Horn Soup

Currently, Sazzy and I were sitting side by side on the bed, discussing the line-up for the upcoming stream. Sure, it was quite far away. But I already had a menu in mind for it. The only thing preventing me from streaming would be the hybrid dish that has become somewhat of a brand for the channel.

[On one hand, you can go without a hybrid stream this time. It's not like you can create dishes every month consistently. On the other hand, it will definitely disappoint some people. ]

"But other than my concern about whether I can create the dish, the next concern after that would be whether it would be wise to show its recipe online. The Lupos are quite confidential with a lot of things, and they have every right to be considering their circumstances. So would showing the dish online affect its usefulness?"

The main reason I came here was to help Josh with a favor. The livestream was honestly a side bonus.

[That's probably going to have to depend on what ingredients are used in the dish, and how much of an impact it would have on their lifestyle. Worse case worse, we probably stream with the local cuisines only. They would probably want to keep how chocolate is made confidential though. It has so many advantages as a local specialty.]

While the two of us discussed our thoughts, I typed out the dishes I was planning to stream. They were of course, the fruit jelly, their 'cheese', a salad-like dish that had a mixture of raw ingredients such as nuts and fruits, and a sort of candy dish that was made through steaming the sugar syrup in molds.

If possible, I would like to add chocolate into the mix, and the new hybrid dish would definitely be a plus.

Talking until it was close to lunch time, we then headed to the cooking area with the horn in my hand. I also texted Tim to join me. If Caroline had already arrived at the camp, then the three of us could start the cooking session and I could ask for some advice from her. If she had not arrived yet, I could ask how Tim and his people used to make dishes out of bone. It could be the turning point for our new dish!

I arrived at the cooking area with no one in sight. Then setting up the ingredients on the table, I took the horn and the grinder from my survival belt. I then grinded off a little bit of the top of the horn.

It shouldn't be poisonous, right?

Even as that thought floated past my mind, I tasted the ground horn. It was slightly salty.

[Horns usually have two layers, the inner bone layer as well as the outer mineral layer. The outer mineral layer is different when we look at different species, but so far the inner bone layer has been quite similar.]

I turned my head as I heard Sazzy speak, and looked at her as she read off her personal terminal. She then turned her personal terminal to face me, showing me a diagram of a horn.

The salty layer I just tasted should be the mineral layer. Now it was time to taste the inner layer.

Taking out my small knife, I leaned onto the knife to cut through the top third of the horn. And just like the diagram, there was a different material at the center of the horn,

Touching it, it was slightly porous and dry, and also a little rough. Or maybe its roughness was due to how I broke it off. But with a structure like this, it seemed a little too difficult to only grind and taste the middle portion. And with how hard the horn was, I couldn't cut a thin slice out either.

Just as I was in a dilemma on what to do, I heard a familiar energetic voice come from the entrance. It was Tim! Just when we needed him!

When he was close enough to hear me speak, I explained where I got the horn from and what I wanted to do with it. Tim then took the horn in his eyes and looked at the inner structure.

"It resembles very closely to the bones we used in my original planet. But if I had to point out a difference, our planet's bones were significantly bigger than these. So we might have to make some adjustments to whatever recipe we decide to go with."

Tim put down the horn and gestured for me to walk towards the water dispenser.

"If I remember my mother's recipe correctly, we used to grind the bones whole with this large grinder that was in every household in our village. Then after we grinded it into a powder, we would add water inside it and mix it. Then comes a waiting period for the powder to accumulate at the bottom of the bowl we were 'washing' the bone powder in. After that, we removed most of the water, careful not to disturb the powder at the bottom, and then added in more water before bringing it to a boil. Once boiled, my mother would add a lot of seasonings to the bone soup and scoop out the gray foam on top. The last step would be to boil the soup until no more foam is formed and the soap turns a grayish color. After that we can serve it."

...Ferus didn't have any seasonings at all.

However, we still tried. Grinding the third of the horn that I broke off into gray powder, we took one of the plates and carefully mixed it. Then we set it on the pool to float while keeping an eye on it.

If this horn was similar to the bones that Tim's ancestors used to cook bone soup, then we would see foam start to form soon on the surface of the plate.

Nothing happened.

"To be fair, having a dish that takes so much attention would probably not be very useful for the Lupos people. Considering how they cook."

Agreeing with Tim, we both still stared at the failed dish for another minute before downheartedly taking it out from the pool.

"Another failure."

Tim sighed as we set the failed dish aside.

"Maybe we can do something else with this dish, in a style that blends both yours and Lupos' cooking style. We need to make this dish one that can be made in less than one hour, and does not need a lot of attention."

We discussed several needed requisites that the dish and its preparation methods had to adhere to. Then we set up several test samples. Since there was obviously not enough horn to test a lot of varieties, Tim stole several small dishes from one of the preparation rooms and we separated the grinded horn powder into these small dishes, then we added them with ingredients we thought would work. We then sent them to float on the pool.

Since we were aiming for a type of soup, almost all of our dishes included water as one of the ingredients. Some of them had seeds added, others had sugar syrup added, and some had a combination of ingredients.

And while waiting, we both agreed that making something new would be nice, but if all of these failed it would be no big deal since horns weren't exactly easy to get.

Once we saw some visual changes happening to the dishes, we immediately fished them out of the pool and tried to taste each one. A lot of them didn't taste very edible, or pleasant. It felt like trying to swallow sand mixed with water. And some of them didn't look or smell edible so we left them out.

In what was probably a huge miracle, we had one dish that had a pleasant smell. Taking a small test of it, Tim immediately had a bright smile on his face.

"Finally! A success!"

Practically jumping for joy, Tim handed the dish over for me to try. Taking a sip, I could taste a very mild 'rough' flavor, which was followed by a very clear and delicious taste. It was also slightly salty.

Excitedly checking which combination of ingredients it was made from, Tim smashed his fingers on his personal terminal as he typed to Josh to invite him over to witness our success.

"He says he'll come soon, in maybe 10 minutes. I don't think these small dishes are enough, so while we wait for him, let's create it on one of the normal plates."

Recreating the horn soup once more, Tim impatiently kept checking the time as well as the entrance of the cooking area.

Finally after what seemed like 10 hours, we could take out the bone soup from the pool. And as if the stars had aligned, Josh just entered the cooking area. Behind him was Caroline.

Skipping up to Josh, Tim briefly introduced the dish and gestured for Josh and Caroline to taste it. Using a small spoon, after both of them took one sip, their eyes widened in surprise. Off to the side, Tim was explaining the cooking method for the horn soup.

As Josh listened, I could feel his look turning more ...troubled. Narrowing his eyes, he looked over at Caroline and the two whispered softly to each other. Then after a while, Josh sighed as he broke the news to us.

"I'm afraid you can't show this dish on the livestream. It will put the morris in danger of poachers more than it already is. But, this dish will certainly be a great help with making full use of our food sources, Thank you."

Giving a smile that was strangely polite, and felt half sincere while entirely an act, Josh thanked us. Tim, when he heard that sentence, seemed to deflate immediately.

"I guess we have to go back to the drawing board again."

Giving a deep sigh, we packed up the ingredients and handed the horn over to Josh, who then left. Caroline meanwhile was trying to cheer us up.

"You two did great! Having one more ingredient is a big achievement. Now cheer up! We will start with our cooking session right now, and then after that I can join you in your experiments again! I'm sure having someone who is more familiar with food will definitely help!"

Tim nodded his head, still not over his big success never seeing the light of day on the internet, as Caroline went over to the table and started introducing what we would be cooking today.

It did not take long, however, for Tim to gather himself again and pay attention to the cooking session. And seeing that he was alright, I turned my full attention over to Caroline. There was no use crying over spilt milk.