American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 66 The Troubles of Too Much Food

He rested for a while, regained some strength, and then began to think about how to deal with the giant pike.

"There's so much food, how to eat it has become a problem. Who would believe this is wilderness survival!"

"Although pike has delicious flesh, it has a lot of tiny Y-shaped bones in its muscles, making it very troublesome to eat directly."

"This problem has always bothered me when I made pike into smoked fish before."

After thinking for a while, a brilliant solution flashed in Lin Yu'an's eyes!

"But now conditions are better! We have plenty of time to deal with it."

"I've decided to make it into fish balls! That way, I can perfectly avoid all the annoying little bones and only leave the purest fish meat."

"This way, it can be preserved for longer, and its freshness will not be lost as quickly!"

The pike underwent initial treatment on the fishing platform—bleeding, scaling, and gutting.

Then, large chunks of fish meat from both sides of the pike's body were completely sliced ​​off, along with the skin.

As for the enormous fish head and skeleton, he thought of the unpalatable lake trout head stew in the shelter and decided against forcing himself to eat it.
Throw inedible internal organs, fish heads, and fish bones into the baiting area.

Back in the stone house, Lin Yu'an immediately threw himself into making fish balls.

He laid a huge pike fillet, skin and all, flat on a clean stone slab, skin side down.

This time, instead of using a knife, he took a smooth clam shell that he had found by the lake and made it into his own "fish scraper".

He used the edge of the clam shell to scrape forward forcefully, following the texture of the fish meat at a slightly angled angle.

Lin Yu'an pointed to a pile of delicate, pinkish-white fish paste that had been scraped off and said to the camera.

"By scraping, most of the fish meat can be separated from those tiny intramuscular 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 it was almost scraped off, Lin Yu'an pointed to the fish skin that had been scraped down to just a thin layer of red flesh and white fascia.

"See these densely packed, white, fork-like things? These are the intermuscular spines of the pike, also known as Y-shaped spines."

"They grow on the fascia between the muscles, and you scrape the soft fish meat off these hard spines."

"This way, all the Y-shaped bones remain on the fish skin and fascia, and the fish paste we get is very clean."

After scraping all the meat off the two fish fillets, he got a large earthenware jar full of fish paste, which he estimated to weigh at least eight or nine pounds.

Next came seasoning and removing the fishy smell. He was very fortunate to have obtained a large quantity of wild onions, which provided him with the ingredients to remove the fishy smell.

He chopped the white parts and bulbs of the scallions very finely with a knife to make scallion paste, and added it to the fish paste along with a suitable amount of salt.

Then came the most challenging part: "stirring and pounding to build strength."

He used a thick, smooth wooden stick to vigorously stir the fish paste in the earthenware basin in a fixed direction.

"The purpose of beating is to rearrange the protein fibers in the fish meat to make it sticky, which is often referred to as 'making it elastic'."

Only when the dough is properly elastic will the fish balls have a bouncy and smooth texture, instead of being loose and crumbly.

He kept stirring, and the fish paste in the earthenware pot gradually became thicker and more elastic from its initial loose state.

When he felt that the fish paste had become so thick that he could easily lift it off the side of the jar in one piece, and it was full of elasticity, the fish paste was ready.

He placed a stainless steel pot on the stove to boil wild onion water, and then prepared a ceramic pot of cold water next to it.

After washing my hands thoroughly with soap, I grabbed a handful of firm fish paste with my left hand and squeezed it hard between my thumb and forefinger, and a round fish ball popped out.

Holding a wooden spoon dampened with water in his right hand, he gently scraped the fish ball into the bowl of cold water next to him.

"Put them in cold water first to help the fish balls set their initial shape."

The movements became faster and faster, with increasing skill as they repeated the squeezing and scraping motions. Soon, the earthenware jar of cold water was filled with uniformly sized, snow-white, and round fish balls.

Then, he dropped the shaped raw fish balls into the scallion water, which had already turned to a simmer, in batches.

The fish balls slowly rolled in the hot water. As the temperature rose, they gradually floated to the surface from the bottom of the water, and their volume expanded slightly.

When all the fish balls float to the surface and become white and springy, they are cooked.

Remove the cooked fish balls from the water and place them in a clean wicker basket to drain and cool quickly.

He repeated this process of making and blanching the fish several times until all the minced fish had been made into fish balls.

"Guys, look at my work!"

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

"This record-breaking fish will be enough to feed me for several days."

“Now that the weather is cold, especially at night when it is below freezing, these cooked fish balls can be stored in a ceramic jar with the lid on for several days or even more than a week without any problem.”

He took out a small earthenware pot, poured in some previously rendered deer fat, heated it up, and then put some cooked fish balls into the pot. He fried them in a semi-frying and semi-deep-frying method until both sides were golden brown and crispy.

"Thorn-"

The moisture on the surface of the fish balls makes an enticing sizzling sound when it comes into contact with the hot oil.

He quickly served the fried golden fish balls. The outer skin was crispy and golden, while the inside was still snow-white and bouncy, making them look very appetizing.

He picked one up with a sharpened wooden skewer, blew on it, and eagerly put it in his mouth.

"The outer skin is crispy, and the inside is incredibly chewy, bursting with the freshness of fish and the aroma of onions! The taste is absolutely amazing!"

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

Instead of resting, he walked toward the tanning vat where the huge deer hides were soaking.

"Guys, let's take a look at this deerskin."

He picked up a corner of the hide, and after soaking it for several days, the deer hide was completely soaked in tanning liquid, turning a uniform dark brown color.

"The tannins have been absorbed enough, so we can start the most physically demanding part: 'breaking open' the skin to soften it."

He took the damp deerskin out of the tanning vat and laid it on a wooden frame to drain off the excess tanning liquid.

Then fold the leather in half, and like wringing a towel, hold both ends with your hands and twist in opposite directions to squeeze out a lot of water.

Next, he unfolded the slightly wrung-out deerskin, flesh side down, placed it on a post, and pounded it with a wooden stick.

"This process requires breaking down the fibers of the hide to make it soft."

He kept changing the position of the leather and the direction of the pulling. He did this intermittently for several hours, and his arms were a little sore.

By the time the sun came out the next morning, the huge deer hide had become light and soft.

To make the tanned deerskin more durable and prevent it from rotting, a final step is required—smoking.

He reused the smoking room that had been built for venison, hanging the tanned deerskins on the central beam.

Then a pile of smoldering firewood, mainly composed of "smoldering wood," is lit, producing a large amount of thick smoke.

The smoking process lasted for most of the day. When the huge deer hide, which had undergone many complicated processes, was finally taken out of the smoking room...

It has been transformed from a stiff raw material into a soft and resilient piece of leather!

He fully unfolded the enormous deerskin in front of the camera, almost covering his entire body.

"Handmade, all-natural vegetable-tanned mule and deer hide! I guarantee it will be my mattress tonight!"

(End of this chapter)