Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle
Chapter 93 - 75 Soup (Added for League Master Canglang Fengya!)

Chapter 93: Chapter 75 Soup (Added for League Master Canglang Fengya!)

After confirming that the shop had ingredients, Qin Huai rushed to the shop and started making soup.

Chicken soup, one of the vital components of chicken soup noodles.

Just by looking at the name, you can tell that chicken soup makes up two-thirds of chicken soup noodles.

Whether a bowl of chicken soup noodles is delicious or not depends on the soup as the base, with noodles being the icing on the cake. If the base is not well done, no matter how good the noodles are, they can only reach a certain level. But if the soup is a bowl of delicious chicken soup, the chicken soup noodles will definitely make Qin Luo break through and eat five big bowls in a row.

And how to cook a pot of excellent chicken soup is quite particular.

When Zheng Da was still the randomly assigned pastry chef in the cafeteria, he once mentioned to Qin Huai, even though Qin Huai was unwilling to be his apprentice, he still hoped Qin Huai could systematically learn the basics that a pastry chef should have.

As a pastry chef, kneading dough is naturally an essential basic skill.

Most pastry snacks are made of dough, and different snacks and cooking techniques have different dough requirements. Whether you can understand how to knead dough for different foods, knead it well, or even adjust its softness, elasticity, and extensibility according to different people, is very important for a pastry chef.

Besides kneading dough, filling is equally important.

Dough determines the texture of the snack, and filling determines the taste of the snack. Only by combining the two can you make truly delicious snacks. Basically, as long as there are no issues with the dough and filling, even if there are slight errors in steaming and baking, the snacks won’t taste too bad.

Therefore, fire control cannot be said to be unimportant, only that it does not play a decisive role.

Of course, if the fire control is terribly bad, it can play a decisive role in destroying the snack.

As for knife skills, most pastry chefs are not particularly proficient.

Zheng Da’s knife skills are considered exceptional among pastry chefs, mainly because he practiced his basic skills well when he was young. His master, Master Jing, was an excellent chef in both meat and pastry cooking and taught his apprentices both. He trained them in all the basics and only did specialized training once the apprentices showed a clear inclination.

It can be said that Zheng Da is a classic professionally trained pastry chef with an excellent and knowledgeable master. He practiced his basics hard since childhood, has a good foundation, not only is solid in kneading dough and filling but also has excellent knife skills and fire control, he is a standard five-sided warrior.

As for Qin Huai, Zheng Da’s assessment of him was that his skills are overly imbalanced.

Basically no knife skills.

This is quite normal, knife skills are honed, and there’s no shortcut. Qin Huai had no master, relied solely on talent and self-study for making snacks, and most importantly, he didn’t need to cut vegetables at home.

When he was young in the orphanage, Director Qin and other staff might just not cook well but didn’t mean they couldn’t cut. Even though the orphanage was poor, Director Qin wasn’t so heartless as to let a few years old child cut vegetables as a form of child abuse, Qin Huai basically never touched a knife in the orphanage.

Later, after being adopted by the Qin Congwen couple, the Qin Family breakfast shop had very clear divisions of labor where cutting vegetables and chopping meat stuffing, which had no technical content and was considered manual labor when selling breakfast, were all handled by Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong.

Hence, Qin Huai never touched a kitchen knife while helping at the breakfast shop.

After graduating from university and returning home to sell breakfast, Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong took pity on their son, and Qin Huai himself wasn’t keen on getting up early, so every morning Qin Congwen and Zhao Rong prepared all the materials, and once everything was ready, Qin Huai got up directly to start.

One could say that from childhood to adulthood Qin Huai had never practiced knife skills, his culinary dictionary does not have the words knife skills.

His fire control is about the same, slightly better than knife skills since he still needed to slightly monitor fire control when steaming buns or slowly simmering the Five Fillings Bun’s filling over low heat.

Before the game system was activated, Qin Huai always thought he had a good grip on fire control.

When the system was first activated, he even felt that the system’s assessments of his knife skills and fire control as basic were biased. He accepted knife skills as basic since he indeed didn’t know them.

But he couldn’t agree with fire control being basic; Qin Huai felt he was pretty good at it, with no problem. Just look at those buns, steamed big and white.

Only recently did he realize that it wasn’t that his mastery of fire control was good, but that this game system’s lowest skill assessment was basic, and there was no further room for the knife skills to decrease.

The dishes he’s been making lately have gone a bit beyond the breakfast shop’s range, increased in difficulty, and once the required skills increased, Qin Huai realized his fire control was indeed lacking.

Longevity noodles need chicken soup, and Dream Come True Sesame Bun requires stir-fried minced meat. Once the snacks demand more that involves Qin Huai’s weaknesses, his deficiencies become exceptionally apparent.

It was clear from Luo Jun eating buns at noon; towards the end, he didn’t even stuff them with minced meat, just gnawed the buns.

This behavior is akin to eating a meat sandwich without the meat.

What Qin Huai could previously handle with his innate feel he can now no longer handle.

What he could manage before with a single subject score, now requires looking at the total score, and the skill-imbalanced Qin Huai is falling behind progress.

Always thinking he had already graduated, Master Qin decided to go back to school for some courses, rigorously practicing fire control.

As for knife skills...

Zheng Da had said that pastry chefs’ knife skills generally weren’t very good; he was just particularly lacking, and there’s a chance to practice later.

Good chopped filling can also add three percent to the snack.

Three percent out of a hundred.

Master Qin, full of enthusiasm, embarked on his first attempt at seriously making chicken soup.

After witnessing how Zheng Da made high broth, Qin Huai realized that what he had been making all along was just pork soup and chicken soup, hardly high broth.

In the morning, Qin Huai sent a message asking Zheng Da for advice on making high broth. Zheng Da didn’t respond directly with techniques. Perhaps because the techniques for high broth are a bit too complex to explain clearly over WeChat, but Zheng Da did send Qin Huai the recipe he used for making high broth recently.

Zheng Da didn’t avoid Qin Huai when making high broth, he even made it with the intention of showing off to open Qin Huai’s eyes and then have him be so amazed that he instantly wanted to apprentice, the first time he made high broth he was almost teaching hand in hand.

At the time, Qin Huai was indeed watching from the side.

Zheng Da let Qin Huai try it a few times himself first, and if he felt there was any problem he could ask.

Qin Huai felt this method was good, just a bit costly in terms of old hens.

Luckily, he now ran a canteen, not a breakfast shop. Making more high broth could just be sold as old hen soup at noon and evening, without fear of waste.

According to the recipe given by Zheng Da, the high broth for chicken soup should be primarily made with old hens, the older, the better. Then pair it with lean pork, ham, duck feet, pork skin, large chunks of pork backbone.

These ingredients don’t really need chopping, simply process them a bit and put them whole into the pot.

Put them in cold water, heat, and bring to a boil, skimming off the foam.

After processing the ingredients, Qin Huai took a photo and sent it to Zheng Da. Seeing that Qin Huai was really going to practice making high broth, Zheng Da sent several voice messages reminding him of some common issues that could arise during the process.

Qin Huai was making broth for longevity noodles, so naturally, it was clear broth. The fire control for cooking clear broth needs to start strong then slow down. Once the broth boils, immediately turn the heat down to maintain a slight simmer with small bubbles forming. These small bubbles have a very vivid professional term — chrysanthemum heart bubbles.

Zheng Da told Qin Huai that maintaining a beautiful chrysanthemum heart bubble while making broth in a large pot really tests a cook’s fire control. Not to mention simmering clear broth takes more than 4 hours, during which it’s impossible to keep checking the bubbling by lifting the lid.

Throughout the process of covering the pot and slow simmering, it’s all about the chef’s mastery of fire control.

Zheng Da didn’t expect Qin Huai to achieve that level.

If Qin Huai can achieve that level of clear broth, he wouldn’t be a future top pastry chef, but someone proficient in both meat and pastry cooking, just one knife skill away from being a master.

Besides, chicken soup noodles don’t require this grade of clear broth. This grade of clear broth has much broader uses.

For example, boiled cabbage, chicken and bean curd, just add a spoonful of this grade of clear broth to any dish, it immediately becomes delicious.

Zheng Da suggested that Qin Huai start with small portions.

Use a smaller pot, don’t simmer as long, if really unsure about fire control, he could occasionally lift the lid and check.

Qin Huai listened to the above advice.

And he did as told.

Then he very smoothly messed up.

Cooked a pot that would lower the grade of longevity noodles, but could sell as standalone chicken soup in the cafeteria as a homemade level of high broth.

If grading this pot of high broth, Qin Huai estimated it would be D-level.

Using the high broth made by Zheng Da to cook longevity noodles, he could make up to C+ level.

Using his own broth to cook longevity noodles...

Getting to C- level would already be promising.

Well, Huihui is now even further away from having A-level longevity noodles.

Qin Huai drank the high broth he made himself, video calling with Zheng Da.

"Chicken soup flavor, just feels a bit richer than regular chicken soup." Qin Huai smacked his lips, "It’s about as good as the chicken soup my mom used to make at home; she usually used old hens collected from the countryside, fragrant."

On the video call, Zheng Da painfully closed his eyes.

"Master Zheng, is my soup really that bad?" Qin Huai became less confident due to Zheng Da’s demeanor.

"It’s average," Zheng Da said, "this soup is actually at your level, I just...

"I just thought, what if you actually have an outstanding talent for meat cooking that was never developed before. Since you’re now willing to practice yourself, with a bit of my remote guidance, if you instantly achieve stunning results, I could even count as your enlightenment master."

Qin Huai: ...

Master Zheng, are you writing a novel?

To be a master in both meat and pastry, even a novel protagonist wouldn’t have such treatment; they generally only excel in one.

"Then I still need to practice, don’t I?" Qin Huai took another sip of the soup, "Just follow this model to train, will that work?"

"Practicing by yourself without someone watching, progress is too slow. Making high broth isn’t that simple, you can’t just learn it like when you learned to make snacks, just casually looking at recipes online and fiddling for a month or two." Zheng Da poured cold water on Qin Huai’s enthusiasm, "I see that I can’t take you as my apprentice."

"I’m not good at teaching apprentices. If you were in Gusu, it would be easier. But teaching remotely, I realize today that I really can’t do it."

"Xiao Qin, I’ll give you my senior brother’s WeChat. He opened his own restaurant in Gusu, quite well-known. He’s better than me at making high broth, is skilled in Suzhou and Huaiyang cuisine, particularly Huaiyang cuisine where high broth is essential."

"Besides, he’s taken many apprentices and has experience."

"I’ll give him a call and let him know. His back hasn’t been too good the past few years, seems like he hasn’t been cooking much since early this year. Now he mostly wanders around the restaurant, teaches apprentices, and keeps an eye on things, maybe he’s even more relaxed than me."

"Thank you," Qin Huai put down the bowl, "What is your senior brother’s name?"

"His surname is Huang, his name is Huang Shengli; just call him Master Huang."

"Alright, thank you."

Zheng Da ended the WeChat call.

After the call ended, Zheng Da sighed in sorrow: "My good apprentice."

"Ah, lucky Huang Shengli."