Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 3.5

5

“Now then, normally this is where you would just cut off the legs and toss away the rest, right?” I started explaining the dissection process, standing with the stark naked giba behind me. “I’d like to use the torso meat in my cooking too, though, so we’ll be dissecting the whole thing. The most important thing here is how you remove the organs.”

Ludo Ruu, Shin Ruu, and the other three men were listening to me with such serious looks on their faces that it was almost scary.

It wasn’t as if I could sense any animosity or hostility from them. In fact, I just plain couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Still, it made it clear to me that there were folks out there who could hold themselves back from showing any unnecessary emotion while on the job. Even if they weren’t exactly fond of me, this was still a task they were given directly by their clan head. And I’m certain that nobody in the Ruu clan at least would let their personal feelings interfere with that. Or at least, I couldn’t help but think that after seeing such serious expression from everyone present.

“Giba’s organs are packed roughly the same inside as ours are. The heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, stomach, large and small intestines, and the like... The ones that you need to be especially careful in how you handle them are the large intestine and bladder, plus the gallbladder under the liver. If those are injured then bile and excrement will flow out and give the meat a stench, making the bloodletting for naught.”

“Asuta... I’ve only heard of the heart and stomach out of those.”

“Right. The only option will be to have you see them in person and memorize them. Well then, let’s open it up.”

“Hold on. Please let me do it,” Ludo Ruu said, grabbing a carving knife from the wall.

“Right. Then start with a slit up from the abdomen to the chest. Ah, it may be better to start from the core of the stomach rather than near the thigh. The large intestine is in the abdomen, so take care not to damage it. You just want to cut through the meat.”

“Got it,” Ludo Ruu replied, gently inserting the tip of his blade into the giba’s stomach.

“Now open it up through the chest. Be careful around the abdomen.”

Ludo Ruu’s brow was sweating. There were windows and the door was open, but the room was seriously hot thanks to the stove being lit. And thanks to the overpowering stench of blood and fat, it felt hard to breathe.

As he held the giba’s body wrapped in white fat steady with his other hand, Ludo Ruu carefully moved his blade.

“Right, that’s good. Now cut the diaphragm, between the meat and the organs. That membrane there. If you cut it, it’s pretty easy to get the innards out.”

Ludo Ruu nodded, then plunged his arm and blade into the open abdominal cavity. Apparently he wasn’t the sort to have any concerns about reaching his hand into an animal.

He just had an almost frighteningly serious look on his face. More than his desire for delicious meat, it seemed to be due to his strong will in relation to his work.

“It’s cut. What next?”

“Alright, then it’s time to start taking them out. Let’s start from the abdomen. This area is the large intestine, but it doesn’t rupture easily, so you can just pull it out by hand. An organ called the bladder is a little further in, so take care not to touch that.”

“Right.”

With that, he pulled out a clump of intestines. Part of the way out it got caught on the stomach, so I cut it free with a knife. Then, Ludo Ruu gently placed the lump of guts down atop the pelt spread on the floor.

Next up was the heart, lungs, and then liver, which all went smoothly. Finally, we ended with the testicles and bladder.

“Phew. The bladder here breaks easiest, so be careful with it, please. If we had a small bag, it would probably be best to wrap it in that and then insert a blade.”

The men silently nodded.

“Now then, let’s move on to the dismembering. You already have it dangling, so let’s start by cutting it in half. Ah, no wait, we need to cut off the head first, actually.”

With far more skill than I had shown, Shin Ruu had removed the pelt even from the head. But even still, it was important to cut the head off first before splitting the spine.

“Use a blade to cut the neck meat, and then switch to a saw for the bone. And since the saws have probably been used to cut trees, please disinfect it by heating it in the pot first.”

Well, I honestly just didn’t have any clue what sorts of bacteria and viruses may exist in this world. But I’d been trying to avoid overly raw or rotten meat, attempting to keep things as hygienic as possible considering the environment.

After the head was sliced cleanly off, we moved on to cutting down the spine vertically. Thanks to the people of the forest’s edge having way more muscle than me, it was handled far more speedily and precisely. Then the legs were removed, it was cut horizontally at the waist, and the pelvis and the like were removed, which finished things off most of the way.

“Now all that’s left is the head. We need to shave off the meat around the neck and the cheeks. Hmm... I’d really like to tackle the tongue at some point, too...”

“The tongue?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty popular back in my old country. I’m sure there are ways of making even these various innards delicious, too. But I don’t know how to handle them or how much pico leaves could preserve them, so I’ve just got to pass them by for now.”

“Huh... So you even eat the innards? It’s like you’ll eat everything but the skin and bones.”

“Ah, no, if you cook the fur off you can eat it along with the skin, and you can make stock out of the bones, too. So I guess you could say that you can cook every last part but the horns and tusks.”

“Yeah, it’d be a problem if you started eating those too,” Ludo Ruu said with a pleasant chuckle as we stood in a room where the stench of blood, meat, and entrails was so strong I was practically choking on it.

As I thought to myself what a nice smile he had, I started, “Now then...” for the umpteenth time. “That finishes us off for now. We won’t know for sure how well the bloodletting went until we eat it, but the dissection work was absolutely perfect. In terms of raw amount of meat we should have plenty with two or three more, but I’d like to have enough ribs for everyone too, so I would need some more on top of that. And so, I hope you’ll all continue working with me.”

Naturally, the men just gave a silent nod.

“Alright, then I guess it’s time to bury it in pico leaves, huh? Shin Ruu, you guys should cut off the horns and tusks.”

“Got it.”

“Hey, Asuta... Will this meat really be tasty now?”

“Yeah, at least as long as the bloodletting went well,” I said with a nod as we transported the mountain of meat atop a plank into the pantry.

“We’ll be giving it a try at dinner tonight, so look forward to it.”

“I’m the one who bloodlet it...” Ludo Ruu said, this time with a bit of a bashful smile. “It’ll just be amazing if it turns out tasty, right?”

“Right. Still, you two really are siblings...”

“Huh?”

“That smile now looked just like Rimee Ruu’s.”

In an instant, Ludo Ruu’s face went beet red.

“What are you saying?! There’s no way I resemble that squirt! Stop messing around, you idiot!”

Now he was getting shaken just like Lala Ruu. Speaking of which, that caused the young girl herself to peek out of the neighboring kitchen.

“What are you causing a fuss about? Asuta, I baked the poitan for dinner.”

“Oh, really? Well then once I’m finished with this, I’ll hurry on back to—” I started to say, only for a new group to suddenly appear. It was Jiza Ruu and Darmu Ruu with a fresh 100 kilo class giba.

“Asuta, we took down three more, but this was the only one we successfully performed bloodletting on. What should we do now?”

“Huh? Ah, um, then could you start by removing the pelt? I’ll be over that way soon.”

“Understood.”

“Hey! What about me, Asuta? There’s still a whole mountain of poitan soup that’s pretty much trash!”

“Don’t call it trash! Once, I’m done here, I’ll hurry over to—”

“Asuta,” Gazraan Rutim now chimed in, having suddenly popped up. His burly arms were holding a young 50 kilo class giba.

“My work is done for the day as well, so I brought along a giba I believe I have successfully bloodlet.”

I was left speechless for a second.

“Alright! We’ll take care of the two of them together! We’re borrowing that dissection room, so could you prepare by skinning the pelt?!”

“Asuta!”

“I know! Um, ah, well... Just prepare a stew for dinner or something! I’ll guide you on the meat dishes!”

With that, I was finally able to make it to the pantry.

“Isn’t everyone coming back a little soon...? And hey, it’s been three of them in one day!”

“I don’t know about the Rutim, but the Ruu have taken down six today, with two of them being successful. We’re not exactly blockheads, you know.”

“Isn’t six in one day a lot? You don’t have sixty family members living here, do you?”

“With the main and branch families combined, there are 38 of us in total. So we can earn enough for the aria and poitan we need with four giba a day. Well, we’ll have time on our hands again once the busy period is over, but my dad and the rest are still out in the forest, y’know?”

I see. Well at any rate, it looked like we would secure the meat needed for the banquet in no time at all. Then the excess should be split amongst the branch families, so they can learn how delicious meat that has been bloodlet is. Then they could decide if they wanted to go through the extra effort of bloodletting and dissecting after the banquet.

This must have been what Gazraan Rutim meant about showing them the way. They were ultimately the ones to decide, and nobody would force them.

“What’s up? Are you regretting having taken on such a big job, Asuta?” Ludo Ruu asked, drawing his face in close. All the while, he made room in the black pico leaf filled meat storage space that was three times the size of the one at the Fa house.

“No, I was thinking I was glad that I did. It sure is a real undertaking, though.”

With that, Ludo Ruu grinned and nudged my arm with his elbow.

“Well I sure am glad. I’m seriously looking forward to both tonight and the banquet. Make sure you don’t betray my expectations, alright?”

“Got it. I’ll give it my all.”

Just like that, the sun steadily set on my first day of work.