American forensics, but the gourmet system

Russell walked down the street in Brownsville carrying six pounds of fresh beef. He had called the 24-hour supermarket in advance to ask them to reserve some fresh beef shank for him.

At $7.5 a pound, the price is a bit high.

But for Russell, whose monthly salary would increase by an extra $1000 after becoming a full-time employee, such a price was still acceptable.

He turned the corner and saw a dark figure standing there, hunched over, his face almost touching his knees.

Another fentanyl overdose addict...

Russell carefully walked around the man who was folded up. It wasn't that he was indifferent; he could certainly have called an ambulance and gotten the poor man to the hospital, but it was clear that the fentanyl addict was unlikely to have health insurance.

Therefore, he will most likely receive a bill of several thousand dollars after being discharged from the hospital, which he will find difficult to afford.

In comparison, folding it for a while makes it seem less unacceptable.

Robbery, brawls, shootings, and drug addiction are common occurrences in impoverished neighborhoods like Brownsville, but if you're careful, these troubles are unlikely to find you on their own.

Russell walked into the apartment building and glanced back at the fentanyl addict standing on the street like a statue. Although he knew that the addict would return to normal after the effects of the drug wore off, Russell still felt a kind of inexplicable depression.

Typically, such individuals will soon have a small temporary residence in Sin Sin Prison or the forensic center, without causing any disruption to the world's development.

But he was, after all, a human being.

Or rather, he was once a person...

When Russell opened the apartment door, Aina was nestled on the sofa in the living room, holding an iPad in her left hand and writing and drawing on it with a stylus in her right.

When Aina saw Russell return, her eyes lit up immediately.

However, Russell suspected that it was Aina who saw the six pounds of fresh beef he was carrying...

Good evening, Dr. Russell. You get off work very late.

Aina's toes, which were dangling from the edge of the sofa, began to swing. Russell noticed that whenever the girl was in a good mood, she would sway her body like a puppy wagging its tail.

How did you know I'm a doctor?

Russell changed into slippers and asked as he walked toward the kitchen.

He wasn't surprised that Aina discovered his profession; with a little attention, the apartment was full of clues related to Russell's career.

He asked that question simply to start a conversation with Aina.

"You kept a book about human anatomy under the coffee table," Aina said with a smug smile, pointing to the coffee table in the middle of the living room with her delicate chin. "Only medical students and art students study human anatomy... but you said you're a bit of a germaphobe. As everyone knows, painters deal with oil paints and pigments all day long, so they can't possibly be germaphobes. Therefore, I'm assuming you're a doctor..."

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"A brilliant deduction." Russell placed the beef on the cutting board in the kitchen with a slap. "But one thing, do art students also have to study human anatomy?"

"It's just a little bit." Aina stood up, holding her iPad, and walked to the kitchen doorway to watch Russell process the beef. "We can use it when we're drawing human figures."

"I understand." Russell turned to look at Aina. "But you don't look like a painter, or rather, you don't look like the stereotypical painter with paintbrushes and hands covered in oil paint."

"I'm just an illustrator." Aina playfully stuck out her tongue and showed Russell her iPad. "This is my canvas, brushes, and paints... I love high-tech."

On the iPad was a half-finished coloring drawing, depicting a natural landscape. Russell, completely ignorant of art, could only politely remark:

"Beautiful."

"Is that beef?" Aina finally steered the conversation, seemingly casually, towards the cutting board. "What are you going to do with it...?"

Have you ever heard of braised beef?

Russell picked up a cleaver and, following the muscle fibers, cut the beef shank into six pieces, each weighing about a pound. With his mastery of the art of butchering an ox, this was easier for Russell than drinking coffee.

"Of course I've heard of it!" Aina exclaimed, her eyes immediately lighting up. "I love it!"

"That's good, but you'll probably only be able to taste it tomorrow. The process of making braised beef is a bit complicated."

"Oh...it's alright, waiting is a sign of respect for the food..."

Although Aina said that, she still looked a little regretful as she left the kitchen with her iPad.

Russell then pulled out a few metal skewers from the cupboard and poked several holes in each piece of beef.

[Steps: Prick holes in the beef to allow the marinade to penetrate better]

[Drilling step completion rate: 100%]

[Steps: Prepare the marinade, ...]

On the semi-transparent screen in front of Russell, the contents of the recipe scrolled.

The recipe for braised beef is a little different from that for hand-cut fresh lamb. For hand-cut fresh lamb, you only need to select the right ingredients and master the techniques for cutting the meat.

However, the preparation of braised beef involves several complex steps.

From selecting raw materials to cutting meat, making marinade, marinating, blanching, preparing sauce, and braising, there are many points to pay attention to at each step.

An old American proverb says:

Every step on the journey is just a tiny difference, but if you're only a little bit off, you might be a thousand miles away from your ultimate goal!

The same applies to making braised beef. If there is even the slightest deviation in each step, it's questionable whether the final product can even be considered braised beef.

Following the recipe, Russell prepared the marinade. He mixed a dark liquid with dry yellow soybean paste, light soy sauce, cooking wine, scallions, ginger slices, and dark soy sauce, then soaked the fresh beef in it, sealed the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerated it.

[Marinating process completion rate: 1%]

Russell spent over ten minutes washing his hands and tidying up the kitchen, and the progress bar only reached 2%.

A rough calculation shows that these pieces of beef need to be marinated for at least 24 hours.

The system also provided a small note:

[Reducing the marinating time by 50% will result in a 10% loss of flavor in the finished product; reducing the marinating time by 80% will result in a 30% loss of flavor in the finished product.]

It seems that marinating beef is a product with strong marginal returns.

However, Russell wasn't in such a hurry to speak; waiting 24 hours wouldn't be a problem.

I can take the next step after I get off work tomorrow.

Stepping out of the kitchen, Aina had already put away her iPad. She rubbed her hands together nervously, like a cute little fly that had just appeared at a murder scene.

"I can't always eat your cooking..." Aina said to Russell, rubbing her hands together. "Yesterday it was hot pot with lamb, tomorrow it's braised beef, and there might be more in the future... Maybe I can cook something for you, or I can give you money..."

Russell was naturally unwilling for Aina to eat his food for free. This was a delicious dish enhanced by the system, and the two of them were just ordinary roommates who had only met this morning.

But if I were to charge money... that just feels even more wrong.

Russell pondered for a moment:

"How's your job of maintaining the cleanliness of the common areas in this apartment? I'll provide you with dinner at least four times a week."

"It's settled then." Aina snapped her fingers happily. "I can also take care of washing the dishes after dinner. Of course, if you'd like to share the workload, I won't have any objections..."

Russell nodded and opened his bedroom door:

"Perfect arrangement, Aina. By the way, I'm not really a doctor, because I'm a forensic pathologist. Goodnight."