Sulyeon's nose turned red from sneezing, and she frowned. "Hayoon, are you making poison? My nose is going numb and my eyes are watering."
Hayoon explained with a smile, "It is not poison. I roasted a lot at once, so it is very strong. We will not use this much when cooking."
Even Immo who was usually cautious could not help but doubt. "Can this really make food taste better?"
The most accepting of it was actually Leeho.
He sniffed deeply with his strong nose and said in a low voice, "It seems fine to me."
Hayoon felt that no amount of explanation would compare to letting them taste it later, so she focused on her work.
After the berry peels were roasted, she crushed them into powder with stones and set them aside.
Next, she took out the cloth bag of starch and poured some into a wooden basin.
She added several bird eggs and an appropriate amount of salt, then stirred it carefully.
The mushrooms that had been gathered were already washed clean by Sulyeon.
Following Hayoon's instructions, she tore the larger mushrooms with thick caps into strips about the width of a finger and salted them to draw out moisture.
After finishing the batter, Hayoon turned to see that Minho had already finished rendering the beast oil.
"Can you help me lift the stone pot up?" she asked.
"Alright," Minho replied.
The stone pot filled with beast oil was not large, but it was heavy.
Minho lifted it with a piece of hide without even blinking and set it in place.
The others did not know what Hayoon was about to do and stepped back slightly, watching curiously.
Once the beast oil in the stone pot was heated, Hayoon dipped her chopsticks in to test the temperature.
After confirming it was ready, she signaled Minho to step back a little as well.
"I am going to fry the mushrooms. Be careful of splatter."
Sulyeon raised an eyebrow.
They had fried mushrooms at home before, but they usually turned out hard and dry, sometimes even bitter if overcooked.
They were not particularly tasty.
Could adding starch really make a difference?
Hayoon did not answer and simply picked up a handful of mushrooms, coated them in starch, and dropped them into the pot.
With a "splash," bubbles immediately rose in the oil.
The mushrooms coated in batter quickly turned golden in an instant.
She stirred them with chopsticks so they heated evenly, then used a long-handled scoop net made of woven branches to lift them out, placing them on a large sieve to drain the oil.
A large sieve was placed over a ceramic basin underneath, so the beast oil would not be wasted.
Next, Hayoon repeated the same steps, frying again and again without stopping.
The aroma rising from the pot and the surroundings quickly grew from faint to extremely rich.
The scent of oil, mushrooms, bird eggs, and a new fragrance that seemed to come from the fried starch all blended together perfectly, inseparable from one another.
Rich, layered, and incredibly tempting.
The smell strongly stimulated everyone's senses, and their expressions began to change.
Haeun stared tightly at the pot, and a loud gulping sound came from him as he swallowed his saliva.
"Sis, this smells too good! So this is how starch is used!" He struggled for a moment, barely stopping himself from saying, "Let me try it."
Immo could already tell just from the color and smell that this was going to be a very delicious dish.
She e said in shock, "When I heard Sulyeon say you were making starch, I thought the process was too complicated. Now it looks like it is worth the effort since starch is so useful."
Sulyeon also kept glancing over, looking very anxious while waiting.
The two beastmen nearby remained relatively calm, but their eyes were already slightly bright.
Hayoon smiled and continued frying quickly.
After one batch was done, she raised the oil temperature and fried it a second time.
"Everyone take this plain batch and try it first. I will finish frying the rest."
Seeing that they were too shy to move, she urged them, "Hurry up. It tastes best when it is hot."
The first to respond was Haeun.
He let out an excited shout, then quickly picked out a portion for Hayoon.
"Sis, these are yours!"
He placed the rest aside, picked up a strip of fried mushroom, blew on it casually, and put it into his mouth.
"Mm!!" His eyes widened in shock.
Just from the smell earlier, he had already been drooling.
Now that he actually tasted it, it was a hundred times more delicious than he had imagined.
The starch coating was fried into a crispy shell.
When bitten into, it made a clear "crack" sound, very satisfying to hear.
Inside, the mushroom was incredibly tender, bursting with juice that he could hardly believe.
A flood of fresh, rich flavor exploded in his mouth and shot straight to his head.
The crisp fragrance of the starch and the fresh taste of the mushrooms, enhanced by beast oil and salt, combined perfectly into an unmatched flavor.
Because it had just come out of the pan, Haeun's tongue was almost burned. But he could not bear to spit it out, so he kept blowing air while chewing rapidly.
Since his mouth was full, he used his bright black eyes to look at everyone else instead.
Sulyeon and the others also started eating.
Unlike Haeun, they were not so impatient.
They blew on it first before tasting.
At that moment, their faces all showed clear expressions of amazement.
Sulyeon swallowed the food in her mouth and said in shock to Immo, "Mom, this mushroom is so tender inside! It is completely different from what we used to fry. Those were bitter and dry."
Immo nodded. "Yes. The mushroom flavor is still very strong. The fried ones we used to make almost lost all their mushroom taste. So this is the difference between coating them in starch and not coating them?"