Chapter 324: Chapter 211: Confit Techniques

Skinning is an extremely exhausting process.

Lin Yu’an’s breathing became heavy, the warm flow of air continuously clashing with the cold atmosphere, forming dense white mist in front of him.

The wolf’s carcass is cooling rapidly; he can clearly feel the layer of fat beneath the skin gradually losing its elasticity, shifting from a soft, paste-like form towards a solid-state akin to hard wax.

This makes each peel more difficult than the last, forcing him to speed up.

Upon reaching the shoulder blade of the wolf’s foreleg, he encountered the first difficulty.

He paused, pointing at the area: "Scapula, the muscle groups here are unusually complex, and the subcutaneous fat is thin, with the skin almost directly attached to the fascia. In such places, brute force should never be used."

He had to pick up the hunting knife again, using merely the tip of the blade to carefully separate the tightly adhering skin from the intricate muscle groups surrounding the joint.

His every movement was meticulously precise, because even the slightest deviation could tear the wolf skin - a mistake no hunter can afford to make.

After handling the shoulder, the subsequent back and torso became much easier.

"Now, it’s time for gravity to do its work."

He almost only needed to grasp the edge of the already peeled hide, forcefully "thrust" his fist between the skin and muscle, while coordinating with his body’s weight to drop downward." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"The entire hide would under the effect of gravity, peel off in large swathes like removing a thick sweater."

Ultimately, after nearly forty minutes of intense work, he arrived at the final and most meticulous step, handling the head.

He peeled the skin up to the neck, then cautiously completed handling the ears, eyes, and nose and mouth, the areas most prone to errors.

Then with the knife tip, he precisely severed the cartilage connecting the ears from the inside, carefully separated the eyelid’s fascia from the eye socket, and finally completely peeled off the skin from the lips and nose.

Accompanied by the severing of the last piece of connection, a complete wolf skin was perfectly peeled off by him, dropping down onto the snow-covered ground below.

The inner side of the skin, covered with a thin layer of light yellow fat, glistened under the grayish-white daylight with an oily sheen. For a wolf, this was all the accumulation it had managed throughout the winter.

He rolled up the peeled wolf skin carefully with the fur side in, securing it tightly with cord.

With the skinning completed, what laid before him was a suspended wolf carcass, featuring distinct muscle lines, entirely covered with white fascia and fat, akin to an anatomical model.

Then, he began decomposing the wolf meat, a process known among hunters as the "Four-Part Method."

He explained, "Suspended in this manner is also the best stance for decomposing large prey, ensuring the meat chunks won’t touch the ground, maintaining maximum cleanliness."

Lin Yu’an’s sword technique remained precise and efficient, using the knife tip, he precisely located the gap at the hip joint connecting the hind leg, and forcefully severed the joint capsule and ligaments.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by a crisp sound of joint dislocation, a complete wolf hind leg was neatly detached by him, falling onto the birch bark laid at his feet.

This technique, having been experimented on various animals, had become refined to the pinnacle.

He processed the other three legs using the same method.

Then, he began procuring the highest value cuts, the two tenderloins.

"Tenderloin, are the two softest muscles beneath the spine, wrapped within the abdominal cavity, needing to be extracted first."

He carefully sliced open the abdominal wall, avoiding the already hollowed-out vast space, reaching a hand beneath the spine.

Then, he completely separated those two elongated, slippery tenderloin cuts from the adhering fascia.

After doing all this, he proceeded to handle the back strips, with the knife edge gliding along the spinous processes on either side of the spine, filleting from neck to tail, cutting off two robust back muscles.

These were the red meats he needed most, and the highest value parts.

"Many are curious about the taste of wolf meat." He held a dark red tenderloin up to the camera.

"It’s entirely different from dog meat; the texture of wolf meat is very lean, with almost no intramuscular fat, hence its taste being somewhat dry and intensely flavorful, the gamey taste is prominent."

"Some might find the smell strong, but for someone like me who lacks red meat for long periods, this muscle-rich myoglobin-filled meat is precisely what my body craves!"

"The key to cooking wolf meat lies in fat supplementation and slow cooking at low temperatures. Direct grilling would render it dry and hard."

"Because high temperatures make its tough connective tissues shrink quickly, expelling all the juices from the meat."

"The best method is an ancient French culinary technique called ’confit.’ While I don’t have that many seasonings here, the principle remains the same."

"Specifically, it entails immersing the cut meat entirely in melted animal fat, such as the fish oil I previously extracted or the fat of this wolf itself."

"Then, it’s subjected to long hours of heating at extremely low temperatures without bubbling."

"During this process, two marvelous things occur. Firstly, the fat gradually penetrates the lean meat, rendering it moist and juicy."