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The bone marrow had cooled down, but it hadn't coagulated yet.
Jian Mo packed them into jars, filling three jars in total, and there was still some oil left in the two pots.
Everyone crowded around to see, curious about what the bone marrow tasted like.
Seeing their reaction, Jian Mo scraped off some bone marrow for them to try, and to her surprise, it was a great hit.
"This bone marrow smells so good, there's not a trace of blood at all."
"No wonder you said it was a waste to throw away the bones. If the marrow wasn't extracted, it really was a waste."
"I think next time we could try extracting the bone marrow; it would taste pretty good if we used it to cook something."
Everyone gathered around the pot to share the bone marrow. Jiujiu smelled the aroma and saw everyone else had some, but it didn't. Getting anxious, it wiggled its chubby bottom and squeezed its way in, crying, "Waaah!"
Jian Mo that it was almost speaking in a hurry, Jane had no choice but to scoop a piece for it as well. "Go eat over there, don't come over here."
Jiujiu held a large piece of bone marrow in its two front paws and contentedly moved aside to gnaw on it.
Seeing Jian Mo everyone seemed to enjoy it, Jane suddenly had an idea. "Didn't we use up all the sour berries we picked yesterday?"
The sour fruit looks a bit like a ground cherry. It's the fruit of some kind of herb. It's very small but very sour. Everyone uses it as a seasoning. Jian Mo used some when stir-frying offal yesterday.
Qing Kuo pulled out the basket to show him. "We haven't used it all, there's still plenty left."
Jian Mo: "I want to use it to make a local delicacy. I'll stir-fry it, make it into a soup, and then use it to blanch meat and vegetables. I can also put bird eggs in it to boil."
He gave a brief description, which received unanimous approval, and everyone expressed their desire to try the dish he made.
Jian Mo: "You might not be used to this kind of food, so I'll use one pot to make this kind of dish and the other pot to stir-fry other vegetables normally."
Yun Long had come closer, said with a smile, "It sounds delicious. Let's cook in both pots, otherwise there won't be enough for everyone. If you don't like it, you can just have a bite. If you really can't get used to it, you can take some meat to the side and grill it yourself."
The Mengshui Tribe had no objections, and the Riverside Tribe had even fewer.
Jian Mo then prepared hot pot base for them on the spot, but instead of chili peppers, she replaced the core of the peppers with pepper buds, and the beef tallow with animal bone marrow. The flavor was no longer spicy, but rather a sour soup flavor.
The advantage here is the abundance of ingredients, including various kinds of game meat, poultry, offal, fish fillets, as well as bird eggs, mushrooms, and wild vegetables.
The dipping sauce is scallion oil and mushroom sauce; you can make it yourself if you like, or just eat the vegetables and meat from the pot directly.
Everyone pitched in, placing various vegetables and meats in leaves and arranging them in two large circles around the big pot.
One hundred and sixty people were eating hot pot around eight pots, including two huge iron pots and six earthenware pots, which looked quite spectacular.
However, this lazy way of having hot pot is much simpler than cooking.
When cooking, Jian Mo estimated that it would take two or three hours to cook for so many people, using both iron and earthenware pots together, plus grilling meat.
Now, when they eat hot pot, it only takes them a little over half an hour before everyone is already sitting around the pot, ready to start eating.
Jian Mo teaches everyone how to use chopsticks to cook meat. You must wait until the meat changes color before taking it out, but you can't wait too long, otherwise the meat will become tough and won't taste good.
First, add the meat to the pot. You can put the mushrooms and bird eggs in to cook first, but it's best not to add any wild vegetables too quickly.
Seeing this novel way of eating, everyone readily agreed.
Although most people used chopsticks haphazardly at first, they quickly became skilled and were even able to grab food from each other.
The broth in the pot was bubbling and boiling, and everyone huddled together, quickly grabbing pieces of meat.
"My meat is cooked, anyone want some?"
"Eggs! My bird eggs seem to be missing."
"Are the mushrooms ready to eat? No, I'll wait a little longer."
"Meat, meat, meat! You can put that plate of meat down now, use a big spoon to scoop it out!"
"Wow! So spicy, so sour, so hot, and so fresh!"
Jian Mo and Wu Jiong sat side by side.
With his skillful use of chopsticks and his long arms and great strength, Wu Jiong always managed to calmly grab the best pieces of meat and stuff them all into Jian Mo's bowl.
Jian Mo ate while breathing out warm air and laughing, "How does it taste?"
Qing Kuo, to Jian Mo's left, sniffed and said, "No need to ask, just look at how frantically everyone's grabbing for it, and you'll know."
Now, people from all tribes couldn't help but speak up:
"Your previous tribe was incredibly skilled at making delicious food!"
"If you hadn't done it, we wouldn't have known that bone marrow could be eaten like this?"
"Is it possible to make the broth thick and flavorful without removing the bone marrow, and then use it to blanch meat and vegetables? Would it still taste this good?"
Jian Mo was surprised that they could apply what they learned to other situations. She nodded and said, "If the soup is good, the food cooked in it should be pretty much the same. Besides this sour and spicy flavor, a spicy one would also work, but you'd need to add more oil."
The Ya Zheng of the Mengshui Tribe said, "Let's have another meal when we get back today. Could you add a little more animal fat to it?"
Jian Mo thought for a moment and said, "Is that alright? It would be best to stir-fry all the seasonings beforehand, and use meat broth or bone broth for the soup base. If it's not flavorful enough, add some dipping sauce."
Yun Long: "That's great, we've learned a new way to eat it."
Jian Mo didn't expect that hot pot made with sour fruit would be so tangy and delicious. Dipping it in mushroom sauce made it even more amazing.
While the fresh ingredients and competitive atmosphere added some flavor to the hot pot, it must be said that this hot pot meal was a complete success.
After they get back, he and Wu Jiong can have two more meals together.
Today I used up one jar of bone marrow oil to make hot pot for everyone, so I won't divide the remaining two jars; I can use them to make several more hot pot meals.
After enjoying a delicious hot pot meal, the beastmen took advantage of the early hour to go hunting.
The sub-beastmen stayed at the camp, sorting through the meat that had been drying for the past two days and cleaning up the camp.
They've already hunted enough game in the last two days; if they keep hunting, they probably won't be able to carry it all.