Chapter 67 - 24: Brazilian Iron Tree
Skinning is a skill.
Setting aside the matchlock gun, Chen Zhou took Robinson’s small dagger, laid the wild cat’s body at the tent’s entrance, spread a wooden board on the ground, recalled the steps of slaughtering pigs and sheep from the elders, and chose the starting point.
"The first step, it seems, should be to bleed it.
Otherwise, when cooking, the color won’t look good, and the taste will be quite fishy.
But since this guy is already dead, will it still work?"
After hesitating for a moment, Chen Zhou still gave the corpse a cut on the neck.
Robinson’s portable dagger was far sharper than the iron blade, easily slicing through the still soft fur, and a warm trickle immediately flowed out.
The wooden board was stained with color, and Chen Zhou lifted the wild cat by its hind legs, letting its head hang down to drain moisture.
After all, it was a corpse, without the heart to pump, the flow of body fluids was slow and soon ceased.
The saline-rich liquid flowed from the slightly inclined board to the forest floor, where Lai Fu, who had been drooling for a long time, slowly walked over to lick it, lightly wagging his tail, looking very satisfied.
Rubbing Lai Fu’s chest, Chen Zhou recalled his father’s technique of skinning lambs, and bit by bit removed the prey’s outer skin.
When helping at home, the eyes and mind always seemed to have learned, but once hands-on, difficulties abounded.
Due to lack of experience, he didn’t manage the head well.
The tail, being nailed to a tree, was also missing parts, plus the holes bitten by the dog, the whole process was filled with flaws.
Putting down the dagger, picking up the fur, Chen Zhou looked at the gaps and gave himself a score of five—just about passing.
Although not entirely satisfied, there was a sense of achievement, at least it had the "appearance of a skin."
"Should I handle the cat meat first, or follow the strategy from the forum to tan the skin?"
Estimating that there would be rain in the coming days, unfavorable for drying, he temporarily abandoned the idea of tanning the fur.
The abdomen hadn’t been opened yet, the corpse looked very clean, and the odor was also light.
When Chen Zhou cut open the belly, as the intestines and stomach fell out, a heavy stench burst out, mixed with the unique smell of organs and the fishy aroma of undigested food.
Showing a difficult expression, Chen Zhou hung the fur on a branch and ran to the river with the wooden board.
With the help of river water, while cleaning the internals, he pondered how to remove the intestines and stomach.
The wild cat’s intestines were very slender, Chen Zhou dared not pull them violently, fearing that if he made a mess, they wouldn’t be edible.
Furthermore, in addition to the large and small intestines, stomach, there were also two kidneys, pancreas, bladder, and other organs in the belly, and they had to be handled carefully, without cutting, only slowly pulling by hand.
After studying the internal structure for a while, Chen Zhou found that the stomach was connected to the forebody, and by opening the diaphragm between front and back compartments, he could see the esophagus leading straight from the cat’s throat to the intestines and stomach.
This slender esophagus could be pulled off from the mouth. To prevent the food in the stomach from flowing out through the esophagus, Chen Zhou tied a dead knot on it, then shifted his gaze to the cat’s rear.
With the entire lower abdomen opened, the heart, liver, and lungs all came into view, along with the esophagus and ribs, making the situation gradually clearer.
Chen Zhou handled it more and more skillfully.
Carefully pinching the connection between the large intestine and anus, he extracted the entire digestive system of the wild cat without missing any feces.
Phew~
"A great victory!" thought Chen Zhou.
Placing the intestines and stomach on the grass, smelling their much diluted fishy stench after washing in the river, he had a sudden idea.
"These large and small intestines shouldn’t be wasted, they should be made into fishing bait.
After using them to catch fish, I’ll catch a few mice in advance to test for poison, then draw an atlas, and slowly figure out which fish are edible and which are not.
This way, seafood is also covered, damn, I’m a genius!"
The idea of poison-testing mice inspired Chen Zhou.
His knowledge of plants and animals was limited, and the island had many unfamiliar flowers and fruits.
Uncertain which fruits were poisonous, he could feed them to mice and slowly observe their reactions, recording symptoms.
With patience, he’d eventually know what was edible and tasty on the island.
While pondering the "Mouse Quality Inspector" plan, Chen Zhou’s hands were not idle.
The wild cat’s heart, liver, and lungs were directly extracted and given to Lai Fu, who had been waiting for a long time.
Using the dagger, he disassembled the wild cat’s four legs, then cut at the connection between ribs and spine, rewarding the bony parts with little meat to Lai Fu, and returned to the camp with the four legs he had painstakingly dismantled.
He lit a campfire and cooked water in a pot.
He briefly blanched the cat meat, sprinkled some salt, and poured in a few ounces of rum to remove the fishiness, anxiously watching the large iron pot bubbling.
Without scallions, ginger, garlic, not even Sichuan pepper or star anise, let alone chili peppers, with such a primitive eating method, he dared not imagine how bad the boiled cat meat would taste.
While waiting for the meat to turn tender, he found two straight sticks, removed the bark, sharpened the ends, and made a simple pair of chopsticks.
Poking the cat meat occasionally to check if it was cooked, Chen Zhou earlier took out some dry white bread, ready to replace the impending "dark cuisine" at any time.
The fresh meat churned in the boiling water, and though there was almost no floating oil, it emitted a faint meaty fragrance.
Taking a breath.
Not detecting the legendary sour smell, Chen Zhou doubted the claims of cat meat turning sour.
With the water having boiled for a long time, worried about not completely eradicating bacteria and parasites, he specifically simmered it longer, only until the cat meat naturally fell off the leg bones did he take out a bowl and chopsticks for the meal.