Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 145 Just as the ancient master butcher Ding skillfully dissected an ox, so too does Xia Ming extract bones. Wait, you... (4K bonus chapter)

【Pagoda-shaped pork】

This dish, which requires "advanced" to "ultimate" knife skills in Chinese cuisine, demands more skill and patience than the precision and proficiency required for Wensi Tofu.

In essence, it is a variation of braised pork with preserved mustard greens.

However, the difference is that after the knife skills were modified, the dish will be less greasy.

Generally speaking, the pagoda-shaped pork belly served in upscale restaurants today is sliced ​​by the chef and then processed using a special mold.

As for small restaurants, you could check out the pre-prepared dishes at the Pagoda Meat Factory.
The key to this dish is to slice the pork belly into thin, noodle-like slices that fit the mold perfectly. The thinner the slices, the higher the number of layers in the pagoda, and the more it showcases the skill of the knife work.

Of course, the thinner the pork belly, the better it tastes. And if you use a mold, the size of the pagoda-shaped pork belly is limited, so you can only make a maximum of about 30 layers.

Zhu Wuneng understood that, given Xia Ming's knife skills, making a 30-layer pagoda-shaped meat dish wouldn't necessarily guarantee a win.

Therefore, given the lack of molds on site, he opted for a more radical approach.
Of course, before that, the processing of pork belly is no different from that of regular pork belly.

Zhu Wuneng then put the pork belly into the pot again for stewing after the initial pretreatment, this time to ensure the pork was fully cooked.

Yu Zhangwen, one of the judges next to him, raised an eyebrow as he watched his performance.

"Old Sui, isn't this a bit too much pork belly?"

Sui Wubai glanced at it and smiled.

"That's more than just a little big! I'd believe you if you said it was big enough for a 'family-style braised pork belly' feast!"

Hearing his words, Wei Yan raised an eyebrow.

"Preparing such a large piece of meat will be quite troublesome when pressing it into shape. Moreover, without a mold, the larger the meat, the more difficult it will be to flatten it."

"If a lot of dried plum vegetables are used inside, it will be difficult to cook through."

Sui Wubai gave a simple, honest smile.

"I wouldn't know then, maybe it's actually braised pork belly~"

Hearing Sui Wubai's ambiguous words, You Zhangwen shook his head slightly.

Zhu Wuneng has already called him a demon in front of Xia Ming, so he definitely won't bring out a dish of braised pork with preserved vegetables; otherwise, it would be no different from him surrendering.

Judging from the amount of preserved mustard greens he took, it makes more sense that he ended up making a huge "Pagoda Pork".

Of course, there are other issues involved.
After all, if you only have knife skills but don't pay attention to quality, the judges won't give you a high score.

After looking at Zhu Wuneng's side, You Zhangwen turned his attention to Xia Ming's side.

Compared to Zhu Wuneng's obviously "pagoda meat," Xia Ming's behavior seemed very strange.

Although the show provided half a pig, generally speaking, not much of it is actually usable. Using a large piece like Zhu Wuneng is already the limit.

However, since Xia Ming got the pig, he has only processed the spine and ribs.
You Zhangwen was somewhat puzzled.

"What are you doing?"

Inside the players' lounge

Not only him, but the other players in the rest room were also a bit confused.

Qiao Ruoning asked Bai Heng in confusion.

Have you ever seen pigs divided like this?

Bai Heng pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

"Rarely, whether it's a slaughterhouse or a legitimate butcher, they usually start to break down a pig from the inside out after receiving half a pig."

"The usual procedure is to first cut off the 'tenderloin,' then cut from the back to remove the 'hind leg.'"

"Then move down the coccyx to the iliac crest, then push your buttocks to one side and remove the iliac crest first."

"Then we start from the tailbone and work our way forward along the ribs, removing the ribs and spine together."

Qiao Ruoning frowned upon hearing Bai Heng's words.

"So, he didn't disassemble the spine, but separated the vertebrae first?"

Han Tianyan nodded.

"Yes, and there's something very interesting: the spine that Xia Ming dissected wasn't complete; he deliberately left the connecting part intact."

"Moreover, his knife was very unique. It was the first time I had ever seen a knife shaped like a sickle. Previously, the knife used for this step was usually a boning knife or a butcher's knife."

If Xia Ming knew Han Tianyan's thoughts, he would definitely nod in agreement.

He knew that using a boning knife was faster and more precise, but the problem was, wasn't that possible?

He currently has five knives in his knife box, namely...
Bloodthirsty Cleaver (large cleaver)

Blood Glutton (Bone Cleaving Knife)

Blood-Slaying Bone Knife

Blood Mixed (Thin Mulberry Knife)

Blood Opening (Odd Blade - Multi-Purpose Knife)

The "Blood Dragon" knife, which is supposed to be a "bonecrusher," has not yet been forged, so he has to make do with the "Blood Taotie" knife.

To prevent the fragile structure from being damaged, he deliberately left a little extra space.

Anyway, the only purpose of this spine is to make soup, so it doesn't matter if a piece is missing.

Seeing Xia Ming continue cutting up the pig, Han Tianyan frowned.

Xia Ming's current behavior is strange. First of all, the tenderloin was thrown aside, which means he doesn't want this piece. And since a small section of his spine is broken, he probably doesn't want this piece either.

The ribs, along with the spine, were placed to the side, suggesting that they might not have actually been made from ribs.
So, on this pig, there's the meat in the middle and the trotters on both sides, right?

"But if we want meat, isn't this kind of cutting a bit too much work?"

Han Tianyan frowned. He didn't think it was pig's trotters, because if he wanted pig's trotters, he could just cut off both legs.

"He wouldn't want the 'fan ribs' in front, would he?"

Just then, Xia Ming raised his knife and cut off the front "plum blossom" and the fan bone together.

This move silenced all the players.
Even someone who's not very good at butchering pork could see that Xia Ming's cut was completely haphazard.
He not only ruined the pork shoulder and the tenderloin above, but also failed to remove the "ribs".
Sun Xingyao burst out laughing when she saw this.

"I've seen people who can't cut accurately, but I've never seen anyone this inaccurate. This guy basically knows zero about the internal cavities of a pig."

"It's hilarious! I filmed this scene and showed it to the butcher at the market, and he just shook his head."

"They say the weirder the weapon, the faster you die, and it's so true! Hahahaha!"

Shuai Qixing also gave a mocking snort.

To be honest, even someone who has only ever watched a butcher butcher cut meat can understand how terrible Xia Ming's operation was.

He even felt that giving him half a pig was a waste of the pig's potential.
"If I had known it would be like this, I would have just asked the production team for it directly, and avoided making a fool of myself."

The people in the live stream were also a bit confused.

[What kind of Dubai-style knife work is this? What is this person trying to do?] [It's hard to tell which piece of meat they want, and it doesn't look like they want the bone either.]

"Do you want tendons? I saw someone getting tendons pulled from their lower leg."

The tendons didn't even reach the crescent-shaped bone. It seems like they're simply unfamiliar with pork, which is a bit of a waste of ingredients.

"Inside the competition venue"

Xia Ming continued to meticulously carve the pig in his hands.

Actually, if he had the "Blood Dragon" blade in hand, he wouldn't need to do it this way at all.

Or if the pigs were scalloped a few more times, he wouldn't need to do this.

However, given the current situation and the scarcity of materials, in order to retain as many usable parts as possible, he can only choose to waste a little of the unwanted parts.

After removing the front half, Xia Ming set the pork aside and then took out the Blood Glutton from the knife box.

He then removed the spine and made an incision between the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae, and between the thoracic and cervical vertebrae.

With a swing of the Blood Glutton, the spine in front of him was instantly severed like tofu. The original spine was divided into a "cervical vertebra," a large "thoracic vertebra," and the three parts behind it were combined into one.

Then Xia Ming took the cervical vertebra from which he had removed the spinal cord and quickly swung it six times at the joints in front of him.

With a swift movement of the knife, bones fell, and Xia Ming severed seven neck bones, leaving them piled to one side.

Then, ignoring the lumbar vertebrae, he carefully felt the location of the "thoracic vertebrae".

After finding the key points, I made more than a dozen cuts at the junction.

As the knife fell, the thoracic vertebrae attached to what was originally a whole piece of "pork ribs" were severed.

Then he raised an eyebrow and slashed fiercely at the bottom of the ribs.

The judges were stunned by the incredible skill of this one-hit wonder.

God, he's talking about the exquisite division of the spine; Ghost, even now, the judges still haven't figured out which part it is.
Tan Zhifeng thought for a long time, glanced at Yin Shengjiang next to him, and then spoke.

"If it's cut like this, do you think Xia Ming wants pork cartilage?"

"Cartilage?"

Yin Shengjiang raised an eyebrow; it seemed to make some sense.
Generally speaking, the following are some common cartilages found on pigs and that people often eat.

【Pig's Heavenly Ladder (maxillary cartilage)】is generally only found in hot pot and stir-fries.

The white part after slicing pig ears.

【Rib cartilage (pork cartilage)】is what is commonly known as pork rib cartilage.

【Crescent Bone (Fan Bone Tip)】There are only two pieces per pig, and they are usually sold separately in the market.

Some are more closely connected to the bone and flesh. For example, when eating pork bone soup, the white part on the round joint is called the "pig meniscus". Generally, it is gnawed on, which is quite hard on the teeth.

Of course, if you stew it until it's very soft, there's a chance it might fall off, but that will take a very long time.

Yin Shengjiang hadn't thought much of it at first, but after hearing Tan Zhifeng's words, he found them increasingly reasonable.

"The forelegs were cut to preserve the 'lunulae' (the crescent-shaped bone) as much as possible, while the hind legs were left uncut to ensure the integrity of the 'shaft bones' (the club bones)."

"If that's the case, then he was processing the ribs just now to get the 'pork cartilage' at the end!"

Tan Zhifeng nodded upon hearing this. He had only just realized that this explanation was the only way to make sense of what Xia Ming was doing.
"It's quite common to use cartilage in cooking, but the question is, are there any dishes that involve kung fu?"

Yin Shengjiang pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

Generally speaking, pork cartilage is sold along with a little meat because pork cartilage is neither easy to separate nor easy to process.

The ideal ratio is 4 parts meat, 3 parts cartilage, and 3 parts fat. This combination results in a very high-quality texture whether boiled or stewed.
The reason for this is that before the pork cartilage is fully cooked, it only exhibits toughness and some elasticity, without any other properties, and contains almost no fat. Inside, there is only a slight pork aroma and a trace of pork blood flavor.

Under these conditions, it is very difficult to separate the cartilage using a butcher's knife; if one is not careful, most of the cartilage will be cut off.

Therefore, if an extreme situation arises where Yin Shengjiang needs to separate the cartilage separately, he will choose to cook it first before separating it.

After pondering for a moment, Yin Shengjiang turned his gaze back to Xia Ming, wanting to see what Xia Ming was really up to.

At this moment, Xia Ming had already separated the front and hind legs, along with the meat, and also separated the pig's trotters.

Then he started using boiling water to separate the impurities from the pig bones.

The residual pig's blood was meaningless to him, so the meat in his hands could not possibly have residual blood or a bloody smell.

So unlike others who need to soak the blood foam, he can start directly from simmering the broth.

Put the front and back spine into the pot, along with a little bit of pork fat. Then take a small piece of meat from the abdomen, chop it into minced meat with a sharp knife, and put it into the pot to simmer.

After doing all this, he took a deep breath and then took out "Blood Hybrid" from the knife box.

"Although I've never used the 'Blood Mix (Thin Mulberry Knife)' to replace the 'Blood Dragon (Bonecrusher)' for bone removal, it's worth a try in this situation."

As he spoke, he first took a piece of "pork cartilage" with meat on it, then cleaned away the fascia behind it, and then used Blood Soul to control the "Blood Mix" knife to bend it into the shape he wanted.

Then, the "Blood Hybrid" blade moved swiftly through the gaps between cartilage and flesh, guided by Blood Soul's movements.
After a few cuts, a white, columnar, tough colloid was separated from the middle.

Seeing the cut meat and then the colloid in Xia Ming's plate, everyone in the contestants' room was struck dumb.

"What is that? Xia Ming is taking pork cartilage from a live pig?"

"No, this??? Is this even scientific? Even the most skilled butcher has never seen this thing taken raw!"

"It's not that outrageous, is it? An industrial company should be able to do that, otherwise where would the cartilage in the 'crispy cartilage sausage' come from?"

"Don't you understand? The cartilage in 'crispy cartilage sausage' is mostly pork tracheal cartilage and chicken foreleg. Even if you insist on using rib cartilage, it's for the sake of simplicity; you only take the core part of the cartilage."

"Yes, machines can directly extract the cartilage center through a cylinder, but this is done manually! The key is that there wasn't a single piece of cartilage left in the flesh he removed!"

"In ancient times, there was the butcher Ding who could dissect an ox; now, there is Xia Ming who can remove bones. Who just said he didn't know how? If he didn't know how, how could he remove this thing?"

Hearing the other contestants' exclamations, Sun Xingyao smacked her lips.

He hadn't expected that Xia Ming would want cartilage instead of meat!

The main problem is that this isn't a common way to eat cartilage in Chinese cuisine. Who in their right mind would eat cartilage without any meat?
Although surprised, Sun Xingyao was well-informed and experienced. He said that while the skill of extracting cartilage from pigs was indeed amazing, it was not unique. After all, although few people do this, many butchers are technically capable of doing it.

It might not be as perfect as Xia Ming's, but this thing definitely needs to be refined later, so there's not much difference between the two.

So he snorted coldly.

"What did I say wrong? It's just extracting cartilage from a live animal. Although I admit it's very difficult, any skilled butcher can do it with patience."

"This isn't a 'pig's meniscus.' If he could remove that thing, I'd kowtow to him right here and now!"

After he finished speaking, Sun Xingyao noticed that the surrounding contestants immediately fell silent. He smiled to himself, thinking that everyone was afraid of his reputation.

But when he looked up, he found several contestants ranked ahead of him staring at him with a hint of pity.

Sun Xingyao was taken aback. Just as she was about to continue speaking, she suddenly realized that something was wrong.

He suppressed his temper for the moment and continued to look up at the screen. The next second, he shuddered.
This was because Xia Ming had already used the "Blood Taotie" knife to remove all the meat from the bone.

He is currently holding the "Blood Hybrid" knife and, at an extremely unusual angle, is removing a meniscus.
(End of this chapter)