King of the Wilderness-Chapter 66 - 65: The Troubles of Too Much Food

He rested for a moment, regained some strength, and then began to think about how to handle this giant pike.

"Too much food, figuring out how to eat it has actually become a problem, who would believe this is wilderness survival!"

"Although pike meat is delicious, its muscle contains many fine Y-shaped bones, eating it directly would be very troublesome."

"This problem has always troubled me before when I made smoked pike."

Lin Yu’an, after thinking for a while, had a brilliant solution flash in his eyes!

"But now the conditions have improved! I can take plenty of time to process it."

"I’ve decided to make it into fish balls! This way, I can perfectly avoid all the annoying little bones, leaving only the purest fish meat."

"This won’t just preserve it longer, but will also slow down the loss of its freshness!"

He performed preliminary processing of this pike on the fishing platform—draining blood, scaling, removing the guts.

Then he filleted the large chunks of fish meat from both sides of the pike, along with the skin.

As for the huge fish head and bones, he thought of that unpalatable Lake Trout fish head in the shelter, and didn’t plan to eat the bitter stuff...

He threw the inedible guts and fish head and bones into the bait spot.

Returning to the stone house, Lin Yu’an immediately devoted himself to the fish ball-making project.

He laid out a huge pike fillet, with the skin on, on a cleaned big stone slab, skin side down.

This time he didn’t use a knife to cut, but took out a shiny shell he picked up by the lakeside, his self-made "fish meat scraper."

Using the shell’s edge, following the fish meat’s texture, he scraped forcefully forward at a slightly slanted angle.

Lin Yu’an pointed to the pile of delicate, powdery white scrapped fish meat mush, speaking to the camera.

"Scraping can separate most of the fish meat from those fine inter-muscular bones."

"Most of those Y-shaped bones will remain on the fish skin and fascia, so what we get is the purest fish meat."

When he finished scraping about enough, Lin Yu’an pointed to the fish skin left with only a thin layer of red meat and white fascia.

"See these densely packed things resembling small white forks? These are the inter-muscular bones of the pike, the Y-shaped bones."

"They grow on the fascia between the muscles, using the scraping method, the soft fish meat is peeled away from these hard bones.

"Therefore, all Y-shaped bones are left on the fish skin and fascia, making the resulting fish mush extremely clean."

After scraping all the meat from the two fish fillets, he obtained a large clay pot full of fish meat mush, estimating at least eight or nine pounds.

Next is seasoning and getting rid of the fishy smell, he was grateful for having obtained a lot of wild onions, offering materials to remove the fishiness.

He chopped the onion whites and bulbs extremely fine, forming onion mince, and mixed them with an appropriate amount of salt into the fish meat mush.

Then he entered the most physically demanding stage of "kneading to gain elasticity."

Using a thick smooth wooden stick, he began forcefully kneading the fish meat mush in one fixed direction in the clay pot.

"The purpose of kneading is to rearrange the protein fibers in the fish meat, generating viscosity, what we commonly refer to as ’gaining elasticity.’

Only when it gains elasticity will the fish balls be bouncy and smooth in texture, rather than loose."

He continued kneading, and the fish meat mush in the clay pot gradually turned from a loose state into an increasingly sticky and elastic texture.

When he felt the mush was sticky enough to be easily lifted in one piece from the pot wall, fully elastic, the fish paste was considered ready.

He placed a stainless steel pot on the stove, boiling wild onion water, preparing a clay pot of cool water beside it.

After thoroughly washing his hands with soap, he grabbed a handful of elastic fish paste in his left hand, squeezed forcefully from the thumb and forefinger, producing a round fish ball.

With a water-moistened wooden spoon in his right hand, he gently scraped the fish ball into the nearby bowl of cool water.

"Placing them in cool water first allows the fish balls to preliminarily solidify."

The movements became faster, he skillfully repeated the squeezing and scraping actions.

One after another, uniformly sized, snow white and smooth fish balls quickly filled the clay pot of cool water.

Then, he batch-cooked these solidified raw fish balls in the simmering state onion water.

The fish balls slowly floated and rolled in the hot water, increasing in size slightly as the temperature rose.

When all the fish balls floated to the surface, becoming white and looking elastic, it indicated they were done cooking.

He scooped out the cooked fish balls, placed them in a clean willow basket to drain excess water and cool rapidly.

He repeated this cooking process several times until all fish mush was made into fish balls.

"Guys, look at my accomplishment!"

He pointed to the willow basket piled high with snow-white fish balls, his face full of pride.

"Now this record-breaking fish is enough for several days of meals."

"With the cold weather, especially dropping below freezing at night, these cooked fish balls kept in clay pots, with lids tightly covered, can preserve for several days or even a week."

He took a small clay pot, poured in some previously refined deer oil, heated it and put some cooked fish balls in, using a half-frying, half-stewing method, browning them golden crispy on both sides.

"Sizzle—"

The fish balls emitted a tempting sound as their surface moisture touched the hot oil.

Quickly he served the golden fish balls, their skin looking golden and crispy while the inside remained snowy white and bouncy, making them appear very appetizing.

He skewered one with a sharpened wood stick, blew on it, and eagerly put it in his mouth.

"The skin is crispy and fragrant, the inside incredibly bouncy, full of the fish’s freshness and onion’s aroma! The taste is unbeatable!"

After enjoying the delicious golden fish balls, Lin Yu’an carefully stored the remaining fish balls.

He did not rest but walked towards the tanning pool soaking a large deer hide.

"Guys, let’s check on the condition of this deer hide."

He lifted a corner of the hide, after several days of soaking, the deer hide was fully permeated with tanning liquid, exhibiting a uniform dark brown color.

"Tannins are mostly absorbed, we can start the most physically demanding stage ’breaking’ it to soften."

He retrieved the moist deer hide from the tanning pool, hung it on a wooden rack to drain excess tanning liquid.

Then he folded the hide, like twisting a towel, grabbed both ends and twisted in opposite directions, expressing much water.

Next, he unfolded the slightly wrung deer hide, meat side down, and laid it on an upright post, pounding it with a wooden stick.

"This process requires spreading the fibrous structure of the hide, making it softer."

He constantly changed the position and direction of the hide’s stretching and pulling, working intermittently for several hours, arms aching.

When the sun rose the next morning, the large deer hide had become light and soft.

To make the tanned deer hide more durable and prevent rotting, a final step—smoking—was needed.

He reused the smokehouse built for deer meat, hanging the tanned deer hide on the center of the crossbeam.

Then he ignited a fire of mainly "smoldering wood," producing a lot of dense smoke.

The smoking process lasted most of the day, and when the huge deer hide, after many complex procedures, was finally removed from the smokehouse.

It had transformed from a stiff raw material into a soft and tough good hide!

He fully unfolded the giant deer hide in front of the camera, able to wrap himself entirely.

"Purely handmade, naturally plant-tanned mule deer hide! I guarantee it will be my mattress tonight!"