Chapter 223 - 101: Skillet_2
This is a cast iron material skillet.
The pan's diameter is approximately 23 cm, not too deep, perfect for frying fish, ribs, and lamb slices. The handle is made of wood, providing better insulation.
The package also includes a stainless steel tong, a brush, and a bottle of maintenance oil.
For Chen Zhou, this is one of the top three rewards received, with a cost-performance ratio perhaps only second to those two axes.
With this thing, there's no need to set up a separate stove for baking pancakes; just start a campfire and add some oil to get cooking.
Furthermore, the skillet can expand his menu, granting him more culinary possibilities.
Compared to the heavy copper stir-fry pan that requires a special stove, the skillet also has the advantage of portability.
When traveling, just take some spices and weapons, and you can kill a rabbit or a bird on the spot and cook them over a fire.
Good food helps replenish energy, improves mood, and can extend the journey.
For Lai Fu, the little dog who loves cooked food, this is also quite beneficial.
On the night of July 10th, after returning home, Chen Zhou eagerly used the skillet to fry pieces of dried seal meat.
Of course, due to long storage, the taste of this seal meat was not pleasant.
Although the skillet is a professional cooking tool, it doesn't enhance flavor. It's just like putting oil in the pan and frying, with the advantage of even heating, avoiding a mix of soft and hard textures, similar to the copper stir-fry pan.
...
On July 11th, Chen Zhou harvested mature barley and placed it on the platform to dry.
The wheat matured on July 15th.
On that day, the sky was overcast, feeling like it might rain. After harvesting the wheat, Chen Zhou moved it into the bedroom.
After so much layering and paving, the stone and wooden flooring of the bedroom were neatly completed, looking much tidier.
The harvested wheat was placed under the bedroom window.
A small square beam of light from outside shone on the top of the wheat, with dust dancing in the light beam.
Seeing this aesthetically pleasing scene while moving the wheat, Chen Zhou couldn't help but find a cardboard and a brush to capture the moment.
This is the beauty of harvest.
...
Since the stone mill had not been made, he temporarily couldn't grind the wheat into flour, so he picked out the grains for future use.
After harvesting the crops, Chen Zhou rested for two days—daily transporting stones and white soil up the mountain was too exhausting; he needed a break.
On July 18th, he resumed work.
There were quite a few things that could be done now, though nothing urgent.
Food was somewhat scarce, but trapped rabbits, wild pigeons in Pigeon Cave, frogs by the riverside, and birds occasionally hunted could be consumed.
If there really was nothing to eat, tackling wild goats was an option.
Being frugal, one wild goat is sufficient for a week's meals, and the goat fat can be used to replenish fats.
...
June and July are the harvest seasons, as well as the seasons for new life.
The female goat was the first to get pregnant, followed by the capture of eight young mice.
In late June, Tizi and Xiao Huihui tied the knot, and Tizi was carrying Xiao Huihui's child.
As time passed, the bellies of the female goat and Tizi grew bigger, while the eight mice grew even faster.
Thanks to ample food, their bodies grew like balloons, with slick and shiny fur.
Judging by the appearance of their skin alone, without looking at their faces, one might mistake them for otters.
Chen Zhou was not quite sure whether male or female rats grew bigger.
But he could observe a noticeable size difference among the mice in the enclosure, with three larger and five smaller.
Based on size, he guessed the three bigger ones were male mice, and the five smaller ones were female mice.
However, on July 14th, while feeding the mice, he accidentally discovered the correct method of distinguishing their sex when they stood up fighting for rabbit meat balls.
It turns out that mice near adulthood already show prominent reproductive organs.
The rat standing up to grab the rabbit meat ball had evident testicles on its rump, indicating it was a male rat.
But this male rat was not among the three larger rats; it was one of the smaller ones.
There were two "larger-sized" mice which, when flipped over, showed no testicles but instead had rows of nipples on their bellies, leading to the conclusion that they were female rats.
With the accurate identification method, Chen Zhou flipped the mice with a stick and checked them individually.
Finally, he realized he was practically running a mouse breeding factory.
Among the eight mice, six turned out to be females, and only two were males. If each female could give birth to five pups per litter, after the first batch of mice conceived and gave birth, he could harvest up to thirty young mice.
Given his current fishing skills, these thirty test mice would be enough for half a year—
Since he could only catch two to three kinds of fish each time.
Luckily, the challenge did not require a specific fishing method. With all this firsthand experience, Chen Zhou had realized the true level of his fishing skills and began preparing nets across the river and tridents for spearing fish.
Aside from fishing, beachcombing was also a good way to gather food.
Every time he went to the beach during low tide, he would find dead fish or exotic jellyfish, shellfish, crabs, sea stars, sea urchins, and other marine organisms on the moist sand, although he dared not consume them rashly due to unfamiliarity with their toxicity.
With the brave sacrifice of these altruistic "test mice,"
It is imaginable that the future menu will expand greatly, ultimately including all the species on the island.