All The Furry Creatures In The Beast World Are Farming With Me – CH11

Chapter 11

Stone-grilling meat was relatively simple. For beastmen, heating food on a stone slab made it less likely to burn. After all, the heat was conducted through the stone instead of the meat coming into direct contact with the flames.

The area where they lived was connected to several mountains, so what they lacked least was stone. Lang Yu went out and looked around, then carried back several stones of different sizes and asked, “Will these work?”

Lang Shuo carefully examined the stone slabs.

Stone-grilling meat was convenient, but not every kind of stone could be used. Some stones would explode while being heated, not only wasting food but also making it easy to injure people by accident.

After observing for a while, Lang Shuo picked out a few usable pieces. “These can work. Brother, wash the stones clean, then put them over the fire to heat. Keep the fire smaller.”

Lang Yu was very capable with his hands. Following Lang Shuo’s guidance, he built two new “stoves” with stones, placed the stone slabs on top, then pulled a few burning branches from the fire beside them.

While the stones were heating, Lang Shuo had Lang Yu cut several fist-sized chunks of meat into thick slices about one finger wide.

It would have been better if they could spread a layer of fat over them, but the prey they had caught these past two days had not yielded large pieces of fatty meat, making it inconvenient to render oil. Lang Shuo could only settle for the next best thing and choose pieces that carried a little fat. During heating, the fat would seep out in the same way.

After the stone slabs were hot, they placed the marbled slices of curved-horned beast meat onto them. The moment the meat touched the stone, a clear sizzle reached the ears of everyone nearby.

Several sub-adults who were huffing and puffing as they skewered meat heard the sound and turned back to look. They stared in confusion at the meat on the stone slab, sizzling and releasing oil from the heat, then looked at the meat in their own hands.

Suddenly, the skewers in their hands no longer smelled as good.

Lang Shuo explained, “You roast and eat yours first. I’ll test this first.”

Beastmen had large appetites and would not be full anytime soon. Lang Shuo planned to first test the cooking time for the grilled meat himself before letting the others try, so as not to cause waste.

Most beastmen did not know how to judge heat, much less analyze cooking time. The deliciousness of meat skewers lay in rotating them so they heated evenly. Once roasted, they were cooked through, so naturally they tasted good. Meat steaks were large. Rotating them was impossible. They could only be flipped. If the time was too short, they would not cook through. If the time was too long, the meat would become tough and dry.

Controlling the time was very important.

Lang Shuo had Lang Nuo bring over a leaking bamboo bowl. He filled it with a bowl of sand and let the sand slowly leak out through the hole in the middle, while he occasionally used two long branches as chopsticks to flip the meat steak.

When two-thirds of the sand in the bamboo bowl had leaked out, the steak was cooked.

One meat steak was about the size of a palm. Lang Yu sprinkled a little salt over it, took out a stone knife, and cut the steak into small pieces. He gave most of it to Lang Shuo. Seeing as Lang Nuo had helped, he gave him two small pieces. The rest was his own.

Lang Nuo was not picky at all. As long as he had a share, he was satisfied. He happily went to find Lang Yun to share.

But after eating one piece, Lang Nuo regretted it.

He should have eaten it slowly.

The meat made this time was even more fragrant. He had swallowed it before chewing much and had not even had time to properly taste it.

The lingering aroma of grilled meat in his mouth made him unable to stop thinking about it. Lang Nuo looked at Lang Yun, then turned back to look at Lang Shuo and Lang Yu.

The portion in front of Lang Yun was what he had just shared with her. She had already eaten half of it and was still praising the food Lang Shuo made for being delicious. Lang Nuo hesitated for a moment and was too embarrassed to ask for the rest.

On the other side, after Lang Yu tasted one piece, he had already taken people to move stones. Lang Yu, who understood the tribe members well, knew as soon as he ate it that everyone would like it. He simply planned to move more stones over in one go. After all, once they were moved down, Lang Shuo would still have to pick through them again.

Only Lang Shuo was left by the fire.

Lang Nuo struggled in place for a while. In the end, he could not resist the temptation of the meat’s fragrance and walked to Lang Shuo’s side.

“Shuo, can I eat one more piece? When I cook mine later, I’ll return two pieces to you.”

Trading two pieces for one was somewhat of a loss, but who told Lang Shuo’s cooking to taste so good?

Lang Shuo watched him run away and return, then picked several pieces from his own bowl into Lang Nuo’s bowl. “After you finish eating, go cut meat. I’ll teach you how to make it.”

These past two days, Lang Nuo had helped him quite a lot. This group of sub-adults loved to play, but they had not neglected the things they should do either. It was just that when something did not involve food, their efficiency was always much lower. Only when it had to do with food did they become excited, efficient, and obedient.

Lang Nuo was overjoyed and hurriedly nodded. “I’ll help you!”

Lang Shuo could only sit in one place. He was different. He could run around everywhere. Watching several fires by himself was no problem.

“Eat. It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”

Lang Shuo also picked up a piece and began tasting it. The grilled steak retained more moisture, making it tender to eat. Its texture was completely different from roasted meat. Lang Shuo felt that even the cubs could chew these pieces.

However, he did not dare casually add extra food for the cubs for now. The cubs had not eaten properly along the journey and had not eaten much after arriving in the territory these past few days either. Their stomachs and intestines were very fragile right now. In the short term, it was better not to give them this kind of food. He could only enjoy it on the cubs’ behalf for now.

By the time Lang Shuo finished eating the rest, Lang Nuo and several sub-adults had already started cutting meat. The weather was cold. In less than the time it took to eat one meal, the meat chunks placed nearby had already frozen slightly firm. At this level, they were very easy to cut. Coupled with beastmen’s strength, they cut a large pile in no time.

Seeing that they had cut so much, Lang Shuo thought of the fruit the gathering team had brought back today. One kind looked a lot like apples and tasted similar too.

Of course, that fruit was not called an apple here. It was called snow fruit, one of the most common fruits of the snow season.

In Lang Shuo’s eyes, this was just a giant apple. One was as large as an adult beastman’s palm and even heavier than a cub. During the snow season, they had already turned bright red and looked especially tempting. But to beastmen, snow fruit was not a popular food.

Perhaps because their original forms were carnivores, beastmen generally liked meat. It was not that they could not eat plant fruits and roots, but whenever they ate them, there was always a bit of gritted-teeth reluctance. If not for the fact that eating only meat would make beastmen sick, whether the gathering team would even exist was another question.

Snow fruit was easy to obtain, but most of them tasted sour. In the past, whenever they encountered snow fruit, everyone had to wait until Lang Yu distributed them before reluctantly finishing them. Their attitude was completely different from their excitement when eating meat.

The food the gathering team had brought back today had not yet been divided. Two full large baskets of snow fruit were piled there. Lang Shuo looked at those snow fruits, then at the sliced meat, and had a new idea.

“Hui, help me bring a few snow fruits over,” Lang Shuo called to Lang Hui, who was not far away.

This was the first time Lang Hui had been assigned a task by him, and he was extremely excited. He hopped and skipped over to the basket holding the snow fruits, hugged the three largest ones, walked to Lang Shuo’s side, and carefully set them down.

Lang Shuo quickly took them. One snow fruit weighed two or three jin. Three together were not light.

Lang Shuo picked one up and called Lang Nuo. “Wash this snow fruit clean, remove the core, cut it into pieces, put it in the stone bowl, and mash it. Then mix it with the meat slices.”

The tribe had a large stone bowl that functioned similarly to a mortar. It was used to mash foods that the cubs still could not bite through even after being cooked. Using it to mash snow fruit was no problem at all.

“Put it together with meat?” The joy on Lang Nuo’s face stiffened. He looked incredulous.

Hearing that Lang Shuo wanted to mix snow fruit with meat slices, the group of sub-adults could not help slowing down their meat-cutting. Their expressions were shocked.

In the entire tribe, the ones who hated eating all kinds of fruit the most were the sub-adults. However, if the chief distributed it to them, they had to eat it and could not give it to others. The flavor of snow fruit depended entirely on luck. Only with good luck would one get a sweet one. Most were especially sour. Sweet ones were still fine, but if they encountered a sour snow fruit, they could gnaw at it for an entire night and still not finish.

Putting meat and snow fruit together made the group of sub-adults think of only one possibility: this was a new method Lang Shuo had come up with to force them to eat snow fruit.

The sub-adults wanted to resist.

However, Lang Nuo had just described the grilled meat in an extremely tempting way. Thinking of the food they had yet to eat, they immediately hesitated. What if they did not follow Lang Shuo’s arrangements, and when the grilled meat was done later, they were not allowed to eat it?

Because their hearts were tangled, their little movements multiplied. They looked at Lang Shuo, then looked at the steaks that had not yet begun grilling, while still worrying that Lang Shuo would notice. They would glance twice, retract their gazes, and after a while, secretly look again.

Lang Shuo watched this group of sub-adults pretending to look at him by accident and thoughtfully explained, “We’ll only mix part of it. If you don’t want to eat the ones with snow fruit, you can eat the other half.”

Lang Shuo had no intention of forcing other people’s preferences. He improved dishes so they would not waste food. If someone truly did not want to eat it, he would not insist on making them change their minds. Unknown food always made people uneasy, like a blind box that could produce dark cuisine at any time.

Hearing this, the sub-adults relaxed. Lang Nuo also felt relieved and went to wash the snow fruit and get the stone bowl. As long as they were not being forced to eat snow fruit, anything was negotiable.

After being mashed, the snow fruit produced a lot of juice. Lang Shuo separated out a dozen or so slices of meat and mixed them with the snow fruit. The rest was left unmarinated. After Lang Yu and the others set up the new stone stoves, they grilled a portion of each. There was more of the original flavor and less of the marinated kind.

Beside the fire was the simple hourglass Lang Shuo had made. Beneath the bamboo bowl with a hole was a section of bamboo. One-third of the bamboo bowl was filled with sand. After all the sand leaked out, the meat would be flipped, and at the same time, the sand in the bamboo section would be poured back into the bowl. When it finished leaking a second time, the meat could be eaten.

With the simple hourglass, Lang Shuo did not need to specially watch the steaks on each stone. He only needed to remind them when to flip the meat.

The cooked steaks were divided into pieces of roughly equal size. They could be eaten by skewering them with the branches used for meat skewers, and this did not affect flipping the meat slices.

For the newly grilled steaks, Lang Shuo asked for one marinated slice. Because there was not much snow fruit, the sourness could be almost completely ignored. In its place was a fresh fragrance unique to snow fruit. He did not know what the other beastmen thought, but Lang Shuo himself liked it quite a bit. He even cut some snow fruit to eat alongside it, to cut through the richness.

Lang Yu had always trusted Lang Shuo, so he also ate one marinated piece. To his surprise, it was even tastier than the previous one. He pointed at the remaining marinated pieces that no one had touched and reminded the others, “These taste better.”

The sub-adults who had seen the marinating process did not quite believe him.

Whenever they ate a sour snow fruit, they would trick others by saying it was sweet. So when they heard Lang Yu’s words, they always felt the chief was setting them up.

But the chief had never made this kind of joke before.

Should they try it? Should they try it? Should they try it?

The sub-adults wavered back and forth between two choices, unable to decide. Before they could make up their minds, several hunting party members who had finished one portion of grilled steak walked over. One piece each, and in the blink of an eye, they had divided up the marinated portion completely.

At first, they had only eaten it because they trusted the chief. But the moment the food entered their mouths, they were conquered by the new flavor. The taste was completely different from roasted meat and stewed meat, making the beastmen, who had never encountered this way of eating before, brighten with delight.

After tasting such rare deliciousness, the few of them immediately thickened their skins and asked Lang Shuo about the method.

There was no need to keep the marinating method secret. Lang Shuo had originally planned to teach everyone, so he did not hide anything and directly explained it.

The tacit understanding they had cultivated during hunts was displayed to the fullest at this moment. The group divided the work and cooperated. Those washing snow fruits washed snow fruits. Those moving the stone bowl moved the stone bowl. Everyone was full of energy.

The sub-adults had never expected that just because they hesitated for a moment, they would lose the chance to taste it.

Looking at the movements of the adult beastmen, they knew it had to taste good. If it did not, they would not have reacted this way. After all, although adult beastmen did not show it as obviously as they did, they also disliked eating snow fruit.

The hunting party member left in charge of flipping the meat mercilessly mocked the stunned sub-adults. “This is what you get for not trusting the chief!”

The hunting party was led by Lang Yu, and they had long formed a habit. When Lang Yu issued a command, they would carry it out immediately without the slightest hesitation. They never questioned the chief. Obeying the chief’s commands could reduce casualties and make it easier to catch prey.

The sub-adults had never participated in hunting and had not yet developed this good habit. They actually hesitated when faced with the chief’s words. The consequence was obvious—they missed out on a rare delicacy and could only wait for the next batch.

Fortunately, the stones remained hot, and the steaks cooked quickly. Before the sub-adults could regret it for too long, the remaining marinated meat was done. This time, without needing Lang Yu to urge them, they were the first to cut off a piece and share it.

After tasting it, the sub-adults quietly looked at Lang Shuo and Lang Yu. Without saying a word, they silently marinated all the remaining meat.

The way they secretly glanced over made Lang Shuo think of puppies sneaking looks at their owner after making a mistake. Their expressions were almost exactly the same, making his hands itch. He wished he could rub them one by one.

Suppressing the excessive thought in his mind, Lang Shuo asked, “It’s good, right?”

The sub-adults nodded, their movements perfectly uniform.

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