Chapter 349: Experimental Ingredients
Inside the system space, Qi Han was panting heavily, struggling to hoist two massive Armored Wild Dragons onto the preparation table.
Both dragons were enormous—weighing several tons each—and moving them had taken a considerable amount of effort.
Looking at the two corpses, Qi Han couldn't help but think:
'Compared to the dragons of legend, these look more like an extinct dinosaur from my past life… what was it called again? Ah, right—Parasaurolophus.'
Well, whatever. Let's just get started with the butchering.
He glanced between the two dragons and made his decision.
"Let's start with the male one. That thing was an eyesore anyway."
Qi Han carefully began slicing from the abdomen, meticulously separating the meat along the grain into neatly divided sections for later experiments.
Despite its dark, unappealing exterior, the dragon's meat inside was surprisingly inviting.
All across its body, the flesh was a tender pink hue, almost like cherry blossoms—visually soft and succulent.
By biological standards, lizards—being reptiles—typically have white meat due to the lack of myoglobin in their muscles.
But then again, applying biology to spirit beasts was never a wise approach.
Qi Han could only assume that the color of the meat was due to its trace dragon bloodline.
A foul stench wafted from the creature's blood, causing Qi Han to wrinkle his nose.
"Ugh, no way this blood's edible. Too putrid. Toss it."
He had originally wanted to try making something similar to pork blood curd, but now he abandoned the idea without hesitation.
Before long, Qi Han had cleanly separated and washed every usable part of the Armored Wild Dragon, excluding its shell.
He tossed the hollow carapace aside and looked over the categorized meat with an appraising gaze:
The dark-blue abdominal skin
The relatively soft belly meat
The strips near the rib bones
The meat along the spinal column
The muscular limbs
And various internal organs
These were the parts he deemed possibly edible.
The abdominal skin, though technically a weakness, was not fragile by any means— one-finger thick and incredibly resilient. It shared the same color and toughness as the dragon's armored shell.
"Just because it's a weak point doesn't mean it's actually weak. It's all relative."
He stared at the thick, collagen-rich skin—its gleaming layer of fat and gel-like texture reminded him of Dongpo pork knuckle.
"Alright. Let's try stewing it like Dongpo Pork Knuckle. See how Dragon Skin Dongpo Style tastes."
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Two hours later…
"Bleurgh…"
Qi Han spat out the piece of dragon skin in his mouth, a look of existential dread on his face.
That… was awful.
Before cooking, he had genuinely believed this part would be a delicacy—the skin had great elasticity, tons of collagen, and after a thorough cleaning, had no noticeable odor.
To be safe, he had gone through extra steps to eliminate any foul smells.
And yet… after full cooking, the final product emitted a powerful stench so nauseating that it nearly overwhelmed him.
The taste? Even worse.
Silently, Qi Han marked the dragon skin with a big mental X, and moved on to his next test subject: the belly meat.
Belly meat generally serves to protect internal organs, so it tends to have a loose structure, with interwoven layers of lean meat and fat.
This combination provides both shock absorption and enough firmness to support the organs' stability.
Such cuts are typically very tender, similar to beef brisket.
In fact, he mused, "I guess this would be called Dragon Brisket… though it sounds a bit strange."
Although the dragon skin had given Qi Han quite a shock, he remained firm in his belief that the dragon brisket would deliver a pleasant surprise.
As for how to prepare it, Qi Han didn't overthink it—he'd try making Honey-Glazed Dragon Brisket, following the same method as Honey-Glazed Grilled Ribs.
After all, this was just a test of the ingredient.
The Honey-Glazed Dragon Brisket took much less time to cook compared to the Dongpo-style dragon skin.
In about half an hour, Qi Han was already enjoying a magitech-enhanced version of the dish.
Just one bite, and he nodded in satisfaction.
The dragon brisket's loose structure wasn't all that different from beef brisket, and was even more delicate in texture.
Cut into evenly-sized chunks, it soaked up the rich tomato broth, while its own natural umami slowly seeped out during the stewing process, blending beautifully with the soup.
'As expected!' Qi Han thought.
'I don't know what went wrong with the skin, but the meat—now this is the good stuff!'
His confidence restored, Qi Han decisively added dragon brisket to his list of viable ingredients.
Next, he continued testing other parts of the beast.
Because he couldn't rely on futuristic tech shortcuts to speed things up—the nature of experimental cooking requiring precise heat control—Qi Han had to depend on manual effort, more patience, and much more time.
After spending roughly thirty hours in the system space, Qi Han had finally finished testing every part of the two Armored Wild Dragons.
Overall, the meat quality was superb.
But what surprised Qi Han most was the spinal meat.
The meat along the spine was exceptionally tender, springy, and rich, adapting beautifully to various cooking techniques—each method producing stunning results.
Second place went to the dragon brisket, which had a softer, more delicate texture than regular brisket and a looser structure that allowed it to absorb flavor deeply during cooking—making it incredibly tasty.
Third was the intercostal meat—the flesh between the ribs.
Qi Han wasn't sure if it was an issue with his cooking method or something else, but no matter how he prepared it, the texture always turned out a bit dry and stringy, even though the flavor was comparable to the rest.
As for the dragon's four short, powerful limbs, they contained large amounts of gelatinous tissue, which, after cooking, inevitably produced a strong, unpleasant odor.
Qi Han suspected that this peculiar collagen was the source of the creature's gamy stench.
Most of the internal organs were similarly too foul-smelling to be used in cooking—with one exception: the heart.
That truly caught Qi Han by surprise.
Given how vile the dragon's blood had been, he'd expected the heart, as the central source of blood circulation, to be just as revolting.
But to his amazement, the dragon heart was not only free of the stench, it had a plump, lightly crunchy texture that made it especially suited for braising.
If he were to select only one spirit beast to create a 2 Star dish, Qi Han would've chosen the spinal meat, the brisket, and the heart.
But this time, he wasn't going to tie himself down to a single species as he had before.
Instead, he wanted to gather the strengths of several dragon-type spirit beasts.
So, with great reluctance, Qi Han made a choice.
He gave up on the dragon brisket—despite how tasty it was—and instead selected the more versatile spinal meat and the exceptionally unique dragon heart as his primary ingredients for developing his next 2 Star recipe.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It was time to leave the system space.
Qi Han planned to capture a few more Armored Wild Dragons to stock up, then set off in search of another dragon-type spirit beast for further experimentation.
But just as he was about to exit—
"I'd suggest waiting a little before going out," said Ru Yi's voice, tinged with something odd.
"Huh?" Qi Han blinked, puzzled.
Ru Yi didn't explain.
Instead, she raised a hand and projected a visual of the outside world.
Qi Han took one look—and his expression immediately changed.
"This is…"
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