The Snow Wolf tribe would occasionally trade for some wine with human merchant caravans. The wine in this world was primarily made from various fruits, with grape wine being the most popular.
This time, Eric wanted to try making berry wine. The fruit he had picked in the forest was like a combination of a strawberry and a raspberry—large, juicy, and with a sweet and sour taste, making it very suitable for fruit wine.
Over the past two days, he had gathered a good amount of these berries. He washed them clean, put them in a stone basin to mash, then used a linen cloth to filter out the clear, bright red juice, which had a fragrant aroma. The fruit pulp was set aside to be made into jam.
He ladled out a small amount of the fruit juice and mixed it with ground wine yeast to create a mother starter, placing it in a warm place to ferment.
While waiting, Eric washed the hulled rice and put it into another ceramic pot to roast. He waited until the rice turned a toasty yellow and released a rich aroma before taking it out to cool.
He then took a wild fruit that tasted similar to an apple as a substitute, placing it in a clean stone jar along with the roasted rice. He really should have added a layer of sugar, but since he didn’t have any, he had to skip it.
Finally, he sprinkled on some wine yeast powder, sealed the jar’s opening, and placed it in a cool, airy spot. He would have to wait about fifteen days for it to become white rice vinegar.
The sticky rice that had been soaking since yesterday was also ready to be processed. He boiled water in a ceramic pot, placed a steamer on top, lined it with a linen cloth, and then added the drained sticky rice to steam on high heat for half an hour.
The fragrant smell of steamed sticky rice spread, making his mouth water.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much sticky rice. He told himself that later, when the tribe could grow their own crops, he would definitely plant mung beans and peanuts, steam a huge pot of sticky rice, and braise a large pot of meat to eat to his heart’s content.
The cooked sticky rice was poured into a stone basin and stirred to cool down slightly before being mixed with cooled boiled water and wine yeast powder.
He used a wooden paddle to press the sticky rice down firmly, dug a small hole in the middle, covered it with a wooden lid, and then placed a thick bundle of straw over it for insulation. By letting it ferment for a few days, sweet fermented rice wine would seep out from the small hole in the center.
By now, the mother starter for the fruit wine had also finished fermenting. Eric poured the starter into the jar of fruit juice, stirred it well, then sealed it and moved it to be stored with the jar of rice vinegar. The next step was simply to wait. He also used the remaining berries, wild fruits, and pulp to make several large tubes of jam, which he would mix into drinks for Michael and Kevin when they arrived later.
Nowadays, whenever it was time to eat, Michael and the others would tacitly bring their prey over to his house for a free meal.
Even the aloof Grass, led by her younger sister, would also drop by every day, and her attitude towards him had noticeably softened.
Eric now not only had no shortage of food, but he also received enough magic beast meat and various other goods every day for him and Leo to eat, even allowing him to build up a considerable stockpile.
Whenever Michael found a newly formed magic core, he would bring it back for Eric. The higher-level ones had to be submitted to the tribe, but this elementary type, not yet at the second tier, was just right for Eric and Leo to roll around and play with. They were hard and sparkled.
Each time, Eric would thank him happily, keeping one for Leo and storing the rest away, planning to accumulate enough to make a crystal door curtain in the future.
After being won over by Eric’s fine cuisine, the tribesmen had cast aside all their previous prejudices. Their enthusiasm sometimes made Eric feel a bit overwhelmed.
The original owner’s mud house and the few storage huts around it had been filled to the brim in recent days with all sorts of goods brought back by Luci and Thomas.
The culinary civilization of this world was quite backward. After so many years of eating bland, roasted meat, Eric’s dishes were like a bomb dropped on the taste buds of the Snow Wolf people.
The entire tribe flocked to him to learn how to cook. But contrary to their enthusiasm, these furry folks truly had no talent for cooking. Just controlling their strength to handle the ingredients proved difficult for the whole crowd.
Besides Jessica, currently only the food-loving Sam and another female beast-person named Doa Li had managed to cook relatively successfully.
Sam, in particular, now frequently shirked his duties to sneak over to Eric’s house, not learning his lesson even after being beaten.
Currently, when Eric made tofu, he only needed to watch the fire and add the vinegar; all the other tasks were snatched away by others. He just hoped to quickly teach Jessica everything so he could make a graceful exit.
The remaining beans in the tribe, aside from the portion set aside for seeds, were all at his place. He had lost count of how much tofu he had made; the leftover okara alone had piled up into a small mountain. If this okara were used to feed pigs, they would surely grow fat.
Eric had originally thought about capturing the spiky boar piglet to raise, but he was worried about finding food for it in the winter, and its destructive power was also strong, so he had to set the idea aside for now.
For now, he would just eat this pile of okara himself first. He put it in a steamer to cook. The wild chicken eggs were beaten evenly with salt and wild onions, then mixed with the steamed okara and a little flour.
Eric scooped a paddle of animal fat into the ceramic pot. Waiting until the fat melted and began to let off blue smoke, he formed the okara mixture into small patties and placed them in, using the paddle to press them flat. A "sizzle" sound rang out, and a fragrant aroma immediately filled the air.
If only he had an iron pan, Eric sighed inwardly once again.
The okara patties were fried until golden brown on both sides before being scooped out into a basin. Eric fed one to Leo, who was waiting by his side, and also popped one into his own mouth. The okara patty was crispy, with the flavor of egg mixed into the beany fragrance, plus a rich, meaty taste from the animal fat.
Not bad, not bad.
Eric nodded in satisfaction and continued to fry the rest of the mixture.