FLAVOUR ENHANCING SERUM
Mortal tier recipe. No cultivation requirements
You know what humans are really good at?
Making their lives easier even if it’s an utterly incomprehensible idea, and this liquid is a prime example of that. It can only be used for its obvious purpose but is actually the 4th most popular mortal tier drug in existence. It’d be funnier if the recipe were painfully simple, but this one does ask for some skill. Probably the reason it was only invented soon before the announcement of the GCC.
Created by a chef who felt his spices lacked that ‘oomph’ (This is a direct quote), he hired a team of alchemists to find something to increase the main factor in different spices. Enough time spent throwing together food related items eventually garnered some results. I pity the mortal tongue that endures a bad chef nowadays…
INGREDIENTS AND RECIPE
* All-purpose booster, 10 leaves – non magical plant
* Trailblazer juice, 50 ml – non magical fluid
* Diamond essence seed oil, 15 ml – natural gathering stage fluid
* Cataclysmic devastator, 1 gram – non magical plant
How to explain this to those not in the know…
You probably understand how somethings have really stupid names because of a joke, right? Well this is an example of that… taken to the limit.
Cataclysmic devastators are a chili-like plant which produce a mixture of tastes which have been titled ‘enough to make gods weep’. Spicy, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, and any more examples I do not have the will to list off. It coagulates all these flavours in a single bundle and destroys any ability to taste the food itself.
So, we just add a pinch. They are rarely found on low mountainous cliffsides. As a result they’re farmed in large amounts.
All-purpose booster is used to particularly focus the aspect of taste desired, it is activated normally by simply adding it to the spice/herb in question. The booster is a normal looking green herb with a pure white coating the edge of its leaves. Eating it alone has no real effect, although if you have any leftovers in your mouth it may suddenly boost a spice in that food.
Like most regular herbs these are awkwardly easy to grow. Any pot with dirt and water can sustain one of them, or they can be found in almost any non-extreme biome.
Trailblazers are a root vegetable that people ordinarily consume to deal with internal pathing issues. This can rarely take place in the form of certain body parts lacking particular vitamins and minerals, which will be guided there by this root’s juice. These long spike-shaped roots are found in most grasslands although forests seem more abundant with them. However their effect can be focused in other ways.
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Diamonds are an interesting material, but these essence seeds are in no way related to the gemstone. They only have the name due to a similar property of intense toughness after flowering. However, the seed oil does hold a special locking property. Thus making it suitable to store the myriad of flavours held by a bit of cataclysmic devastator. The flowers themselves are hard to find naturally, only growing near gemstone deposits underground, so it’s common to just farm them instead. As such the seeds can be bought and crushed, or the oil is generally available in most places.
You may as well begin by placing the small piece of devastator into the seed oil since the full dissolution process takes 20 minutes. While that’s going on you extract the trailblazer’s juice if you’re yet to do so. If you bought the juice already then set it aside for now and prepare a clean knife for the booster leaves.
You want to cut out the middle component of these leaves, such that only the thin edge is left remaining. Fortunately, this recipe does not ask for extreme focus as you have around 5 mm of clearance from the edge. Although, to be on the safe side it’s often recommended to just trim it a bit on a second run-through. As long as the white edge is completely intact there is no downside to repeated cuts.
This is completed 10 times for each leaf, and all the centres can be chucked away or burnt. Since the entire boosting effect is concentrated in these edges it makes little sense to keep the rest. With these edges cut off you can drop them into a cast iron pan to lightly sear them. A light flame is recommended to avoid burning them, and it ensures they receive a thorough heating all the way through. If the idea of a char really interests you then the fire can be massively increased temporarily to give a LIGHT blacking on either side.
Some people appear to miss the part where I say to not burn them.
Pour your trailblazer juice into the pan with leaf edges and lower the heat once more. While stirring regularly, wait for the solution to reduce until only a minor fraction of liquid is left behind. It should be too little for even a single leaf edge to soak in fully. Directly add these leaf edges to your diamond essence seed oil while pouring the remaining trailblazer juice into a container for later use. If left in the pan it may all evaporate, leaving even more work to make use of the remnants stuck to your pan, or result in you buying more.
With clean hands, take a simple utensil, like a spoon, and crush the leaf edges with the leftover seed oil. Try to make sure each part is properly flattened before scraping it off the bottom of this container and stirring rapidly. This can all be ended by adding the remaining trailblazer juice and stirring once more. If all done properly you should have an insanely powerful flavour enhancer.
USAGE
By adding a small amount to any dish it will heavily amplify the strongest taste in that dish. This is the way a less experienced chef would utilise this product.
Proper chefs will add the flavour enhancer to individual spices and foods as necessary to carefully measure a combination that leads to the best flavours. A competent chef can profoundly change your outlook on food, and many cultivators beyond the destiny chasing stage actually refuse to eat because regular food simply lacks so much in comparison.
Even I still drop by a low level world occasionally to enjoy their high-class mortal food. This serum is far from necessary to cook an amazing dish, but it certainly helps supplement for less than desirable materials. Magical cooking at my level is far from cheap, you know!