Chapter 6:
Sous-Vide (2)
“We present the dining trays.”
With the voices of the servant women, four small dining trays were placed before the four men seated in the pavilion—Hong Gwi-dal and his son Hong Eon-guk, and Im Sa-hong and his son Im Sung-jae.
Each tray held only a few bronze vessels. At the center was a thickly sliced beef dish, accompanied by a few pieces of pickled vegetables, a bowl of rice, and a side of dried radish greens in soybean paste soup. That was all.
“…What a sparse spread. It’s as if a famine struck only this region’s storehouses,” Im Sung-jae remarked, a peculiarly smug smile flickering across his face as he spoke with a mocking tone.
Perhaps his expectations had been met.
The previous day, he had sent men to bribe and intimidate the provincial office’s cooks and kitchen maids, driving them away. It seemed his scheme had borne fruit.
Whether aware of this or not, Hong Eon-guk responded with an unruffled air.
“Knowing Your Excellency enjoys rare delicacies, we deliberately instructed the preparation of a novel dish. I hope it suits your taste.”
With all the cooks and kitchen staff gone, what kind of meal could they possibly have prepared for this guest reception?
A spark of curiosity lit in Im Sung-jae. He picked up a bronze spoon and began prodding the food on the tray, only to suddenly click his tongue.
“Tch, tch, tch… What is this dish supposed to be? I never knew Clerk Hong had a taste for barbarian cuisine.”
“…What do you mean by that, Your Excellency?”
“I’m afraid this spread is unacceptable.”
Im Sung-jae slammed his spoon down with a clang, and the bronze vessels on the tray reverberated with a lingering, bell-like echo. With an oily eloquence, he continued.
“It is said that a ruler’s table should reflect the natural bounty and customs of the surrounding ten li. Thus, a guest from another region can gauge the local traditions, geography, and agricultural prosperity just by looking at the spread.”
“That… is true.”
“Yet all I see on this tray is grilled meat. What is this if not the custom of meat-craving barbarians? How can one who indulges in such fare call himself a scholar-official devoted to the nation?”
At Sung-jae’s words, Im Sa-hong, the Minister of Public Works, stroked his beard and shook his head in disappointment.
“There’s truth in what you say. How could Lord Hong make such a blunder? Could it be his heart lies elsewhere…?”
For the Im father and son, intent on finding fault with the reception, this meager tray was the perfect pretext.
Wasn’t that precisely why they had come in the first place?
…This was expected.
Having anticipated this outcome, Hong Eon-guk sensed the moment had come to set his morning’s plan into motion. He stepped forward, bowing deeply before the Im father and son.
“…In our zeal to please Your Excellencies, we have overreached and committed a grave discourtesy. We are well aware this is no trifling matter.”
“Indeed, it is not.”
“Then it is only fitting that we set a proper example for the realm.”
“Set a proper example…?”
Im Sung-jae’s eyes wavered, caught off guard by Hong Eon-guk’s excessive deference.
“Indeed. To that end, I will personally bring forth the cook responsible for this meal and punish them myself to appease your anger.”
“W-Wait, Clerk Hong, what are you saying?”
“You there! Is no one present? Bring the cook and kitchen staff from the kitchen at once!”
“That’s not what we meant…”
“Is this not the way to atone for the offense committed against Your Excellencies?”
The Im father and son began to show signs of unease at Hong Eon-guk’s sudden assertiveness.
…
“Did the trays really go up properly?”
In the kitchen, Bong Seon-dal and the prisoners craned their necks toward the garden, their hearts pounding with anxiety. They couldn’t see anything from their position, but their curiosity was too great to bear.
“It feels like the spread was a bit too sparse…” Bong Seon-dal muttered, his voice tinged with worry.
Ji-yeong quietly shook her head.
“Too many dishes can distract from the flavor of the food itself. If they taste what we’ve prepared, I’m confident we’ll come out on top.”
The beef, tenderly cooked sous-vide, would offer a texture unlike anything people of this era had ever experienced. And Ji-yeong had another ace up her sleeve: a special sauce served alongside it.
That sauce contained a flavor these people had never tasted before—a taste so captivating that any gourmet would be powerless to resist. Or so she believed.
Just then, a group of guards burst into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?!”
“W-Why are you doing this?!”
“No questions! Come with us!”
Without explanation, Ji-yeong, Bong Seon-dal, and the other prisoners were roughly seized by the scruff of their necks and dragged outside.
They were brought to the pavilion in the garden, where the banquet was supposed to be underway.
“What are you standing around for? Administer the rod to these wretches who have insulted the decorum of scholar-officials!”
Hong Eon-guk’s furious voice cut through the air like a blade.
In that fleeting moment, Ji-yeong sensed something was terribly wrong. The trays they had painstakingly prepared hadn’t even been touched!
“Wait, please!”
Ji-yeong tried to speak urgently, but the guards gave her no chance, forcing her and the prisoners to kneel in the garden courtyard.
From a distance, two sturdy executioners approached, one arm freed from their sleeves, each carrying a massive rod as large as their torsos. These were the chidogon—rods used to punish serious offenders.
Measuring five feet seven inches, they were the largest of the five types of rods in the provincial office. A few strikes might seem trivial, but the chidogon could easily leave a person crippled or even dead from the impact, a punishment so severe it was notorious.
“Oh no, oh no!”
“Please, my lord, we’ve done wrong!”
At the sight of the chidogon, Bong Seon-dal and the prisoners’ faces turned ashen, and they prostrated themselves, begging desperately.
“Hey, sir—no, my lord! Why are you doing this?!”
Meeting Ji-yeong’s pleading gaze, Hong Eon-guk turned his head, deliberately avoiding her eyes. Though it was a desperate measure to protect his family, sacrificing innocent people was no less reprehensible. But the thought of his young daughter becoming a target for chae-hong forced him to harden his heart.
“The food of scholar-officials must utilize the region’s natural bounty in its entirety, leaving nothing to waste. Yet this spread consists of mere meat—how can it be called proper? For insulting the decorum of this guest reception, they will be severely punished!”
“No, that’s not true!”
Even in that moment, Ji-yeong seized the opportunity and shouted back. Held fast by the guards, unable to move a finger, the only thing she could do was raise her voice.
“That spread contains all the bounty of this land!”
Shikbeop jayeon—food embodies nature.
It was a concept from Mangunrok, one Ji-young, who had studied ancient cookbooks, knew well. Her method simply transcended the limitations of this era.
“What did you just say? This contains the bounty of this land?”
“Yes, it does.”
Hong Eon-guk, visibly startled, questioned her, and Ji-yeong answered with confidence.
Then, a sharp voice cut through from behind.
“Well, that’s intriguing.”
The voice belonged to Im Sa-hong, the father of the Im duo, who had been observing the unfolding scene. Perhaps Ji-yeong’s words had piqued the curiosity of this reputed gourmet.
“Explain how that’s so.”
“You only know the taste of food once you eat it, don’t you? I’ll explain afterward.”
Kneeling on the ground, Ji-yeong’s voice was resolute, though her heart was pounding like a hammer. To avoid death by the chidogon in the executioners’ hands, she had to get them to try the food first.
“How bold. Very well. But if your explanation isn’t convincing, this won’t be overlooked.”
With that, Im Sa-hong picked up a piece of beef with his bronze chopsticks. The glossy, dark brown sauce coated a vibrantly pink piece of meat.
A man who had tasted every delicacy across the land, Im Sa-hong, a powerful figure second to none in the capital, popped the entire piece into his mouth and began to chew.
All eyes in the pavilion converged on his mouth.
At that moment, Im Sa-hong’s eyes widened, his pupils contracting.
“Oh!”
A faint exclamation, almost a moan, escaped his lips, and his eyebrows trembled subtly. Then, as if in a trance, his eyes began to close dreamily.
No way!
Watching from the side, Im Sung-jae sensed something extraordinary and hurriedly brought a piece of the meat to his own mouth. After a few chews, shock spread across his face as well.
“This… this is impossible! This taste…”
Both men were overwhelmed, lost for words in the face of a storm of flavors.
The most astonished were Hong Gwi-dal and Hong Eon-guk. A spread they had considered a throwaway had turned the tables?
Unable to believe it themselves, they quickly brought pieces of the meat to their mouths. Soon, their expressions shifted, betraying their shock.
“What in the world is this?!”
“It’s beef cooked with a special method over a long time. It may look like just meat, but in truth, it contains every ingredient this land has to offer.”
“Every… ingredient?”
“Yes. The sauce coating the meat isn’t simply soy sauce. We extracted juice from vegetables grown in the local garden, then simmered it with anchovies and kelp from Mapo to make a broth. To that, we added shiitake mushrooms gathered from the hills behind the provincial office, reducing it with soy sauce to create a rich sauce.”
What Ji-yeong had achieved was an explosion of umami.
The key was the mushrooms, anchovies, and kelp.
Guanylic acid from shiitake mushrooms, inosinic acid from anchovies, and glutamic acid from kelp.
When these three distinct umami components are combined in specific proportions, the flavor amplifies exponentially, creating what could be called an umami bomb.
This combination is even used in modern chemical seasonings like MSG. For people of this era, accustomed only to the umami of simple meat broths, this level of flavor was utterly unprecedented.
Moreover, using the rich aroma of the garden’s vegetables as the base added a profound depth to the sauce. Paired with the tenderly cooked sous-vide beef, it was no wonder the people of this era were left wide-eyed.
“This is truly a taste of the heavens!”
Savoring the dish, Im Sa-hong, having cleared his tray, let out another exclamation of awe.
The others seated in the pavilion were no different. The power struggle over the trays was forgotten as they lost themselves entirely in the flavors of the food.
Phew…
Watching them, Ji-yeong let out a quiet sigh of relief. It seemed they had avoided the worst outcome.
…
“This was truly unexpected. To taste such a delicacy in a place like this.”
Even with medicinal liquor and candied ginger served as palate cleansers, the Im father and son couldn’t stop talking about the food they’d just eaten.
“I thought it was mere grilled meat, but it held such complex, subtle flavors. Your claim that it distilled the essence of this land’s ingredients was no exaggeration.”
“I felt the same as my father.”
With a subtle glance, Im Sa-hong addressed Hong Eon-guk.
“Be honest. That threat to punish the cook earlier—was it all a staged act?”
“You saw through that, did you? It seems I can’t fool Your Excellency’s eyes, haha…”
Hong Eon-guk laughed heartily, brushing off the question. But inwardly, he wasn’t entirely at ease. He had nearly subjected innocent people to a brutal beating, and no matter how desperate his situation, such a base scheme could hardly be called honorable.
Moreover, the Im father and son’s sudden magnanimity after a single dish felt vaguely unsettling. They weren’t the type to express their emotions so openly without some ulterior motive.
“…To think that such thoughtful men as Lord Hong and his son would harbor disloyal thoughts toward His Majesty is utterly absurd. The rumors of the world are indeed fearsome.”
“We’re grateful for your understanding.”
“That being said…”
Sipping his liquor, Im Sung-jae glanced cautiously at his father. At Im Sa-hong’s nod, Sung-jae reached into his robe and placed something on the floor with a thud.
It was the red chae-hong plaque, symbolizing the authority of the envoy for selecting women.
Could this plaque mean…
As a foreboding thought flashed through Hong Eon-guk’s mind, Im Sung-jae’s eyes glinted strangely.
“…We have found a ‘chae-hong’ to offer His Majesty.”
