. He has a great passion for food, is very dedicated to learning, and doesn't try to cheat. After Lucas arranged his training, he returned to practicing the "Bone-Pulling Curse."

"Pulling out the tendons and bones!"

A flash of light appeared at the tip of the wand, and this time, the duck inflated like a balloon before bursting open from its rear, ejecting most of its skeleton.

"Completely cleaned up!"

Again...

"Pulling out the tendons and bones!"

Lucas only felt a blur before his eyes, and the duck in front of him twisted like a pretzel. Then, most of its skeleton was exposed, with the rest embedded in the duck's body, making it a bloody mess and extremely horrifying.

"Clean it up completely!" "Strip it clean!"

This time, the entire duck skeleton broke through the spine and was pulled out, but it also split the duck in two.

Lucas took a deep breath. He was exhausted from practicing for so long, both physically and mentally.

His sleeves were covered in duck meat and bone fragments, sweat dripped from his temples, and his right hand holding the cane trembled slightly.

The kitchen was unusually quiet. Most of the house-elves had finished their work and were craning their necks around Lucas, their big ears motionless.

Lanchi's hands crumpled on the tea towel. He wanted to say, "Mr. McGregor, please take a break," but looking at Lucas, he said nothing.

Those hazel eyes held an intensely focused and unwavering gaze.

Failure? Of course. The Bone-Extraction Curse is far more difficult than the first-level spells I previously mastered. Moreover, the original creator of the spell certainly never imagined that such a cruel curse could be transformed into cooking magic, using methods that cripple in battle to achieve perfect bone removal.

However, Lucas firmly believed he would succeed. Even though he failed each time, each time he gained new insights and lessons, and each time he was one step closer to success.

By now, Lucas was certain that he had mastered the incantation of "pulling tendons and bones" smoothly in terms of syllable changes and hand gestures, and there were no longer any problems.

If you still haven't succeeded, then it can only be a problem of your "heart"—your will, emotions, and desires are not strong enough.

Not strong enough, not clear enough.

He took a deep breath, gripped his wand, and closed his eyes.

At first, I could still hear my own heartbeat, but gradually, I couldn't even hear it anymore.

I will definitely succeed!

The duck is deboned so that the bones have no meat attached and the meat has no bones attached, and the skin remains intact without any damage.

I've practiced hundreds and thousands of times. I can succeed even with my eyes closed. I know exactly where the key bones are!

With eyes closed, run your hand across the duck's body from back to front, passing over the first toe bone, tibia, tarsal bone, femur, pelvis, coccyx, ribs, keel, coracoid bone, clavicle, humerus, and bones—finally returning to the more than ten cervical vertebrae, with the atlas at the very front connecting to the occipital bone.

The entire skeleton of the duck appeared in his mind, like a luminous blueprint.

The shape, orientation, and connection of each bone are crystal clear: the vertebrae and ribs, the ball-and-socket structures of the forelimb joints, the saddle joints of the hindlimbs and pelvis, the distribution of fascia among the bones, the calcified tendons and periosteum.

Lucas's hand, gripping the wand, no longer trembled; in fact, it was more steady than ever before. His spirit, will,

Emotions and desires are like a large net, reaching into the duck's body along the tip of the cane, trapping the entire skeleton.

Detach! Vanish! Follow my heart's desire—"Strip and tear apart!"

In that instant, magic answered his call, and where the wand touched, the fascia relaxed, the ligaments tore apart, and the flesh and bone separated!

The wing joints loosened as if untying a knot, the ribs gently pushed out of the fascial sheath, the spine vertebrae all fell off one by one, and the pelvis made a slight sliding sound as it separated from the fascia.

The duck was still lying perfectly intact on the cutting board, head and tail intact, but suddenly it deflated and its entire skeleton disappeared!

The duck skin and meat were intact, with no tears, no cuts, no bruises, and no bone fragments.

A perfectly deboned duck!

"It's...it's a success!" Lance's high-pitched voice trembled. "Mr. McGregor! You really succeeded!"

"Even Lady Hufflepuff doesn't know this food charm, and it's not recorded in the Kitchen Notebook, but—you succeeded!"

"Mr. McGregor, you are a true genius!"

A burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted as the elves surrounded Lucas, jumping and dancing with joy.

"A bunch of brainless fans, fucking simps," Pepper muttered under her breath. "I even memorized all the spices for today, why isn't anyone sending me any flowers?"

"Thank you, Lanchi, thank you for your help." Lucas finally relaxed, took the handkerchief handed to him by the elf, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and felt a surge of soreness in his wrists and shoulders, but it was overshadowed by his excitement.

He expressed his sincere gratitude while reflecting on his feelings.

It's a wonderful feeling that's hard to describe. Once you reach this level, the Bone Extraction Curse will be a perfect success!

We've made a good start; now we need to practice repeatedly.

Wait a minute, Lucas suddenly realized the terrifying aspect of this spell, or rather, the terrifying aspect of black magic.

What he finally succeeded in casting was the "Bone-Draining Spell," a cooking magic, not the "Bone-Draining Spell," a curse!

The former requires completely removing the bones from the entire skeleton or the target area without damaging the flesh. But the latter has no such requirements. Whether you remove more or less bones, large or small bones, or even if the flesh explodes and blood flies everywhere, it has little impact on the outcome of the battle, and may even have a surprising effect.

Dark sorcerers don't need such meticulous training. As long as the curse hits the enemy, it's considered successful!

Therefore, black magic can be learned quickly and the results are obvious!

Those who practice black magic can also easily become addicted to this false success.

"Mr. McGregor, what do we do next?" Lanchi's question startled Lucas.

He put away these thoughts and warnings.

"Lanchi, is there any glutinous rice in the kitchen?"

Lanchi shook his head blankly, then looked at the other little elves, who all shook their heads as well.

"Sir, what is Sticky Rice?"

Lucas pondered. Britain doesn't produce glutinous rice at all, and the magical world has even less of it. Therefore, the recipe for this dish needs to be improved immediately.

He closed his eyes again, and various combinations of ingredients came to mind. He also needed to calculate the heat for stir-frying and the time for steaming.

At dinner time, thousands of candles floated beneath the starry dome in Hogwarts' Great Hall. The clinking of cutlery against plates, the buzzing of students whispering, and the occasional burst of laughter mingled together.

At the teachers' table, the professors were also enjoying their dinner. Dumbledore occasionally glanced at the chattering children in the Great Hall, a smile on his face.

This was supposed to be an ordinary dinner, until a strangely shaped dish suddenly appeared among the roasted meat, potatoes, and various pies.

"What's that?" Ernie exclaimed in surprise. "—Roast duck?"

But this roast duck is rather strange.

Its entire body is a captivating amber color, gleaming with a lustrous, oily sheen. The duck's body is constricted into two plump spheres, smaller at the top and larger at the bottom, resembling a gently curved gourd.

"This is a new dish! I've never seen it before!" Cedric exclaimed with delight. "And it smells so good!"

A rich aroma wafted from the gourd-shaped duck. The smoky fragrance of roasted poultry was accompanied by a complex blend of various ingredients, creating a rich, savory, and mellow flavor that instantly captivated everyone's sense of smell and curiosity.

The entire auditorium was filled with surprised murmurs, because there were two ducks not only on Hufflepuff's long table, but on every long table as well as two on the teachers' table.

"What kind of dish is this?" Professor Flitwick exclaimed in surprise. "In all my years of teaching at Hogwarts, I've never seen anything like it—a duck."

"I think I might be able to guess whose work it is." Dumbledore smiled, and he, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Sprout all looked toward the long table in Hufflepuff, where a young wizard had just taken his seat.

It's Lucas McGregor.

"Lucas!" Hannah asked anxiously, "Where did you go? We went to Professor Quirrell later, but he said you left a long time ago."

"I've been busy in the kitchen the whole time," Lucas said. "It's finally finished, just in time for dinner. Here, have a taste."

"So this is your cooking!" Zacharias shouted. "Oh, isn't that obvious? How come I didn't think of that?"

The students in the auditorium heard it, and a louder discussion arose, with many reaching for the strangely shaped duck with knives and forks.

You absolutely have to try the dishes from the genius chef Lucas!

Dumbledore happily cut off a piece, and his knife encountered no resistance from any bones, easily slicing through the tender duck skin.

A plume of white steam billowed from the cut, intensifying the enticing aroma. As the steam dissipated, the filling inside the duck was revealed, prompting Dumbledore to let out a soft gasp of surprise.

Golden mashed potatoes, soaked in duck fat, encase ingredients of various colors: diced ham with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, diced pork belly sautéed until fragrant, dark brown chestnut mushrooms, plump raisins and dried apricots steamed until golden brown, and small pieces of apple.

Hidden within are dried scallops and shrimp, whose umami flavors have been fully infused into the filling after steaming and stewing, making it incredibly tempting.

Dumbledore suddenly felt a long-lost, eager anticipation. He followed his feelings and excitedly put a spoonful of duck meat and filling into his mouth.

"Oh—Merlin's beard—"

Dumbledore mumbled incoherently, his mouth constantly chewing.

The duck meat melts in your mouth, and the aroma of the fat instantly fills your mouth. Then, the smooth and creamy mashed potatoes, the salty and savory ham and pork belly, the unique chewiness and freshness of the chestnut mushrooms, and the seafood freshness provided by the dried scallops and dried shrimp are all wonderful. Even better, the raisins, dried apricots and apple chunks are interspersed throughout, bringing a refreshing sweet and sour taste that perfectly neutralizes the greasiness of the meat.

A variety of delicious flavors are layered upon each other, constantly blooming, and perfectly blending into a harmonious whole.

A sense of satisfaction and happiness that he hadn't experienced in a very long time welled up within him, and Dumbledore couldn't help but widen his eyes.

At the Hufflepuff table, the students were all deeply impressed by the delicious food. Suddenly, someone stood up and raised their glass high.

"A toast to Lucas McGregor!"

The Hufflepuff students responded in unison, raising their glasses together.

"A toast to Lucas McGregor!"

Then, most of the Hogwarts students cheered and exclaimed with delight, raising their glasses to the red-haired boy at the Hufflepuff table.

In the faculty seat, Dumbledore beamed with an undisguised, heartfelt smile, and raised his golden cup, just like many of the other professors.

"A toast to Lucas McGregor!"

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