Solo Sunberth Cooking II

[Moritz Craven]

61 Fall 522

Having gotten to the kitchen once more to begin his work for the day, Moritz looked around to see one of the slaves employed by Father Manowar working. While Moritz had been hired to cook there was still a good bit of unskilled labor left to the slaves and in prepping things. They also sometimes did simpler cooking when the owner did not have time, though Moritz supposed since he was working Father Manowar was getting more time out of the kitchen. The slave, a medium sized but somewhat thin man in poor clothes waved at Moritz before returning to his work.

Heading across the kitchen Moritz went to see what the man was doing, to see he was working on some of the meat they had prepped from the butchered deer. Most of it was stored away but would be brought out and cut up in chunks for use later, while Father Manowar had worked on some of it himself to preserve it. Most though would be used in the next day or so and would be gone before it had time to spoil. "Ah, these are some of the lower cuts of meat, which get sold to the patrons somewhat cheaply. I think part of this was explained to you. Uh... This stuff just gets fried in a pan with a tiny bit of salt for seasoning."

Nodding along Moritz watched the man work, understanding why the simple meal would have such a simple and cheap process. While seasoning was much easier to come by in some places, it was an added expense for any meal. With that reasoning when people were just looking to fill their belly for as cheaply as possible such extras were not needed. Just having a room here and eating decent common food put Moritz own living standards far above what was common for Sunberthians.

Grabbing one of the small odd cuts of meat that was leftover from some other piece Moritz cleaned his hands and then headed to a station. One of the slaves had already gotten the fire going, with an oven and smaller parts on top that heated from below. Moritz placed a pan upon one of these, knowing that while having such equipment was more expensive it would save in the long run in heating materials to cook the food as compared to an open fire or even a somewhat enclosed hearth. Father Manowar clearly had made that investment with savings in mind, and knowing he would be cooking enough food to make the extra up front cost make sense. "Ah, also... Father Manowar said I could have your first two tries, in case you... Ruin it... Though either way, I get to eat them..."

Extra incentivized to make sure he cooked it well Moritz inspected things before tossing the meat in. Right away there was the sound of sizzle as the fat and meat began to heat. Grabbing some tongs and a spatula Moritz watched it for a bit, letting the meat sear a bit, but making sure it did not overcook. Only once it seemed properly seared did he flip over the meat to sear the other side of the odd meat chunk.

WC: 536

[Moritz Craven]

Having flipped the meat, Moritz listened to more sizzling as the juices flowed, smelling the strong scent of cooking permeating around the room. As he did that he grabbed the small container of salt and took a small pinch as he had been instructed, and moved to sprinkle it atop the meat, but the unnamed slave stopped him. "Ah, wait... Till its done cooking... I think I saw Father Manowar do it after it was cooking on both sides..."

Moritz was unsure why Father Manowar would wait till after, generally he had seen seasoning put on before or at the latest during the cooking process, not generally after. But perhaps the man had something in mind, and so he would follow along. Taking a small plate the man offered Moritz placed it on a table next to the oven, and waited while watching the cooking happen.

"Ah, sorry, but what was your name? I don't think you ever gave it before... And do you know why he waits till after he's done cooking to salt it?"

The man seemed a bit unsure and eyed Moritz, before eyeing the meat... "Uh, I'm Milo... And uh... I think he said... Its... Stronger... If you do that... Or maybe... Cheaper? Or... Both?"

Nodding along Morit eyed the slave named Milo, wondering on it. Was he saying the salt hit stronger with less if added after cooking? He was unsure why that was, not having heavily used salt in his work, but if that was the case it being cheaper made sense... If it tasted stronger then, then less could be used.

"Alright how about this. Since I'm supposed to make two for practice before making any to sell, why don't I make one each way, and you tell me the difference... Alright? And if Father Manowar wants it done after I can do that for those ones, huh?"

Silently nodding the man watched on, seeing Moritz finish up with cooking the small hunk of meat. Once it was done he moved it to the plate, and finally sprinkled the tiny bit of salt atop it. Passing the plate to the slave named Milo Moritz then returned to the second piece of meat he was to cook, while the slave carefully tucked into his food. He was careful not to drop even a crumb, lest he waste any and get yelled at or at least lose out on the food, tasting each bite in the process as he cut it apart with fork and knife.

This time he added a tiny bit of salt to each side in turn, half as much to each, but more carefully and on both sides not just on top. Then he kneaded the meat, trying to get it to soak in so to speak, taking a short while to work on this second one. Once he felt it was done Moritz added the meat to the pan, and began to cook it. Then he watched, waiting to the first side to sear before turning it, and waiting again. He hoped adding the salt in before would make it taste better, though he would have to see what the slave named MIlo thought since he did not really eat meat himself.

WC: 542

[Moritz Craven]

Once the meat was done cooking, Moritz once more plated it and handed it to Milo the slave. As he watched the man slowly dig into the new piece of meat Moritz moved the pan aside to clean it and take it off the heat of the oven. As before the man seemed to almost painfully slowly eat the food, tasting each bite to avoid spilling any. Only once he was done did he comment as Moritz had requested. "Ah... The first one... The salt was stronger. It kind of bit in on the... First bite... But it was kind of... Too strong... The second one... The salt was weaker... But... Maybe a bit more even... I... Think the second tasted better, a bit... But you tasted the salt more... With the first."

Nodding along Moritz felt he had at least somewhat gotten a better grasp at what was going on, and why Father Manowar would want it done that way. He was less concerned with real taste, and instead more with initial perception... That and making it seemed like he had used more of the salt than he had. If that was his reasoning he got why he would want it that way, though he supposed when making it for other employees he could just use the second method of adding it before cooking instead of the first method of cooking it then adding the salt.

"Well, thanks for the review Milo. I'll bear that in mind going forward, and I guess if I'm making it for the workers I can salt it before rather than after for the cheap customers. Uh... Is there anything else I need to learn? I've not made too many dishes yet here, anything else we commonly serve here?"

Clearly thinking it over Milo the slave pondered, licking his lips to get the last few bits of food as he did. "Uh... How about... Flat bread? Have you made that before? We sell a lot of those, since its an easy and cheap bread type stuff to make."

Frowning Moritz realized he had not actually made bread before, though he was less clear on what flat bread was. Had he had it before? The name sounded vaguely familiar, perhaps something he had back at the Outpost?

"Uh... No, I don't think I've made that before, could you show me? It sound kind of familiar, but I haven't made bread that I can recall."

Milo nodded happily, heading over across the kitchen and pulling out some boxes and bowls before returning to the work table with Moritz. "Yeah... So... Its pretty simple... You just need water, salt, and flour to make it. Mix it... Like in a big bowl. Then make some dough balls, which can be used later... Then you spread out pieces on a pan in a oven... Let it cook... And then... Bread..."

Unsure that bread was usable as a verb Moritz nodded along, getting the basic gist, but hoping he could work out the rest by doing it.

WC: 507

[Moritz Craven]

Following along with the directions given by Milo, Moritz began his work on making the flat bread. He had not actually made it before so it was a new thing for him, but from what the slave had said it was pretty simple to make.

Going through the ingredients Moritz inspected it, seeing what he meant by simple. He had water, something used in quite a few recipes. Finding water in Sunberth was not too hard, the difficult part was finding clean water... Along with that was flour, something that kept for awhile and could be stored relatively easily compared to meat or other more perishable things. And lastly salt, another regular ingredient in recipes. He assumed other types of bread used other ingredients, and since it was called flat bread it would be flat... So apparently other things were needed to make... Not flat bread?

Watching Milo work Moritz copied him, since he knew well what to do up to making the dough balls for use in the baking in the oven. Using a small cup he scooped up a bit of flour, and measuring it out dumped it into a large bowl. Moritz copied with his own bowl and cup of flour, measuring out the same amount. After that was water, taking another drawing cup and pulling up some amount of water. This he also measured out as Milo did and dumped it into the bowl with the flour. At that point Milo took a long wooden rod like handled spoon and began to mix the substance inside. Moritz did the same, finding the substance hard to mix but not impossible. Seeing the flour and water mix and meld as if was mixed was interesting, and eventually he was left with a thicker murky water. Then Milo dumped in another drawn cup of flour, and mixed that in as well.

At that point though he stopped his mixing, adding in a small bunch of salt to the mix to let it dissolve into the still somewhat liquid substance. Moritz as before did likewise, copying what he saw being done. First adding the salt after the new cup of flour, and then mixing. With more mixing the watery mix grew thicker and thicker, until it was less of a water and more of a wet and gooey substance. Now it had all three named ingredients mixed in, water and salt and flour, making up a much thicker thing. Moritz kept mixing it until finally it stopped being so wet, and more or less was a less wet gooey thing that somewhat appeared as dough and stuck to the sides of the bowl. At this point Milo stopped and checked to make sure Moritz had progressed to the same place as Milo had. Once he saw he had the slave smiled, and motioned at Moritz again. "Alright, so now we use our hands and make small dough balls. We usually make a whole bowl of these at once, and then store them in these containers... And then later as needed we can put them in the oven to make a batch of bread."

WC: 523

[Moritz Craven]

Continuing to follow along on Milo's directions Moritz began the next step, that of making the dough balls. This Moritz found was both simple yet also complicated. Along with being messy. Mostly messy. Cleaning his hands again Moritz grabbed up a glop of gooey dough, and began balling it up. Milo watched while making his own, commenting as Moritz tried to copy him. "Ah, maybe... A bit smaller... Ah, that one... Is too big... Ah that... Alright that is good... Now more like that."

Eventually Moritz was able to get it done, rolling the balls in his hands into masses of dough, working on getting their sizes right as Milo did seem to have a certain specification on how big they should be. When they were too small he added more and rolled them out to get them nice and even. When they were too big Moritz would break part off... And once more roll it to make it nice and even. Once he finally got one at the right size Moritz used that as a reference point and began rolling more, one by one working his way through the bowl of mixed dough and putting the completed dough balls into another clean container. Eventually he had all of them worked through, as had awhile ago Milo, and it seemed time to move to the next step. "Alright, we have all of these prepared in one big batch... So now we need to get a few on a tray, spread them out, and make sure we leave room between them so they don't all merge... "

With another nod Moritz watched as Milo began placing some of his dough balls onto a metal tray to place in the oven, spreading them out and giving them room. This would all be one batch of flat bread, while Moritz would be another. Since the oven was big enough to fit both they could do two at once for this, though not with bigger things. Once they were both done they covered their containers full of dough balls and put them aside to be used later that day. "Alright so... Moritz... Next we put them in the oven... I would say for starters check them every half bell or so... And then once it seems to be getting closer check every five chimes or so... That should be close enough. You don't want to keep opening the oven too often as that lets out the heat and messes up the cooking, but you don't want to burn it so make sure to check sometimes. We've got some time devices with sand over there for checking, just turn them over and we can begin. Those are for a bell.. And those are for half a bell."

With another nod Moritz popped the two trays in, locating some cloths to use when he needed to pull them out. What followed after that was just a series of waiting... Checking the bread... Waiting some more... Checking again... And then finally Milo agreeing that the bread was almost done... Letting it cook a few chimes more... And then with one last check pulling both of the trays out to inspect the finished bread.

As mentioned before by MIlo Moritz could see it was indeed a form of bread, but flat... Likewise it had been pretty simple to make, and he was somewhat sure he could make them alone next time if he needed to.

WC: 576