Chapter 48: Spelt There is a saying, food is medicine.
Eating healthy prevents and cures diseases. That saying wasn"t unique to j.a.pan, and I wondered if it was the same with medicinal cooking.
No, was the saying based on the concept of medicinal cooking?
The aromatherapy teachers also said the same thing in the past, whenever I found time out of my busy work schedule to go to their lessons.
A healthy diet leads to a healthy body. That was the most basic of basics.
Thus, a healthy diet referred to taking the right amount of nutrients.
People in the west also thought in a similar way. Research had been done on that topic in monasteries since ancient times.
The monastery researched methods for using herbs in cooking.
I read in a book that they didn"t just research the aromatic benefits, but also about health benefits as well.
By the way, why am I thinking about such things? Well I wanted to make food based on that idea.
I discovered an ingredient completely by chance.
I found a certain ingredient while I was walking in Klaussner"s Capital with Corinnsan, after returning from the field.
It was a type of ancient wheat, cultivated in Europe since long ago.
Unlike common wheat, this wheat contained a lot of nutrients in the edible parts.
It was written in a book I bought because the t.i.tle caught my eye.
It was also written in the book that a woman known as a saint in Europe recommended it as the best wheat.
I"ve never seen the real thing before, but I recognised it because of something I overheard from the old man at the store.
I heard him tell a customer, "The husk on this wheat is hard."
At that time, I remembered that one of the characteristics of spelt was its hard husk, and stopped.
Then, Corinnsan asked the storekeeper what the name of the wheat was, and it had the same name as spelt.
The spelt was commonly used in Klaussner, and it was strange for me to stop moving because of such a common wheat.
Corinnsan asked me what had happened, so I explained what I had read in the book and she rose an eyebrow.
The talk about nutrients in ingredients caught her interest.
This world didn"t have the concept of nutrition yet.
She asked me a lot of questions on our way back to the castle.
Corinnsan suggested that we could probably use this wheat to make a potion while we were talking.
I don"t know if it could be used to make potions, but I can probably use it to make food.
The recipe that the person, who was called saint, came up with was also written in the book that mentioned the wheat.
The ingredients used in that recipe could be found in Klaussner, so I could probably reproduce it.
Let"s try to make it.
I made up my mind and got really excited.
That was because this world had a cooking skill!
Food made by people with the cooking skill, raised physical ability.
People would notice the effect, even if it was made from ordinary ingredients.
What if they ate food made from spelt, which is said to be good for health?
I wanted to cook something with it because I was extremely curious about the results.
Corinnsan looked at me questioningly when I asked her if I could use the kitchen at the castle.
Of course, she would.
It was rare for high ranked people to cook themselves.
It was awkward to say this myself, but the【Saint】wasn"t a low position.
However, Corinnsan nodded happily when I told her that I wanted to try to make something with an ingredient that was good for health.
She seemed to have remembered about medicinal cooking.
It wasn"t medicinal cooking, but she could eat something similar and quickly rushed off to ask Feudal Lord-sama for permission.
Feudal Lord-sama heard what Corinnsan had to say and gladly gave me permission to use the kitchen.
Apparently, he said that he was looking forward to being able to eat a popular dish from the Royal Capital.
The chefs at the castle were the same; they were pleased that they got a good learning opportunity.
I felt a bit bad because I wasn"t making a high quality dish.
And everything was prepared just like that.
"Thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn about food from the Royal Capital."
"I should be the one to thank you. Thank you for responding to my sudden request. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
"""It"s nice to meet you."""
I went to with Corinnsan to the kitchen on the day that I was permitted to use the kitchen, and we were greeted by cheerful chefs.
When I greeted the head chef, he thanked me instead.
Even though I should be the one thanking him!
I"m cooking something I haven"t cooked at the Royal Capital before, so I hope I can meet their expectations.
I immediately put on an ap.r.o.n after the greetings and started food prep.
The ingredients that I had asked them to prepare beforehand were placed on the kitchen counter.
Today, I"m making pasta.
First, I mixed the flour made from spelt, oil, egg and salt.
Unfortunately, they didn"t have any olive oil so they had prepared another type of vegetable oil for me.
I vaguely recalled how to make pasta because I had wanted to make it by hand in the past, but I never got around to it.
I did tell them that it was an experiment so they"ll probably forgive me if I fail, right?
Well…… If I do fail then I"ll make another dish to get them to forgive me.
I told the head chef how to make the dish beforehand, so the chefs were making pasta with me.
Actually, this is also part of my experiment.
I wanted to know if food made with spelt had a different effect from food made from normal wheat.
Therefore, I needed to make two types of pasta: one containing spelt and the other containing normal wheat.
Furthermore, a lot more people wanted to eat the food than I"d expected because they heard that I would be the one cooking; it started with Feudal Lord-sama and Corinnsan, then Feudal Lord-sama"s family and the pharmacists from the distillation room.
It was impossible for me to make that much food by myself, so I decided to get the chefs to help me.
There was another reason why I asked them to help me, it was because of my accursed 50% increase.
My cooking, like my potions, was affected by my accursed 50% increase.
Therefore, Director-san forbad me from cooking in public.
However, he didn"t say that I couldn"t cook at all.
I could cook if I wasn"t in a public place.
I actually cooked a lot at the Research Inst.i.tute.
I think he forbade me from cooking because it would be problematic if a lot of people knew of my ability.
Therefore, I decided that I would give the portion I cooked to Captain-san and Feudal Lord-sama and his family.
It was a small amount of people, and Feudal Lord-sama and his family didn"t exercise a lot, like the knights, so I don"t think they"ll know the difference.
And of course, because it was something I made.
You see, food made from the 【Saint】felt special, didn"t it?
It was extremely awkward for me to say that it was special, but high-profile people liked that kind of thing……
I also went to confirm with Captain-san and he told me that it wasn"t a problem.
Even so, as expected of professionals.
I looked to the side and saw the chefs skilfully kneading the dough.
They could do that just from hearing instructions, it"s so amazing.
And me? I was a step behind them.
Let"s stop thinking about unnecessary things and focus on making pasta.
Then when the dough was kneaded and the surface was smooth, we let it rest in a wet towel.
We prepared vegetables to go with the pasta while it was resting.
Meat sauce would have been fine, but I decided to make basilica from medicinal herbs since I was at it.
I think there was a herb flavoured pasta recipe in that book.
I finely chopped some garlic, onion, basil and dill.
I guarantee that the onions will sting my eyes.
I finished chopping everything and the dough was ready, so we started making the pasta.
We rolled the dough until it was thin, folded the dough and cut it to make flat noodles.
I preferred thinner noodles, but this was all I could manage to make by myself.
I boiled the noodles, stirred it with the vegetables and adjusted the flavour.
"Was it a success?"
"It"ll be ready soon."
Corinnsan talked to me while the pasta was boiling.
She stood next to me and looked in the pot with interest.
It was a big pot and it was cute to see her tiptoe to peek inside.
"Was it pasta? Why did you make it with different types of wheat?"
"I wanted to examine if there"s any differences in the cooking effect depending on the type of wheat."
"Cooking effect?"
"Well, food made by people with the cooking skill increases physical abilities."
"Is that so? It"s the first time I"ve heard of something like that."
"It"s been the talk at the Royal Capital for the past year, but it hasn"t reached here, has it?"
"That might be so, but it"s got nothing to do with potions, so I didn"t ask. But, it"s pretty interesting."
The effects of cooking was widely known at the Royal Capital, but it hadn"t reached Corinnsan"s ears.
It took time to spread information in a world without phones or TVs.
It"s unbelievable, but when my grandmother was younger, she told me that it took years for fashion to spread from the capital to other areas of the country.
Even though phones and TVs existed then.
If my grandmother"s story was true, then I can see how news from the Royal Capital still hasn"t reached Klaussner.
The pasta finished cooking when we were talking, so I cut the heat and quickly sautéed it in the frying pan I had prepared next to it.
I made one portion first.
We would make everyone else"s portions after the chefs had tasted tested the pasta.
The chefs were standing on the opposite side of Corinnsan so that they could see how the pasta would be cooked after it had been boiled.
I was a little bit nervous because all the chefs were watching me work.
"It"s finished."
I only seasoned it with salt, but it tasted good.
I served the pasta and it was complete.
The chefs" hands quickly reached for the dish when I put it in front of them and told them it was complete.
They looked satisfied with it, so I was relieved; load was taken off my shoulders.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ