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Food waste in cooking.

In technical terms, waste is a constant, inevitable occurrence.

A little during ingredient preparation. If mistakes happen, a bit more.

When the completed dishes are left uneaten, that adds up too.

A little stacks up until a massive amount of waste is produced daily.

Waste increases in proportion to the amount cooked.

Thus, how to manage waste in the food industry is extremely important.

Waste management directly impacts revenue.

Especially in a buffet where hundreds pass through daily, waste begins from the moment dishes are prepared, often going straight into the trash.

Therefore, keeping perfectly good menu items to reprocess and serve again before the next meal is a not-so-secret secret.

Naturally, they are prepared in a completely different new form.

For instance, the soup served today is made from leftover grilled meat from the previous day, combined with vegetables and spices simmered together.

The seafood patties and fried toast are made from seafood leftovers that have either gone cold or dried out over the day, mashed into a sauce.

Using stiffened table bread as frying batter is a given.

This is also common in royal or noble kitchens. Of course, as previously mentioned, the subjects used are not meant for the employers.

(No one can guarantee the outcome of bringing reprocessed food to the king or a noble.)

The first round goes to the low-ranking employees working in the facility.

What’s left over is given to the local poor and lower class as a second round.

Of course, it is offered at low cost or free.

This is not only happening in Iceland but also across Europa and any country, day by day.

In that sense, Lord Hadrian of Highland, specifically the lower class at Afterglow Fortress, is somewhat fortunate compared to other regions.

At least being able to eat meat at least once a day is a rarity outside places where the highest nobility reside.

And this job is primarily handled by junior chefs.

Today, the junior approached his senior, who was preparing beef to create a gracious stew for the poor and lower-class at Present.

And he grimaced.

Butchering wasn’t even halfway done.

In fact, the biggest chunk of meat was nowhere to be seen.

“What? Is the butchering still not finished? Where’s the tough, big piece? You didn’t hide it away, did you?”

“…”

“Hey! Are you dead or what?!”

“Whoa, don’t scare me like that!”

“I don’t care if you’re startled or not. Did you get hurt or something?”

The junior, facing the senior’s scrutinizing eyes, gestured towards the unprocessed meat and the barely filled bucket of odds and ends.

Ah, the senior sighed softly, understanding.

“I see, I messed up. The plate was taken by the guests.”

“…I told you to stop being dramatic. But, brisket? Why that enormous scrap of meat?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“What do you plan on doing with that?”

See for yourself. With that implication, the senior silently pointed to Karem, who was butchering the brisket with a carving knife.

Karem sliced through the tough muscle part of the brisket, cutting off the fatty parts into thin pieces.

“Why use that tough part… Wait. If it’s cut that thin…”

“The tough texture changes into something chewable.”

“That can just be grilled without simmering to the bone. It wouldn’t take long to boil either.”

“True, if it’s tough and firm, slicing it thin is a solution I didn’t think of.”

“It’s like a leatherworker peeling parchment.”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I may look like this, but my family is made up of leatherworkers.”

“Wow! Despite your crude appearance, you’re quite knowledgeable?”

The junior had no retort, completely taken aback. After all, they were all just beefy rugged barbarians; who was going to judge others based on looks?

As the junior pondered whether to smack the senior’s head or not, the senior resumed wielding his knife, intently watching Karem’s movements.

As thin slices of meat, cut a little thicker than parchment, started piling up on one side of the cutting board, curiosity suddenly stirred.

“Do you know what brisket tastes like?”

“Well, I eat it almost every day, of course.”

The junior frowned as if wondering why such obvious questions were being asked.

“Have you never tried it yourself?”

“I have money, so why would I?”

“True.”

The junior scratched his head in agreement.

“Well, it’s not bad. Cooking beef for broth makes it rich. But if you want to eat the meat itself, you have to boil it for too long.”

Thus, the flavor of the long-boiled brisket would seep entirely into the broth, rendering it tasteless as per its literal meaning.

“Then can you imagine what that piece of meat over there tastes like?”

The junior shrugged in response.

Even if it was the same meat, the taste varied based on how it was sliced, grilled, or seasoned, and he had hardly eaten anything apart from long-boiled meat that had lost its flavor to the broth.

“I had a bite before cooking to check the taste…”

“You’ve tasted it?”

“The texture was so tough that I couldn’t eat it like that.”

“Then, you slice it thinly and eat it—”

However, the senior couldn’t finish that thought.

“What the? By now, the butchering should have been finished, right? Why is there still a chunk of meat clinging to the bones in front of me?”

The senior’s words were cut short as he pointed to Karem, just like he had done with the junior.

Borgo, the head chef, frowned as he turned his head, an unfamiliar yet inviting smell wafted past under his Kaiser mustache.

*

*

*

“It’s been a while since I last cooked. It doesn’t seem too different, does it?”

Although made with soybean paste crafted from peas and a sacred blend, the aroma was nearly identical to the previous incarnation of soybean paste stew.

Having added half a spoon of Fire Witch Finger powder from the kitchen supplies, Karem stirred the stew, then tasted it…

“Oh dear.”

He nearly forgot the most important part.

Karem piled a hefty amount of brisket into the pot.

Being a bit thick as it was raw and packed way more than usual for any typical restaurant, the brisket resisted slightly but was soon dyed by the stew’s vivid color under the hot flames.

In that brief moment, the light from the beef fat turning red.

As soon as the brisket splashed in, a deep aroma transformed.

There wasn’t much difference from the previous life’s sensations, and Karem quickly scooped some out to cautiously taste it.

The flavor was perfectly fine. With years spent cooking including his former life, getting the seasoning right was standard. What was different was…

“…It’s not the same taste.”

It matched his memory, yet it was subtly unsatisfactory.

Specifically, it was a taste lacking by 2%.

The remarkably revived soybean paste stew was undoubtedly tasty.

Despite being made with peas, it still conveyed its characteristic richness.

The freshness and spiciness from the broth and kelp stock.

The harmony of brisket’s flavor and meat aroma.

While it lacked tofu, that was a minor detail to overlook, still, the uniquely addictive umami taste he vividly remembered was absent.

‘So even though I used kelp, it can’t compare to modern MSG?’

Karem tasted it again.

Everything was good, yet the 2% lack remained.

“Hmm… Well, it can’t be helped?”

A half-success, half-failure.

Karem expected this to be a common outcome.

After all, the world was different, and the ingredients were different. In such a situation, crafting the fermented soybean paste was quite an achievement for a chef.

Unless one was a chemistry major, Karem had no idea how to extract pure MSG from ingredients. Chemistry? What a joke. Not even the memory remained.

Just achieving that alone was an impressive feat, yet the disappointment still lingered. If only there was rice to go with the brisket…

He could feel the piercing gaze from behind.

Whoosh.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Karem’s eyes came to a pause, meeting the observing expressions of numerous cooks in the Afterglow Fortress kitchen, including head chef Borgo.

In this awkward situation, Borgo approached, wiping his bald head with a handkerchief.

“Ahem, I apologize. An intriguing aroma caught my attention.”

“…It’s insufficient in quantity to taste everything, so I need to cook it again.”

“Of course. Just let me know if you need any ingredients.”

The amount needed for the stew was instantly multiplied.

Still, it wouldn’t take long to prepare.

Karem returned to retrieve the kelp.

By the time the kelp stock boiled to perfection, the chefs with empty hands had finished their ingredient preparations and began cooking.

One after another, they added the ingredients into the boiling broth, finishing off by scattering brisket into the pot and boiling it once more.

As an Icelandic, even while working in the kitchen of a great noble, this was the first time tasting the stew made with Garum from beans, soybean paste, and brisket.

The reactions of the chefs, trying this completely different flavor from existing Europa dishes that were similar to the cuisine they were familiar with, were starkly divided.

“It’s rich but slightly spicy, and it sticks to the palate.”

“Even with brisket added, considering the amount, how can it be this rich with this many vegetables? Does it really work?”

“…Garum made from beans? Does it even taste like beans? I don’t know. Is this actually beans?”

“Hmm, it’s slightly addictive. I feel like I could finish a few bowls of this.”

Positive remarks.

“Everything’s good, but the aftertaste is somewhat off. The heaviness lingers too long, not great.”

“Ugh, what’s that smell? Should I say it’s crisp?”

“It’s rich, but isn’t it a bit too light? Eating this alone feels insufficient!”

“Hmm, it’s definitely bean-based. I don’t like beans.”

Negative reactions.

“Definitely, slicing it thin means it seeps without needing to boil for long.”

“More than that, cutting it this way makes it much softer?”

“Even if we call it stew, it’s a bit strong and salty. I mean, what’s left of the bread-?”

“No! This doesn’t pair with bread at all. Some denser option would be better with it-”

Analytical responses.

Among them, one particularly relatable opinion stood out.

“How about pasta instead of bread?”

Upon hearing that, the one who mentioned it doesn’t pair well with bread spoke again.

Borgo blinked, raising his head.

“Pasta?”

“Yes, not the shaped ones, but the long ones.”

“Are you referring to flat types like fettuccine?”

“I was thinking spaghetti. That would work too.”

Although rice wasn’t available, there were flour and eggs.

That meant they could make noodles.

While soybean paste stew goes well with rice, it also complements noodles.

However, for that, rice noodle or handmade noodles would be suitable—

“Now that it’s come to this, let’s make everything and taste it.”

Fresh pasta and hand-cut noodles were similar in one way.

After all, if allowed to boil for long enough, it would come out similar.

There was ample soybean paste.

 

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