Chapter 4: The Guests (2)

“Hey, could you close that pot lid over there?”

“Oh, come on, can’t you see I’m busy too?”

“Bring me a few of these small bowls.”

“Uh, but I think this isn’t a small bowl, it’s more like a large one…”

“Then is this a rice bowl…?”

Currently, the kitchen of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office is in utter chaos, noise, and pandemonium. The prisoners gathered in the kitchen are milling about, shouting, moving haphazardly, and constantly bumping into each other.

— Clang, crash!

To make matters worse, it seemed someone had dropped a dish. Although they had sold moonshine and food, they were essentially fraudsters who had cheated people by selling dog meat disguised as something else. There was no way they could cook proper food in a real kitchen.

“H-hold on a second!”

It was Ji Yeong who suddenly shouted amidst the pandemonium in the kitchen. Nothing could be done like this. In a kitchen, if one person doesn't take charge, you can't even fry an egg. Hadn't she experienced this countless times while cooking in restaurants for years?

“I know a little about cooking. Back in my hometown, I was a chef… no, a 'suksu'*.”

[TL/N : "숙수" (suksu)* - A chef or cook with expert skills in cooking.

Historically, "숙수" often implied a professional male chef, particularly those who cooked for royalty or for large banquets and special occasions. The term highlights expertise and skill in cooking.]

At Ji Yeong's words, the chaotic kitchen fell silent for a moment. Soon, one of the prisoners asked back with a look of disbelief.

“What kind of nonsense is that? Your accent is strange, so I don't know where you're even from, but a woman being a 'suksu' in your hometown?”

“She probably just dished up some soup at an inn.”

In this era, being a 'suksu' was a job only men could do. Snickering laughter erupted from here and there, but Ji Yeong patiently raised her voice, speaking clearly.

“Whether you believe me or not is up to you, but if you follow my instructions, we can finish preparing the food. Then everyone will be pardoned. Otherwise, we can all go back to that shed or prison, whatever it was.”

At her words, the stocky man who had been arguing with Ji Yeong ever since in the prison glared and approached her.

“Oh, so you're saying we should listen to the likes of you? I don't know what kind of woman you are, rolling around from who knows where, but I wonder if you can still wag that tongue of yours after getting beaten.”

Just as the stocky man threatened and was about to lay a hand on her.

“Is that true?”

Peddler Bong Seon Dal, the leader of the fraudsters, suddenly cut in.

“Can you take responsibility for what you just said?”

When Bong Seon Dal interjected with a serious face, all the chattering prisoners fell silent. Ji Yeong nodded confidently.

“...If you just follow my instructions, we can finish preparing a feast like this in no time. But, promise me. That you will follow my words, no matter what.”

Bong Seon Dal gazed steadily into Ji Yeong's eyes and then abruptly spoke to the people gathered in the kitchen.

“What are you all doing? Didn't you all hear? This woman says if we follow her words, we can live.”

For some unknown reason, the prisoners seemed to have a strange trust in the small-framed Bong Seon Dal.

At his words, a gradual atmosphere of agreement began to form among the prisoners.

“Well, it’s true we haven’t seen any losses following master Seon Dal’s words so far.”

“Anyway, we’re going to die one way or another now.”

“What the heck, let’s trust her this once.”

The prisoners rolled up their sleeves and looked at Ji Yeong's face. Seeing this, Bong Seon Dal curled his mouse-like whiskers and grinned.

“I’ve pretty much laid the groundwork for you, so go ahead and do your best.”

Given that he managed to change the prisoners' minds in an instant, it seemed he wasn't just a simple braggart.

Now, the only thing left was to properly show her skills. Ji Yeong closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Things seemed to be taking a strange turn, but this was a golden opportunity to personally create Joseon Dynasty dishes that she had only ever encountered through ancient documents. Besides, she had no other choice if she wanted to get out of this situation.

“You, mister over there, watch the cauldron. You two, please trim the vegetables. And the stocky mister, please slice the meat…”

As Ji Yeong assigned roles, the kitchen immediately began to bustle.

~~~~~

“What is your hidden agenda, My Lord? How could you entrust such an important meal preparation to those who are rootless and whose origins we don’t even know?”

“…”

“Shouldn’t we mobilize our government servants right now?”

Deok Chul, standing close to Hong Eon Guk, had a face full of worry. However, Hong Eon Guk slowly shook his head.

“Government servants are, after all, under the jurisdiction of the government office. If we mobilize them, wouldn’t the full responsibility fall squarely on the officials of the provincial office?”

“That is true, but…”

“But those people are not. They are a group of swindlers wandering the eight provinces, unrelated to us.”

“Ah, then…”

“Even if the Im clan finds fault with the food, we can simply place the blame on them. In the worst case, if we drag them out and punish them in front of the Im clan, no matter how cruel they are, they won't be able to find any more fault.”

“...!”

Deok Chul stared at Hong Eon Guk's face, astonished. Hong Eon Guk had already anticipated that the reception would fail. He was simply trying to shift the blame to the prisoners instead of themselves.

“My, My Lord…”

“Say no more.”

Deok Chul couldn't open his mouth further at the desperate measure (苦肉之策 - a painful strategy involving self-sacrifice) devised to protect his family.

~~~~~

Gyeonggi Provincial Office kitchen.

Preparations for the banquet to be served to the guests were in full swing.

“Ugh, why won't this knife cut this meat?”

The stocky man grumbled incessantly as he sliced the meat.

“In all my life, I’ve never seen meat like this. Is it lean meat or whale sinew, I wonder…”

“Let me take a look.”

Ji Yeong quickly checked the condition of the meat. It was dark red, tough with almost no fat. Not a single trace of white fat was visible.

'It looks like a bull used for farming was slaughtered. Well, in this era, grain-fed Korean beef would be an impossible dream...'

It's not unreasonable to think that way. The richly marbled, fatty 1++ grade Korean beef that modern people prefer depends on the rearing method. The core of it is to feed cattle a high-carbohydrate grain diet while severely restricting their movement to prevent muscle growth, thus producing meat with less muscle and more fat.

However, such a rearing method is only possible in the modern era, where grain production is abundant. In this era, where there wasn't even enough grain for people to eat, and citizens starved to death during every "barley hump", there's no way there would be grain feed for cattle.

[TL/N : *barley hump - a period of famine before the new barley harvest.]

Furthermore, it's highly unlikely that such a luxurious rearing method of feeding precious cattle, meant for farming, until they're full without making them work, would have been developed in this era. Therefore, most of the beef obtained would be from old cattle that were fed fodder and used for farm work until they could no longer work and were then slaughtered.

'But even so, something's strange.'

Even considering the limitations of the era, it shouldn't have been impossible to acquire better meat than this. For a visit from such important guests, they should have at least slaughtered a calf, yet what's in the kitchen now is the meat of an old bull.

Could it be that those who were in the kitchen before deliberately left behind such ingredients? The way they suddenly disappeared this morning, along with the half-hearted ingredient preparation...there were more than just one or two suspicious points.

As this thought crossed her mind, Ji Yeong began to meticulously examine the other ingredients. First, she chewed on the greens that were already sliced and tasted them.

'These are very different from the ingredients I used in modern times. Before variety improvement, the vegetables are generally smaller in size, tougher in texture, and less sweet.'

It was probably because the vegetables were harvested that morning from the garden attached to the provincial office. So their condition likely wasn't particularly bad. It was just that they were far removed from the modern ingredients Ji Yeong was accustomed to handling. And that made sense, considering the vegetables she commonly encounter in modern days are the result of hundreds of years of variety improvement. It had transformed them into products far more marketable than their old varieties.

'But the unique aroma of these vegetables is much richer, isn't it?'

Thanks to an environment free of chemical fertilizers or herbicides, these vegetables grew almost like wild plants among weeds. Though they might be tougher, more bitter, and smaller, their flavor was stronger than modern ingredients.

The real problem, however, lay elsewhere. Only then did she realize that most of the vegetables she was accustomed to using for cooking didn't even exist in this era.

Tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn. Of course, but also most of the familiar ingredients like carrots, onions, chili peppers, and pumpkins, only arrived in this land in the late Joseon Dynasty or during the early 20th Century.

Even the cabbage in this era was different from what she knew.

It wasn't the tightly packed, overlapping-leafed cabbage but a native variety with widely spread, flat leaves. So, even kimchi had to be different from the version she had been familiar with.

Furthermore, another problem was the absence of refrigerators in this era. Apart from vegetables freshly picked from the field, most basic ingredients were dried radishes, or pickled vegetables preserved in fermented soybean paste or soy sauce.

'However, since the soybean paste and soy sauce here are all made through natural fermentation, their flavor might actually be superior to the mediocre modern versions.'

Fermented sauces commonly available in modern era are mass-produced, using artificially cultured fungi for fermentation.

It's possible to mass-produce food quickly and safely, but this method can't replicate the complex flavors that come from natural fermentation. Even in modern day, naturally fermented soy sauces and pastes made by using traditional methods are sold for more than factory-produced versions. This is because countless micro-organisms are involved in the fermentation process, creating unique flavors.

From that perspective, the ingredients found here were, in fact, naturally fermented foods made by using genuine, traditional methods that were hard to find in modern times.

Ji Yeong took some soybean paste and soy sauce from an earthenware pot and tasted them to check the flavor.

'The soy products of this era prioritize preservation, so they're a bit salty, but they definitely have a deep, fermented flavor.'

The soy sauce filling each earthenware pot wasn't all the same type. There was a variety, meticulously categorized by concentration: from clear light soy sauce made from the top liquid, to medium soy sauce, and even thick dark soy sauce.

Because there weren't many types of sauces, they had a variety of soy sauces instead. If she diluted and mixed these appropriately for the dishes, she should have no trouble with flavor.

So, the immediate problem was just this tough beef. How should she cook this meat? In this era, there's no oven or gas stove. All she had seen had been a traditional Korean cooking range and a large cauldron.

How could she cook it until it's tender?

Suddenly, goosebumps erupted all over Ji Yeong's body.

'This situation is exactly like the one described in that book, Mangeunrok!'

The method for tenderizing tough meat was written in the ancient cookbook Mangeunrok. If she followed that method, she might be able to overcome this situation.

"Could you possibly bring me a sheet of Hanji, I mean, paper?"

she asked the government slave girl who was helping with errands in the kitchen.

The girl soon returned with a sheet of Hanji that still bore traces of brushstroke practice. Paper wasn't a cheap commodity in this era like it had been in modern day, so it seemed getting a used sheet was the best she could do. But this was enough.

Ji Yeong spread the Hanji out wide, then dipped a brush in sesame oil and began spreading the oil onto the paper.

'...Well, since it's come to this, I might as well try.'

It was a cooking method she'd never attempted before, but there was no other option. Before long, Ji Yeong's eyes were shining with a brilliant glow.

~~~~~

Miel's Translations