Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 167 Scientific Secrets: Bai Heng Sees Through He He's Culinary Direction (4K Second Update)
Pound the minced meat.

It is a word that everyone is both familiar with and unfamiliar with.

Compared to regular chopping, mincing...

Pounded minced meat will have a sticky, net-like texture.

This condition is due to the fascia-dense lean muscle areas being pounded and damaged, resulting in a unique state.
Unlike minced meat produced by a meat grinder, its altered structure makes it perform well in both marinating and applying a small amount of starch to enhance its elasticity.

However, apart from some regions in my country, it is rare to see purely handmade pounded meatballs sold in the market.

The main reason is that it requires too much labor, which leads to a high price.

Although later companies produced machines similar to mechanical hammering (similar to the rice cake machines often seen on the street).

But in the end, there is still a difference between mechanical hammering and hand hammering.

Many people believe that the difference stems from the quality of the meat or psychological factors.

Actually, the truth is not entirely like that.
Whether using a hammer or a special steel rod, the biggest difference between humans and machines is that humans cannot apply force evenly every time.

Theoretically speaking, pounded minced meat should be uniform in texture; the more uniform it is, the better the taste.

However, in terms of taste, meatballs that are made to be extremely uniform inside actually lose some of their texture.

Even if a machine simulates the force exerted, it still finds it difficult to do exactly the same thing as a human striking a blow. This may be the difference between "theoretical cuisine" and "actual cuisine."

Of course, "hardcore punching" like Xia Ming's using his fists is indeed rare in the city.
After all, the workshop that makes beef balls doesn't expect to sell them at a premium of dozens of times.

Even if they were willing, it wouldn't be easy to find someone in the vast sea of ​​people who could handle meatballs to this state.

After all, the difficulty involved is far greater than what appears to be simple.

First, to reach Xia Ming's current level, the chef needs to have incredibly strong arms, and he also needs to have a very good understanding of the structure of meat.

The biggest and most difficult problem with hand-pounding is finding the perfect balance between "unevenness" and "uniformity".

In addition to being able to accurately remove the fascia each time, it is even more important to properly handle the edges and corners of the meat.

It's already extremely difficult to find a master with these skills, but the competition also requires speed, making it even more challenging.

After all, not everyone can be like Xia Ming, relying on the increased strength after opening the Blood Gate, the power converted from using the Blood Soul, and the precise control over the ingredients through contact, to perfect the art of pounding.

As the meat on Xia Ming's table rapidly changed shape, all the judges fell silent.

Unlike before, Xia Ming's move wasn't too outrageous, even considering the uncertainty of the final meat quality.

This technique has appeared before, both on short videos and in the culinary world.

The most obvious and memorable one is He Sheng, the "King of Noodles".

This strong and powerful man in his youth once created a pastry using a similar technique at the peak of his career, which amazed the culinary world at the time.

Sui Wubai glanced at He He, then at Xia Ming, and chuckled sheepishly.

"If you cover up the information of the two people in the competition, for a moment, I can't tell who is the successor of Grandpa He."

Tan Zhifeng shook his head upon hearing this.

"Don't be fooled by their similar appearances and techniques; the two are actually quite different!"

"Back then, Grandpa He Sheng relied more on brute force, something his granddaughter He He could never do due to her physical condition."

"However, I heard that He He is skilled in using the old man's 'hitting a cow from across the mountain' technique, but I don't know if it's true or not."

"But I do know that Xia Ming used a similar technique to 'hitting a cow across a mountain' to process ingredients in other places before, and his arm strength now seems to be far beyond that of ordinary people."

"Furthermore, he seems to be similar to Grandpa He back then, but the timeline is clearly much faster than what was shown in the video back then."

In Tan Zhifeng's opinion, Xia Ming's ability to process ingredients faster than He Sheng's was not because his strength was really that much different from the old man's, but because of his devilish control skills.

Meat that is 9% lean and 1% fat is actually more difficult to pound than meat that is all lean, because the fat is dispersed and integrated into the lean meat. While this adds to the texture and prevents it from being monotonous, it also increases the difficulty exponentially.

He admitted that he couldn't have precisely removed the neck membrane from one side under such rapid hammering.

But as if by magic, as Xia Ming kept pounding his fists on the flesh, these fascia were cleverly moved to the surrounding area.

Although this resulted in some food waste, it greatly reduced the time he spent distracted by picking out the tendons and fascia. After the middle stage, the meat began to stick together, and he would discard a small ring around the meat every time he pounded it to a certain point.

After repeating this process several times, Tan Zhifeng was surprised to find that the fascia of the meat itself had been completely removed.

"I simply cannot imagine what kind of control and technique is required to achieve such a state."

"I suspect that this is the final effect that Xia Ming intentionally created during the hammering process."

"This also shows that he did not simply use this manual hammering method to attract attention. He must have some kind of internal skill to compress the process to the extreme under the limited time of the competition."

The other judges also strongly agreed with Tan Zhifeng's viewpoint. Although it was a bit abstract at first glance, from a certain perspective, it extremely highlighted Xia Ming's masculine charm.

After all, the feeling of each punch landing hard, combined with his handsome face, is enough to make many girls blush.

Of course, Mao Xianzheng still had some minor objections.

"Everything is fine, except it's too noisy. The sound of each punch lands is so loud that it sometimes echoes the beat of my heart."

"It's good that you have the skills and ability, but you should at least consider the elderly. If you stay in this kind of environment any longer, I'm really worried that your heart rate and blood pressure will get out of control!"

This was true even for the judges' seats that were further away...

He He, who was nearby, was naturally also affected.

She describes herself as someone who remains calm in most situations.

And because she studied pastry making, her physical fitness was much better than that of the average girl.

But Xia Ming's combo was incredibly fast, frequent, and, crucially, prolonged.

While cooking to block out the noise coming from Xia Ming's side, He He really wanted to ask Xia Ming a question.

"Aren't you tired of playing like that?"

According to her idea, such continuous punching requires a high level of physical strength. In the past, even ordinary martial arts stars would have found it difficult to do. It's not like Xia Ming would go and learn martial arts just to practice a "skill"!
"You can't have learned ancient martial arts first and then learned to cook, can you?"

"Otherwise, it would be too outrageous!"

The viewers in the live stream gradually became numb over time.

[Any fitness experts out there who can comment on this level?]

[After 15 years of fitness training, I'm here uninvited. After watching for a while, all I can say is, I don't understand this technique. I recommend it to those who practice martial arts; it's way beyond their level, bro!]

[After twenty years of martial arts training, a boxing champion with seven trophies, I can only say his boxing skills are average, but his stamina is simply superhuman. If he were in a competition, no matter what kind of boxing he uses, if his counterattack fails, he could very well be beaten to death by Xia Ming's wild punches.]

[It's true what they say, "Even a novice can be beaten to death with a flurry of punches!" That punching style, that speed—why would a martial arts genius choose to become a chef?!] [No way! In today's urban environment, what's the use of learning martial arts? Learning to cook is clearly a much better career path!]

[You're so manly! Go Xia Ming! Go Xia Ming! Our fan club will always support you!]

[Oh my god, when did Xia Ming get a fan club? Can you point me in the right direction? I'll join!~~]

While netizens were discussing, Xia Ming had already pounded the minced meat in his hands to the right consistency.

After letting out a long sigh, Xia Ming added ice for the last time and then began the final pounding. As the ice shards broke apart in the minced meat, the meat's net-like structure reached its perfect state.

After glancing at the time, Xia Ming withdrew his Blood Soul Power and placed the minced meat aside. The dough he had kneaded earlier had risen quite well.

Looking at the dough, Xia Ming smiled slightly.

"In terms of time, I should be far ahead."

"In that case, the subsequent steps can be completed without any rush."

As he spoke, Xia Ming took out the "Blood Opening" knife.

Theoretically speaking, he should be using "Blood End" and "Blood Candle" right now.

The problem now is that neither of the two knives has reached Xia Ming's hands, so he can only use "Blood Open" as a substitute.

Finally, Xia Ming added a small amount of starch to the meat, kneaded it well, and then took the dough from the side and kneaded it again.

Upon reaching this point, the judges also discovered some issues.

Yin Shengjiang glanced at the time.

"Have you noticed that Xia Ming's dough rises faster than usual?"

Tan Zhifeng nodded.

"Yes, it's obviously ridiculously fast."

Sui Wubai pondered for a long time before slowly speaking.

"It's not a second proofing. Theoretically, the first proofing needs to be fully proofed, but the speed at which it was fully proofed was truly astonishing."

"Putting aside any secret recipe, I suspect that Xia Ming's palm temperature may be abnormal."

This is actually easy to understand, because the optimal catalytic temperature for yeast is around 30℃. While kneading dough with warm water can maintain the temperature within this time, the temperature will be affected by room temperature as the dough is kneaded under normal conditions.

Although this is the Guangzhou-Shenzhen area, a region where people rely on short sleeves for more than 80% of their annual travel time.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t be cold here. As November approaches, the temperature gradually becomes unstable. Although it’s not cold, you can still feel a touch of autumn that’s hard to find here.

Sui Wubai discovered that He He had kept a kettle of hot water ready to keep the yeast at the correct temperature.

The goal is to reduce time through extreme temperature control.

On the other hand, Xia Ming used the same yeast water when kneading the dough.

Those are several dough balls; if you leave warm water out in the open, it will definitely be affected by the temperature.

It's already good that it doesn't slow down, but it can even accelerate. One can only guess that Xia Ming has a pair of gentle, large hands.

Tan Zhifeng had shaken hands with Xia Ming on the show, but he did not notice any difference in the temperature of Xia Ming's hand at that time.

“I’ve held Mr. He’s hand before. Although he’s old, the temperature of his hand is definitely unusual.”

“My master once said that Mr. He Sheng has a natural constitution for making dough, and the warmth of his hands can help the dough ferment quickly.”

"I heard that this constitution is innate. According to the logic of traditional Chinese medicine, it means that you have enough Yang energy, so your hands and feet are warm."

“I’ve touched Xia Ming’s hands before and didn’t notice anything different, but I just observed that his palms turned slightly red when he was kneading the dough.”

"Is it possible that he soaked his hands in warm water before making the dough?"

Sui Wubai pondered for a moment, then chuckled sheepishly.

"I'm not sure, but I think it's hard to maintain the temperature of your hands by just soaking them in warm water."

"To be honest, the way he made such a scene, practically tearing the basin to shreds, is really unreasonable."

"But from another perspective, it makes more sense that he used his palm to strike a hard object, which caused damage to the muscles, skin, and capillaries, triggered a local emergency, accelerated blood circulation, and then used this to maintain the temperature of his palm."

Sui Wubai felt that this "skill" seemed a bit radical.

But then I thought about it again. Xia Ming had punched the flesh thousands of times, eventually turning it into minced meat. His hands, if not as hard as steel, were at least extraordinary.

Thinking about it this way, perhaps that kind of "skill" really was tailor-made for him.

Just as the judges were trying to make Xia Ming's "blood soul" scientific, He He, sitting opposite him, finally started making the meat filling.

She first minced the meat, then added various seasonings, creating a standard sweet and savory filling.

What's different is that she mixed various fruit and vegetable purees into these fillings, seemingly to create different textures.

Inside the players' lounge

Bai Heng narrowed his eyes slightly upon seeing this.

"Qiao Ruoning, I remember He He is better at desserts, right?"

Qiao Ruoning nodded.

"Yes, she is better at standard Chinese pastries and has a keen sense of sweetness, but she is also good at savory ones."

After hearing her words, Bai Heng pondered for a moment, and then spoke quietly.

"Qiao Ruoning, can she make 'new-style pasta'?"

"Noodles?"

Qiao Ruoning frowned slightly, then the information flashed through her mind, and finally a hint of hesitation appeared on her face.

"Based on the collected information, there is no definitive proof that she knows the 'new-style noodle and fruit' technique, but based on the masters she has consulted..."

"She had exchanges with Master Zhao Huilian, who is the founder of the new-style noodle and fruit dessert."

"He made good use of his talent and pushed pastry to a new level. He is known as the pastry chef in China with the most potential to enter the culinary god stage after He Sheng."

After listening to the information, Bai Heng nodded.

She now understands He He's thoughts.
"Since she's planning to use 'Noodle Fruit' in the battle, then Xia Ming..."

"What kind of dish are you making?"

(End of this chapter)