Chapter 477: The Techres House (2/2)

“…It’s a little salty, isn’t it?”

“No, this is just about right.”

“Ah, no, I mean, this is such an unusual flavor…”

“Looks like this could be even tastier with a few more ingredients in.”

Everyone had given up their smoothed up impressions about it. However…

“…It’s terrible.”

…Jin couldn’t help himself.

“J-Jin!?”

Reinhardt was surprised by his surprisingly upfront remark.

“…The soup stock isn’t good. It’s too salty. It’s been left to boil for way too long, and most of the aroma is gone.”

Jin’s criticism had been extra harsh because he had been yearning for some good miso soup for a long time.

“…If it’s okay with you, would you let me prepare some miso soup?”

“Oh? Yes, please. Go ahead!”

Rather than being offended by Jin’s words, Eckert nodded, seemingly looking forward to seeing what Jin would prepare. He then had one of his attendants show him to the kitchen.

“I’ll help you as well, Jin!”

The Family’s flavor expert, Berthie, hurriedly went after him. Without either saying a word, Reiko and Neon followed along as well.

“…Is this ‘Miso’?”

The miso that the head chef showed them once they got to the kitchen was quite fermented. Unlike soy sauce, miso is not heat-treated, so how well its fermentation process goes depends on how it’s stored.

“Yeah, but we can still use this.”

Jin confirmed this by dipping his finger in the miso and tasting it.

“First of all, the soup stock…”

When there are no dried bonito flakes nor kelp, one could always turn to dried sardines for the soup, but unfortunately, there were no dried sardines to be found either.

Jin searched all over the kitchen looking for a substitute, and eventually came across a candidate.

“Dried fish?”

Drying was one of the many ways to preserve fish. A simple way to do so was by slicing freshly caught fish open, removing the internal organs and washing them with salt water. After that, one would simply lay them out under the sun and let them dry.

Leaving the theory that drying fish in the sun caused proteins to decompose into amino acids, increasing the fish’s flavor, Jin realized he could use these dried fish as a base for the miso soup stock.

“Now, onto the other ingredients…”

With a fish-based stock, the next ingredients would preferably be plant-based. Seagrass like wakame would have been a great choice, but eating seaweed didn’t seem to be customary in this world.

“So in that case…”

There was no tofu in this world either, so naturally, there would be no fried tofu.

“Hmm?”

Jin found a vegetable that looked like an eggplant.

“Alright, eggplant miso it is, then.”

Jin started to nimbly peel off the vegetable’s purple skin.

“Let me help you with that, Jin.”

Berthie offered to take care of peeling the eggplants while Jin dealt with the soup stock.

She then soaked the chopped up eggplant-like vegetable in a bowl of water to remove their bitterness.

In the meantime, Jin put the whole dried fish into a pot of boiling water, and after letting it boil for a while, he took out the fish and put in the eggplants Berthie had chopped up, and brought that to a boil.

He didn’t mind that the soup would get a little blackish. After boiling for about 2 minutes, he added the miso and turned off the heat just before boiling.

“If you let it boil after adding the miso, it will lose its aroma.”

Jin explained that to both Berthie and the head chef, who were looking attentively from the side.

“Alright, let’s give this one a try.”

Neon carried the pot back to the table, where the maid started serving the new soup to everyone.

The first one to try it was Elsa.

“…Delicious…!”

Reinhardt, Saki, Stearleana, and Vivian also took a sip and were surprised by the difference in flavor.

And the one that seemed to be the most surprised was Eckert.

“Oh, my…! To think it could be this tasty!”

“All you need to do is use a soup stock, and not let it boil after adding the miso. Just with that you’ll get a much better flavor out of it.”

Since they weren’t particularly good at taking hot food, Jin and Berthie were slowly enjoying their miso soup. This time, the soup was tasty enough for Jin to be able to actually enjoy it.

“This could be turned into a local specialty!”

Of course, Eckert couldn’t help but look at this soup with the eyes of a merchant.